Road Trip to Vaitheeswaran Kovil - Part 11 ::: Return home

Once we settled the bills at the hotel and gave the tips to the room boy, we packed our stuff into the car and started our return trip. Barely 3-4 kms after we started, we saw a pretty long snake cross the road at good speed in front of us. I am sure it must have been some 8-10 feet long. It looked a bit dark brown in color. I am no expert about the species, but my mother tells me that it wouldn't have been the "big guy". She grew up in one of the villages in that district and has spent sufficient time in the fields to be able to know such details.

Otherwise, there was nothing interesting in the return trip, except for the very precisely incorrect directions given by Raghu to the Woodlands restaurant at Cuddalore. We spent a good 20 minutes in trying to locate it along a road where it was not present. After checking with auto drivers, general public and shopkeepers, we finally managed to reach the place.

After reaching there I checked with my guru and only then did he admit that it had been ages since he'd gone there!!! So he obviously forgot that in the meantime, the directions in Cuddalore had changed. At least, he was correct about the quality of food there. It was quite good and very economical as well.

We resumed our journey and after crossing Pondy, I was finally able to drive at a good speed. For quite a long stretch, I was able to maintain 100 Kmph. In fact, till I reached Mahabalipuram, I must have surely averaged 90+.

Obviously, there are many others who average much higher, but then, unlike me, they don't travel with the occupants of Fort Knox (my house in Besant Nagar). We took a coffee break at Mahabs and were finally home around 5.30.

So, all in all, I had a very satisfying trip. My long pending desire of desire of a road trip in India was fulfilled. I clocked around 550 Kms up and down. I was able to drive for a few kms at a speed of 100-105 Kmph. There were no accidents, slight brushes or even near misses. No complaints about over speeding too. :)

With this I would like to wrap up this travelogue. And if by mistake, you do remember telling something about rusk in my first part, well the deal is that, the minute I opened the gate at home and brought the car inside, Jimmy promptly came inside. I fed him the rusk that I took along on Saturday morning!