How I went to Tiruchendur and back to Trivandrum on a TVS Wego

It was May 14 2017, a Sunday. I had returned home after playing football.

Amma tells me “There is an announcement of State-wide government bus strike in Tamil Nadu. The strike is starting from tomorrow onwards. It’s gonna be in effect till an undecided time.”
Well, I started to think “If there’s Strike then I can’t go by bus. There may be few of them operating, but to try and go in that, I have to be crazy. Even when there are enough buses, I have to squeeze through a supercharged crowd to board one of them. Train is not available at the timings I want. Besides, getting from Tirunelveli to Tiruchendur is going to require another train, which will make me late.”

So, I showed a bit of laziness and informed Leave at my Office on Monday. Now I had two options. I wanted to choose the first option. I asked for my friend’s bike. It was a good enough vehicle for a 200 Km journey, so. And then came the third act denouement. The bike was not having its insurance in effect. Well, that was too much of a risk to take when going across State. Now I only had the second option in front of me. That was to take my gearless scooter, TVS Wego. I admire the machine for its performance and riding comfort and I had used it within Kerala before for journeys like 120 kms max. Somehow I was filled with the belief that it was possible to go some 200 odd kms this time even though a part of me felt the idea was stupid. My friend then told me to take his bike and give him my Wego. I had to make a reference to ‘Manichitrathazhu’ to make my case like, “Well if Dr.Sunny could ride 70 kms on cycle to the village Evoor with Chanthu behind, then I should be able do this without much fuss.”

Monday evening. I start out by 3:45 in the afternoon. I go to Bread Fort at Airport Road and stuff myself with a muffin, butter-bun, and tropicana. I think it was a bit too sugary and heavy on the palate. I was on my way now, through the city’s Underpass at Palayam, passing by the Trivandrum Central Railway Station and Bus Stand into the Nagercoil route. I had started to feel drowsy by the time I was at Balaramapuram. So, I’d stopped for tea and a snack at a tea shop with the tea master doubling up as banana bajji maker. A taste of the strong tea was refreshing to the body at this point. I went ahead. There is a deviation in the main road at Kuzhithurai. People usually take the detour and rejoin the main road at Azhagiyamandapam. I didn’t, though. I stopped by the Thripparappu Waterfall for a few minutes and at some point I’d wandered off into another route called Balamore Road, partly out of curiosity and partly by mistake. This was a long 30 km stretch of lonely road surrounded by a dark forest. I had to check for directions to make sure this road actually takes me to a main road. By the time I was at Nagercoil, it was past 7'O Clock and I’d covered more than 100 kms already (instead of a regular 70km journey). I was having a bad feeling about this.

I had another tea and an omelette at a restaurant. Then I was on course to the Highway that will take me to Tirunelveli. Originally, I had planned to reach this place before sunset. The Highway is among the best places I’ve seen for travelling. It’s kind of like a wet dream for someone who loves to go at high speed on a free open road without a care. What makes it even better is the wide stretches of plains and hills that forms the surrounding landscape. However, this was late night and there were strong winds blowing around. I had to go at the paltry speeds of 50–60 km/hr on average.

I reached Tirunelveli by about 9:30. I had the apprehension whether I’d be able to locate the route to Tiruchendur from thereon. However, the signboards were pretty straightforward and I was on course without any hassle. I reached Tiruchendur by 11:20PM.

Statistics :

240 km travelled

7 hours and 30 mins approx travelling time

New route discovered : 1

Development of back ache : 50% chance

The return journey was two weeks later. It was much more fun as I’d started early morning and got to see the sunrise in the Tirunelveli-Nagercoil Highway.

This time the stats were :

235 km travelled

5 and a half hours of time taken

One completely worn out back tyre that needed replacement.