It was a sheer challenge maneuvering the vehicle in the pitch black night, with trucks and buses plying in the opposite direction without following driving etiquettes. None of those miserable drivers dipped their headlights while passing and neither did they use their indicators while making turns. I had a couple of very close calls. One such truck driver almost put me off the road. Since my Ford Ikon doesn't have much of a ground clearance, the left wheel axle made contact with the Road. Luckily, there was no damage. But that sure slowed me down for a while, since all the blood in my body was gushing to my heart and it was doing a terrific job of crazily pumping all of it back to the rest of the body. I could hear my own heart beat in the silence of that night. My cousin was dumb struck for a long time too. Thanks to the keepers of the heaven, we reached our destination with health and sanity intact.
About Tiruvannamalai: Tiruvannamalai is an ancient city and named after the holy mountain “Tiruvannan Malai” (Malai means mountain in Tamil). The locals believe that this mountain is older than the Himalayas. Tiruvannamalai is one of the greatest Shaivite shrines in India, on a sprawling 24 acre temple campus, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every full moon. The hill here is considered to be a manifestation of Siva. Read more here.
The next day we started our journey back from Tiruvannamalai to Bangalore at about 2.30 PM and reached Bangalore at 7.30 PM. The day journey was awesome, sans the thrill that we had the previous night though. We could make couple of pit stops for refreshment which we couldn't do earlier. Here are some of the pictures taken while driving back.
I had driven close to 530 Kms in 24 hrs. When I reached home I was dog tired. Everything about the road trip was good, but came at a cost of a small dent at the rear of my car. We were waiting at the Hosur signal for it go green. A two wheeler had stopped his vehicle behind us. Out of nowhere a Maruti Omni rear bumped the motorist, who rear bumped my car which created a dent. Before I could get out of the car to get hold of the Maruti Omni driver, the signal turned green and he sped away as fast as he could.
The dent in my carExcept for this set back, everything else about this Road Trip was entirely satisfying.
For those who need driving directions from Bangalore to Tiruvannamalai, here is the map.
- Drive along the Hosur Road.
- Reach Hosur
- Drive further, to reach Krishnagiri
- At Krishnagiri, take a right at the Divider break. There is huge board showing direction for Tiruvannamalai. Keep your eyes open.
- The 130 km road from Krishnagiri to Tiruvannamalai is patchy. If possible avoid driving at night on this route, especially if driving with family. This could get a little dangerous with the mindless truck drivers.
- Driving along the stretch, you will pass Uthangarai, Chengum and reach Tiruvannamalai.
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