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1400 km trip to Rameshwaram, Madurai in my 14 year old Ford Fiesta 1.6

19th July 2024, 12:15 by Kanad Kalasur

Driving over Pamban bridge was again a spectacular thing, and the views all around were magnificent.

BHPian DocwithFiesta recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Recently we did a 1400 kilometer round trip in our Ford Fiesta 1.6 SXi.

Last month I had to go to a place named Pudukkottai. My parents joined as well. Pudukkottai is a small town located about 400 kilometers from home(Chennai) and is quite close to Madurai(120kms) and Rameshwaram (170kms from Madurai as well as from Pudukkottai), compared to their distances from Chennai(450 and 560kms respectively).

We had never visited Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple and visiting Rameshwaram had always been on my bucket list. So it was a no brainer that we would try to visit these 2 places within the limited time available to us.

Pre-trip preparation:

It was pretty obvious to me that this duty would be performed by the mile-muncher Fiesta, but considering the car's age I wanted to make sure it was in the best possible condition mechanically as I knew the trip would be a long one.

The Fiesta, before the trip, had around 92,00 kilometers on the odo and was serviced and thoroughly inspected at the 90,000 kilometer mark, before our 1300 kilometer trip to Munnar (1300 kilometer road-trip from Chennai to Munnar, in our 14-year old Ford Fiesta 1.6L).

What we knew was that it had a leaking thermostat valve that would leak coolant.

The Fiesta was sent to Ford Service Center prior to the trip and underwent a paid inspection and came out with flying colours. Apart from the thermostat leak there wasn't any issue with the car. The thermostat leak was fixed and the car was back to take us places we always wanted to visit.

The trip:

Chennai to Pudukkottai(380 kilometers) took around 8 hours. The highway up to Trichy was super smooth 4 lane one and the rest of 50 kilometers from Trichy to Pudukkottai was 2 lane.

We stayed in Pudukkottai at a hotel named Hotel ANS Pride, which I highly recommend, because of their service and hospitality in general. We were there for 2 days.

Our plan from Pudukkottai was to reach Madurai by 12 noon on the third day, finish darshan by 2pm and leave for Rameshwaram by 3pm, aiming to reach Rameshwaram by 6:30-7 pm.

Pudukkottai to Madurai was again through extremely smooth 2 lane road, sparse traffic with lots of twisties which made the journey an enjoyable one, especially considering the fact that I was maneuvering a Fiesta!

We reached Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple exactly at 12 noon. It was a Sunday, and hence we could park on the main road adjacent to the road where the temple is located.

Entry closes at 12:30pm, so we kind of reached just at the right time. It took about 1 hr to do the darshan and explore the temple a bit. Had lunch and started our journey towards Rameshwaram by 2pm.

Most of the journey was again through 2 lane roads which had sparse traffic and maintaining 100kmph was not a problem.

Stopped at Ramanathapuram for a quick tea break. With just 50 kilometers left, there was no hurry.

As we approached Pamban bridge, the area around the road started tapering in the form of a V and we could see the sea appearing on both sides, it was a spectacular view and sensation.

Driving over Pamban bridge was again a spectacular thing, and the views all around were magnificent.

Pamban bridge.

There is an entry fee of Rs. 100 for entering Rameshwaram and Rs. 20 for going to Dhanushkodi.

We reached Rameshwaram by 5 pm and explored the town a bit.

Sri Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy Temple, Rameshwaram.

By 8pm we were at our hotel: Hotel Arjunaa, which was decent.

Next morning we visited Dhanushkodi beach and it is indeed one of the places which everyone must definitely have in their bucket list. Over there you at literally in the middle of nowhere with Indian Ocean on one side and Bay of Bengal on the other! Dhanushkodi is the place where the two seas meet. It was Monday morning, so crowd was minimal

Note: Post 5pm, tourists are not allowed to visit Dhanushkodi.

Let the pictures do the talking.

Point and shoot (don't).

Long haul ahead

By 10 am we were back at our hotel and it was returning time. By 11am we were back on the road ready for the long haul back home. We again stopped on Pamban bridge to take some photos, for about 5-7 minutes.

The 2 lane interior roads were simply awesome and we covered a distance of 216 kilometers from Pamban bridge to Trichy junction in just 160 minutes.

We took a quick detour to have lunch at a Domino's outlet in Trichy. By 3 pm we were back on the highway to continue our journey towards Chennai. Again, the 4 lane highway was amazing and we maintained good highway speeds almost throughout, till about Chengalpattu. The Fiesta maintained such speeds for hours, with 4 adults on board, without breaking a sweat.

By 6:45-7 pm we reached SRM Kattankulathur and the traffic started getting worse from there. It took us another 2 hours to reach home and by 8:45 pm we were back. We wanted to avoid driving on the highway after sunset and could somehow manage that.

Overall it was an amazing trip, the Fiesta despite its age performed flawlessly without any hiccups whatsoever. It is in top shape mechanically, although cosmetically not the best because of development of rusts in some areas, which is not a surprise as we have been staying 300 meters from the sea for over a decade. Plan to get it sorted before fitness renewal next year.

Distance covered ~ 1400 kilometers, fuel consumed ~ 120 Liters, mileage ~ 11.5 kmpl.