Varkala - Road Trip

Like the most of long weekend stories below starts with a planning committee (whose members mostly doesn’t reach a common conclusion) scratching their head to come up with the best get away plan. 60 hours plus gazing of computer made us like a motionless lizard on the wall and all the shouting of managers were like an insect squealing, these motivated us to give some physical activity to the body and decided to go on a road trip on our BIKES.

All of sudden one of the committee member came up with the name “Varkala Beach” and asked us to google it before saying no.

Googling “Varkala Breach” and seeing the images in the result interested us in, as with most of our trips this was also planned in short time interval however it would help to consider below while planning your trip:

• Winter (December to March) is the best time to travel to Varkala. The average temperature in winters ranges from 22 to 28 degree Celsius. It is fit to go sightseeing and visit the glorious beaches.
• The summer season (March to May) is very hot and humid with the average temperature ranging from a low of 25 degrees to an average high of 35 degrees Celsius.
• Monsoons season is from June to December when Varkala receives a heavy amount of rainfall and has an average temperature ranging from 20 to 28 degrees Celsius.
• Although google will show 680 Km one side but last 100 km will be too slow so please make sure to take some buffer time and try to reach before sunset.

What hooked us in were that waves of Arabian Sea touching the foot of the high cliff which seemed like a perfect shooting spot for an Indian movie dream song J , the beach walks, shops, Café’s, Bars & Open restaurants over the top of cliff with lots of food options ranging from cheap eats to mid – range are present, a mesmerizing view of sun kissing the horizon and slowly turning the light from orange to black from the cliff top café while sipping your favorite drink.

How/When/Where we started:
Three of us started our journey from Bangalore with 2 Royal Enfield classic 350cc :)  by 1:30 am

How long it took us to reach:
It took us around 16 hours to reach there (around 05:30 pm).

Where we stayed:
We stayed in SS Beach Resort which is right at the helipad or on cliff. It costed us around 2600 INR for 2 rooms with double bed for two people.

The Tour:
                   We started at around 1:30 Am in night and gathered at Bommanhalli, B’lore shell petrol pump to fill our tanks and a little check for brakes and air and started on NH7. We made some ground rules,

•         The guy in front will keep on looking the guys behind in his rear mirror and will slow-down if in case not able to locate him.
•          If the guys from behind is honking in a certain way then front guy should either stop or slow down.
•      We’ll cover maximum distance in night as in days it will be sunny & crossing cities will be a issue.  

              After we crossed the city limits we revved up a bit and stopped for burger after 60 Kms at McDonalds in Shoolagiri by 2:30 am thinking that we won’t get anything to eat after that during night and then decided to stop at Salem which was 140Kms more to go. At Salem to our surprise many roadside bakeries were open and we refreshed ourselves with a street side masala tea in the cold weather and then started towards Madurai on NH44.

It was 5 am in the morning, the silence of highway and lonely stretch were slowly pulling our eyelids close as the only activity we did in our driving was to control the acceleration so we had to stop by at bus-stop and take some rest (Adviceà Do take proper Sleep/Rest the night before starting the trip, we did that mistake, you should not repeat).We took a power nap of around 15-20 Minutes and started our way again with full energy towards Namakkalà Madurai and took a stop at Madurai for 5 mins to fill our tanks again by the time it was 9:30 or 10 AM still destination was 300 KMs away as per our google maps. Though we were bike junkies it was taxing to drive too long still decided not to stop too often we reached at Warkala beach cliff at 5:00 Pm in evening.

By 5:30pm we got settled in our rooms as our hotel was just at the cliff, we changed and rushed towards the beach as it was the perfect timing for a walk at blue beach and watching  as daylight slowly dimmed and street lights turned on, then we went in search of a good Restra/Pub and we came to know that there are two such Restra which are having DJ night but to our hard luck they both were closed as a part of renovation but then we found a roof top restra just on the cliff and which was serving both foods & drinks, we took a corner table facing Arabian sea and finished our dinner by 11:00 PM in the cool brezze. We then came back to hotel which was 200 mtrs hardly and sinked into our beds for a peaceful sleep.

Next day morning we waked up by 6:00 AM in the morning and rushed down to beach where many people (Indian & foreigners) were performing yoga again for which Warkala is also famous for and we joined them in some basic warmup and some stretching exercises.

We soaked our foot in the beach and lost ourselves in thoughtlessness for some time then came back to hotel by 8:00AM had a very heavy continental breakfast which was complimentary from hotels side.

Then it was time for some sun bathing and for some trekking to reach to cliff top for luncheon in the Café owned by a European guy, variety of sea food coupled with some apt beverages and long walk made us drool for the food, it was feast to both eyes and stomach :) .

We came to hotel back started back to Bangalore by 11:30.