A trip from Hyderabad to Kanyakumari by car

It was a dream come true. I have been fantasizing about such a long drive, but without much stakeholders to share the fuel cost :), it remained a dream. During July, the wonder worked n my family; v all felt n common that its been time since v visited our family temple (Karungulam), which is 985 km from Hyderabad. Having selected mid of August as the ideal time to do this trip, next thoughts were on the mode of travel. Train would be the best mode but no tickets were available, only WL status.. [fortunately, as it opened doors for car drive plan :) :) ]

Flights will be expensive, hence next mode was going by car. I worked out commercial feasibility & the outcome is that 4 people travelling in Honda City assuming 12kmpl mileage with current petrol price + toll gate fees equals the 3rd A/C fare in train. Plus loads of comforts when travelling in own vehicle was quite obvious. The PND (personal navigation device) that i own (GPS + satguide maps) also added a brownie point to the car drive option. Assuming the extreme case, when we could find no ppl on the roads?? to guide us (in India), at least some satellites can help us on the same & ensure we wont get lost :)

Considering all these facts, the car plan was finalized ..yipee :) the dream was coming true..

And how was the plan stretched till Kanyakumari?

Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of India, is just 80 kms from Karungulam. So myslf & my bro felt, having gone so far, including Kanyakumari would make our trip very fulfilling. So the travel plan was adjusted to include the same.

Few prime criteria we followed while planning were:

• Driving only at day light
• Night stay at prominent cities
• To visit famous temples & taste the native food at best restaurants in that city :P
• To fuel up the vehicle, by the time indicator goes near half tank

While planning, Sites like Tripadvisor, Holiday IQ helped a lot in choosing the hotels. Wikitravel gave crucial tips for selecting restaurants @ Madurai. Reviews @ Google maps aided me in selecting native restaurants at Trichy.

Having collected details of road condition, good petrol bunks on the way & weather conditions, the final plan looked like this:

Day 1: Hyderabad to Bangalore

Day2: Bangalore to Trichy (To visit temples, lunch @ banana leaf restaurant, dinner @ kannappa chettinad restaurant)

Day3: Trichy to Madurai (Have Lunch @ Vaigai Mess which is famous for native non veg food) and halt @ Tiruchendur for night

Day4: To reach Karungulam, perform offerings @ temple. Have lunch at Hotel Semeen, Tirunelveli. Then halt @ Kanyakumari for night

Day5: Kanyakumari to Madurai (Visit Meenakshi Amman temple, taste @ speciality restaurants like Murugan Idly Kadai, Amma Mess, Jayaram Bakery)

Day6: Madurai to Bangalore (To have lunch @ Venus Hotel , Dindigul on the way)

Day7: Back to Hyderabad

The plan itself was quite exotic.. Almost 2800 kms of travelling & that too in NH7.. Ok, have to admit i never been on such a long drive.. this wud b the first.. my maximum was 900km drive that i did in 2 days. So added some dedicated calf +leg workout to my existing training routing @ gym. Coz continuous pressing of the gas pedal & frequent clutches would be demanding more from the legs & calf muscles. Better to get 'em trained.

Days passed by.. i was getting very excited about the travel & eagerly waiting for it. The very thought of driving.. oops.. cruising on Hyd-Bglr hiway, which is a 600km silky velvet asphalt, made me go out of my mind.. And for that reason, i m sure anyone passionate about driving would feel the same.

Before the trip, i had this travel checklist completed:

• Performed service @ workshop & ensure vehicle condition is fine
• Store Places of interest in PND (Best of the Hotels, petrol bunk, restaurants, temples etc)
• For the few locations not supported by satguide maps, Google maps came to help. Took a printout of the same
• As Petrol s for the car, Music s for me :) Hence loaded the two 4GB USB drive with peppy songs & mind blowing trance albums.. Hoped that would be sufficient for 2800km drive
• Contacted the restaurants @ various cities we were planning to visit. Gathered info about lunch timings / dinner timings so we shall be right there on time.. we can't afford to miss it. hehe :) :)
• Stored required Hand sanitizer / Face wash towels / Goggles / Universal charger / Car Pillows / First aid medicines / Torch light / umbrellas in car
• Tissue papers / Pieces of newspaper / foam cleaner to clean the mirror when necessary
• Fill up air in tires including the spare tire / Located the jack & Necessary tools
• Filled up fuel tank
• Get a good sleep the previous night of the travel. But Feeling so ecstatic about the drive, i couldn't sleep :)