A dream of every Indian traveller - Kanyakumari to Kashmir round trip

Dear All,

I would like to take this opportunity to take you through the travel experience of K2K Kanyakumari to Kashmir round trip with my cousin. Hailing from Coimbatore (Kovai), Tamilnadu, India - I would like to call this as  (Kovai to Kovai)


Let me do the backstreet boys stuff before talking about the trip                                                                

Who am I?
Krishnakumar Viswanathan, a resident of Coimbatore, having immense interest in waterfalls, historical places, gopurams, temple architecture, hill stations etc.., and my insta id is #viswanatkr01 - you can start following if you like it :) 

What I do? 
Worked in Chennai, Hyderabad for 15+ years in ITES industry and now a freelancer consultant, travel advisor and purohit.

What kind of a traveler?
Mostly unplanned and short trips of 1-4 days - 50% solo and 50% with friends and groups. Have visited a minimum of 500+ temples, 50+ hill temples, 50+ treks including 3 times Southern Kailash (Vellingiri), umpteen waterfalls and so on. A proud owner of a RE Thunderbird 350cc - clocked 60000+ kms & a Maruti Suzuki Ertiga CNG VXI - clocked around 34000 KMs as on 29th June 2023

What's this blog about?
Did a recent trip (34 days - Coimbatore - Kanyakumari - Kashmir - Umling La - Coimbatore) and this blog would cover the trip daywise - food, stay, places visited, interesting anecdotes etc..,  

Who's the partner in crime of this trip?
My cousin Mahadevan R - electronics & communication architect whose passion is to drive Scania, Volvo buses. He has immense knowledge about cars, mechanism etc.., a seasoned driver

What's the motive of this trip?
To cover 50% of India - 14 states and 4 Union territories in a CNG - Compressed Natural Gas powered Ertiga CNG VXI in less than 34 days. Farthest road in the South (Kanyakumari) to highest motorable pass in the world (Umling La)

Sponsorship - 
Indian Oil Corp, Coimbatore division agreed for 100% fueling to promote the Green fuel alternative. This is an exclusive Indian Oil branded trip

Places covered - you could see the trip pics of all these places in my insta id - #viswanatkr01

Tamil Nadu: Kovai (Coimbatore) > Kovilpatti > Kazhugumalai > Nellai > Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram > Varkala > Allapuzha > Thalassery Puducherry: Mahe Karnataka: Murdeshwar > Gokarna > Belagavi > Sankeshwar Maharashtra: Karad > Satara > Karanje > Dhumalwadi (Kalyanagad fort) > Malshiras > Aurangabad > Ellora > Ajanta Madhya Pradesh: Omkareshwar > Ujjain Rajasthan: Udaipur > Nathdwara > Jaipur Uttar Pradesh: Fatehpur Sikri > Agra > Mathura > Vrindavan Punjab: Amritsar > Attari > Pathankot Himachal Pradesh: Bankihet > Dalhousie > Khajjiar > Chamba Jammu: Mahanpur Kashmir: Sringar > Sonamarg Ladakh: Kargil > Hunderman > Mulbekh > Namki La > Fotu La > Lamayaru > Basgo > Leh > Khardungla > Nyoma > Hanle > Photi La > Umling La > Nurbula Top > Tso Kar Himachal: Manali > Jana > Kullu Chandigarh: Haryana: Kurukshetra Uttarakhand: Haridwar > Rishikesh > Nainital > Sitarganj Uttar Pradesh: Naimisaranyam > Rae Bareli > Prayagraj > Varanasi Jharkhand: Ranchi > Bundu Odisha: Mangalapur, Balasore > Bhubaneshwar Andhra Pradesh: Vishakapatnam > Ahobilam > Chittoor Tamilnadu: Hogenakal > Kovai (Coimbatore)

Excited and eager to start this travelogue - will post the Day 1 soon!!! 

Luv,
Krishna :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kanyakumari-Kashmir Round trip - Day 25 - Sitarganj - Naimisaranyam - Rae Bareli

Image
Day 25 - Sitarganj - Naimisaranyam - Rae Bareli (stay in NH 30 - Rae Bareli) Kilometers covered - 450 KMs Walking - 8000+ steps The stay was horrible and we didn't get to sleep properly. However, the instant pre-mix masala chai (namaste brand) was really refreshing :) We had couple of cup noodles each for breakfast (thanks to the electric kettle and instant food we carried) Checked out by 8 AM - Fuelled our vehicle at Radhe Indian Oil , Sitarganj with a plan to reach Prayagraj by night. However, half way through our plan got changed. We saw a sign board and decided to visit Naimisaranyam. Another CNG fill at Bareli - Highway Fuels IOCL pump We decided to visit Chakra Theerth, Naimisaranyam for a dip. Within next few minutes, our vehicle's chakram (right side rear tyre) went flat :) what a conincidence. We tried to patch it ourselves, however the cut was on the edges and we realized that we can't use the tubeless tyre anymore and had to convert it to a tube one. To our exc
Read more

Kanyakumari - Kashmir Round trip - Final Day 34 - Hogenakal - Salem - Coimbatore

Image
Final Day 34 - Hogenakal - Salem - Coimbatore Kilometers Driven - 275 KMs Walking - around 4000 steps As expected, we couldn't enjoy our yesterday's visit to the Hogenakal falls because of crowd. However, we got up early and went to the falls by 6 AM - Cauvery Snan to complete the trip It was deserted and we were the only one to take a dip so early there. It felt like a private falls - no crowd. We spent around 40 minutes in the falls - wowww!!!! This would be the ideal time to visit the falls - you can plan it accordingly.  We came back and had the complimentary breakfast in Hotel Tamilnadu - :) Our initial plan was to reach Coimbatore via village routes until Sankagiri. However, one of my friend requested to bring a small parcel from Salem. We visited Salem and took the parcel, refilled CNG in Salem Dist Lorry Owners Association IOCL pump - Unit 2 near Periya Seeragapadi, Salem. We were super excited completing the trip and were talking about all the incidents that happened
Read more

Kanyakumari-Kashmir Round trip - Waterfall Day 20 - Manali - Jana - Chandigarh

Image
Day 20 - Manali - Jana - Chandigarh (stay in Chandigarh) Kilometers covered - 365 KMs Walking - 12000+ steps Jogini waterfalls, Manali, Himachal Pradesh - a beautiful waterfalls became famous after the movie 96 in Tamilnadu. A multiple layered waterfalls - predominantly the public visit the first 2 layers. There are 2 ways to reach the fall - one is from the temple (structured pathway) and you could view the fall remotely and the other is through the falls gully (this will take you to all the layers) We went through the gully and water was gushing all over with multiple pipelines for public usage. We had Chai and started the trek by 6.15 AM. The lower level was closed, however the path to other layers were open. We were surprised to see so many views of the waterfall passage - it was simply superb :) After climbing few meters, we were able to see the alternate passage on the other side of the hill. We spent some time taking photographs and started to trek to the next phase. A solo trav
Read more