TN Road Trip Chapter 3– Days 3 and 4: Karaikal and some delightful roads

Summary

Stay: Holidays Farms and Resorts, Akkaraivattam, Karaikal

Nearest Railway Station: Nagapattinam (~20 km) (the Karaikal Railway station was in fact inaugurated when we were there, and it should be possible to get there by train via Nagapattinam)

Nearest Airport: Trichy (~ 164 km)

Places Visited: Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, Vedaranyam (see post Wetland, Wonderland)

Temples Visited: Thirukkanapuram, Nagapattinam, Mannargudi, Vaduvur

Link to Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=212985503433779843671.0004b7e3434283774e98a&ie=UTF8&t=m&vpsrc=6&ll=11.609193,78.881836&spn=5.841001,10.821533&z=7

This time, I am going to let the pictures do the talking. Well, some of it. It was dark by the time we reached the town of Karaikal – our second night-halt on our Tamil Nadu road trip. Our resort, the Holidays Farms and Resorts, was in a place called Akkarai vattam, on the outskirts of the town. The signposting for the resort, as our luck would have it, was only for tourists coming from further south, which meant we missed our turn-off on the first go! We reached the place however, and were delighted with what we saw. After a very warm reception, we were led to our room – I call it that, though it was more the size of a house – on the first floor of a stand-alone block. It was clean, brightly lit, and best of all we had balconies on two sides! The place was so nice, and the beds so comfortable after a day’s driving, it took us a while to convince ourselves to get up at 4.30 am the next morning for our trip to the Pt. Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary. Our excitement at the prospect of going there prevailed however, and after a pleasant dinner, we were mentally prepared for our early start the next day! The trip to the sanctuary was wonderful – in fact so good, there is a separate post about it on this blog (Wetland, Wonderland)!

The next morning, having finished our visit to the wildlife sanctuary by 10 am and feeling very pleased with ourselves, we proceeded to drop in at a few of Lord Vishnu’s abodes in the vicinity. Time being a luxury we had, we decided to take the rural road from Vedaranyam to the junction-town of Thiru-thurai-poondi, a town that was so central to our trip we must have crossed it atleast five times! Those roads – for the next two hours, were by far the best stretch of driving we had in our trip. Delightful, meandering, narrow country roads that wound their way through small villages, across paddy fields, around mango and coconut orchards, occasionally crossing a delightful brook…and all along, the quiet of the countryside! We had by then seen for ourselves the beauty of the Tamil Nadu countryside, and yet, however much we saw, we kept thirsting for more!

In the next two days at Karaikal, when we weren’t lazing around in our room or taking in the breeze on the balconies, we were standing on the road, outside the car, drinking in the fresh air and the lovely greenery around us. For a city-boy like me, the paddy fields seemed to jump straight out of the movies! In fact, on our way to a majestic temple in the quaint town of Thiru-kanna-puram, we were treated to a glorious sunset over the fields.

And when the sun wasn’t setting over them, this is how they looked!

We also passed a number of lovely lotus and lily-filled village tanks that were an absolute treat to the eye after the hyacinth-filled lakes of Chennai…and they had pond-herons hopping about!

To cut a short story even shorter – those two days of driving around the towns and villages, visiting the various temples, were a wonderful, and rather unexpected, treat! I’ll close off this post with a relaxing close-up of a paddy field…for the next chapter takes us to our final destination on our trip -the breath-taking views of Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi. Stay tuned!

General Information

1. Hotel Review: Holidays Farms and Resorts, Karaikal
• Location – Akkaraivattam, Karaikal – the turn-off is just opposite the ONGC complex
• This was easily the best hotel we stayed at on this trip, and we were glad we had booked a night here for our halt on the way back – both in terms of the hotel and also because it was more or less half-way between Chennai and Rameswaram.
• Tariff – Rs. 3000/- per day for an AC family room that accommodates 3.
• Staff – very friendly and responsive
• Eating – the restaurant is a multi-cuisine restaurant with a good selection. The food however is very spicy, even for Indians, though they tone it down on request!
• We learnt that the resort is very popular for official (political) do’s and functions – so book early to make sure you get a room.
• The people in charge are helpful – so if you have any questions about local sight-seeing, ask! It was on their advice that we decided to make an early start for the Pt. Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary.
2. Road tip – do not expect to find toilet facilities! We often found ourselves on long stretches of road that alternated between paddy fields and tiny villages, with no restaurants / hotels / dhabas in between.