[sqwall]

Car: Getz Prime GLE.
Bangalore - Chennai - Pudhucherry - Nagapattanam - Velankanni and back.

It has been an annual fixture with my in-laws for the past 25 years to visit the famous church in Velankanni for new years.
Last year I tagged along with my in-laws in their quallis but this year i wanted to drive there myself, reasons : one because
I love to drive and two because the quallis becomes too crowded with 8 people plus luggage.
After convincing my better half that it can be done (considering that I have been driving for just 4 months plus change) we
started planning.
The idea was to leave Bangalore 28th Morning rest for a day and then leave from there.

Pre-trip preparations:

Took the car to Advaith on ORR for checkup and cleaning.
I had been driving the car without a sunfilm thus far but considering the heat of TN I wanted to get these. Spoke with a guy
I know at advaith and got a fair deal on 3M's, decided to go for it.
By evening of 27th I got the car back from the service centre.
Downloaded a lot of songs on my portable HDD (Thankfully my stereo supports USB).
Went snack shopping, stacked some red bulls and gatorades.
Most importantly went through the team-bhp travel section and got tips on road condition and stopovers on the way.
All set.

28th December:

Wanting to avoid the traffic on Hosur road I wanted to leave at about 4:30 AM however managed to start the engine at 5:45 AM.
Finally the three of us were on our way.
Stopped for fuel at Shell bunk on Hosur Road, the bunk was not open hence we had to wait for 30mins or so.
There was decent bit of traffic until a little after electronic city thereafter there was just long streches of wide open
roads inviting the car to start flying.I was able to safely do 100+ for most parts.Stopped for breakfast at Ronin hotel
midway between Vaniyambadi and Ambur had some poories and tea then after a bit of streching we were on our way again.
Along the way my mother kept complaining about the toll we had to pay every now and then :-).
At Sriperambudur went past the Hyundai factory,Madras Motorsports track, stopped briefly at Rajiv Gandhi's memorial then took
a diversion for Porur.Reached home well in time for lunch.
After having a satisfying meal my brother in law took the quallis out for getting it washed at a service center, to our
dismay all the service centers were over booked, finally we washed the car ourselves and need i say we did a heck of a job
;-).

30th December:

29th was a rest day for us. We left for Velankanni on 30th morning. I had tanked up at Shell bunk at Porur the previous
night.By 8 AM we hit the ECR and my dream of cruising on this beautiful road was finally fulfilled. We stopped for breakfast
at some joint on the way stuffed a couple of tomato utappams(Indian Pizza) :-) and we hit the road again.
At Pudhucherry my Pop in law stopped for fuel we all got down and walked around a bit, the hot discussion between me and my
brother in law was whether to buy booze from Pudhucherry or from Karaikal (Tax free booze ) finally we agreed to get it
from Karaikal because there would be lesser check posts on the way.
My wife and mom in law were up early that day to prepare lunch, by 1 PM most of us we hungry and we were scouting for a place
to stop for lunch and at exactly 1:05PM the quallis had a flat, but as luck would have it we were just passing a tyre repair
shop(Or was the tyre wallah a smart bugger) any way it took about 45 minutes to get the tyre repaired, by this time some of
us were dying of hunger. We finally managed to find a village school on the way where we stopped and had lunch(thankfully it
was Sunday).Roads were OK upto Chidambaram but after this we drove mostly on mud roads, this continued till we reached
Karaikal where there were decent roads. At Karaikal we stopped to shop for some booze and then drove of.
We reached Nagapattanam at about 6:30 PM, checked into a decent hotel and without much of a break drove to the church at
Velankanni. The roads are non existent and the 15 KM drive took us an hour. Finally after spending some time at the church
we came back to the hotel. After freshening up all the boys had a decent gulp of tax free booze then after dinner we retired.
Next couple of days were spent attending church mass and stuff.
We stayed in Nagattanam till 2nd Morning and left for chennai early in the morning.
I wanted to reach bangalore by 3rd so we bid farewell to my in laws and the three of us left for Bangy.
Stopped for breakfast at some cafe just before Sriperambudur, nice place for a short break.
The trip to Bangalore for pretty uneventful except some horrible traffic near elctronic city.

All in all it was a very satisfying trip and I have come out a better and safer driver. cheers:

One thing I would mention here is that I drove the car on horrible roads for almost 200kms but the car doesn't even make a creak sound after the whole trip, it remains as silent as ever.

Total distance travelled 1310KM
Total fuel cunsumed 80L
Av 16.3kmpl

Will post pics ASAP.

[sqwall]

Here are the Pics
On the road:



Rice Fields:


Break Time:


Waiting for the Quallis to get repaired:



The Church at night:



The procession:



Super fresh prawns, fresh catch of the day:




This one was still alive:



Danish house on the Beach :


The beach:



The Danish castle:




Pudhucherry:

[Surprise]

Neatly written with good photographs.

On return why you have not explored the option of traveling Velankani to Bangalore straight instead of Vel-Chennai-Bangalore

[akroy]

Nice report and nice pics as well...
Could you eat those fresh prawns or had to leave all in Chennai itself?

Abhi

[sqwall]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Neatly written with good photographs.

On return why you have not explored the option of traveling Velankani to Bangalore straight instead of Vel-Chennai-Bangalore

Well my wife wanted to spend some time with her parents at home plus we had some other stuff to take care of.

[sqwall]

Originally Posted by akroy

Nice report and nice pics as well...
Could you eat those fresh prawns or had to leave all in Chennai itself?

Abhi

Unfortunetely we dint have a place to cook the buggers, had to leave them.

[ramkya1]

Hai Squall,

Good report with live photos, those prawns looked good and fresh......

How was the road from Nagapattinam to Velankanni, the 20 KM odd stretch, where you take a left turn from the N'pattinam Road. You must have taken the Karaikkal, Nagur, N'pattinakm road? Is road work still going on, it was pretty gutted in sections, this I think is part of the East Coast road.

--Ramky
=============

[sqwall]

I was unable to see any roads from Nagapattinam to Velankanni strech.
It was real bad,though construction is going on and i guess withing a year things should improve.

Yes we took the Karaikkal, Nagur, N'pattinakm road, this section is in pretty good shape i would say.

[rjstyles69]

sqwall looks like we almost did the same trip, my trip log is here (Travelogue : The Newly Weds and their getaway to the East coast.).
Nice pic of the prawn.

So did the car take a beating between Sirkazhi to Nagapattinam ?

ramkya the stretch between Nagapattinam and Velankanni is in shambles. Bad patches every 200/300 mtrs.

[mobike008]

Pic of the live prawn was a nice pic. Quick reflexes, i must say

[VJ_MAVRICK]

Nice report and pics sqwall and the castle along the beach is just awesome.

[HappyWheels]

good report and great photos mate!

and the prawns were looking sexy! did you atleast get to have one or two???

:-)

[sqwall]

Yes RJ that stretch is horrendous to say the least, I was praying not to have a flat all along.

I see the prawn has become a hero lol , the bugger was still alive when we picked it up. Unfortunately we were not able to eat them coz we were staying in a hotel and no place to cook them.

I am glad you all liked the pics :-)

[sqwall]

Even though we missed the prawns we made up for them by having fresh crabs cheers: , here is the pic,