Q.A Sunday afternoon trip to Srimushnam in our RED

[URL="https://www.zigwheels.com/forum/profile/976"]KPR[/URL] Very interesting travelogue, and your Punto (Red) looks really sweet. Look forward to more travel stories from you. I've been planning a trip to Danushkodi, actually. Have you been there? It's going to be a very long drive for me though.

Hi all, My family of 5 - my parents, wife and daughter (3 year old) have been asking me for a ride in our Punto 90 HP a.k.a RED to some new place which must be short but also sweet. My mother was saying for long that we need to visit Kolanjiappar temple located at Vridhachalam in Tamil Nadu. In the back of my mind, I had heard about Srimushnam Bhuvaraha Swamy temple and was thinking to go there one day. Then I thought why not club both these temple visits together! Hurray! Approval came from all. So I made a plan to start by 3:30 PM on a Sunday afternoon and return before 9:00 PM. I had the comfort of taking a Sunday afternoon nap by 1:00 PM and woke up by 3:00 PM for a cup of filter coffee. I was happy to take my recently serviced RED (ODO 15,158kms). Since 12,500+ kms on ODO I had been evading taking my RED for long drives quoting 15K service due and taking the car only to my office and back home. So now the temptation of going for a long drive was evident. Plugged my COIDO. Checked air pressure in all 4 tyres. Diesel already filled tank full. Having done several long drives earlier, I as usual insisted for packed food for dinner. I always love the packed food for the following reasons: 1. Saving precious minutes. 2. Saving mood swings and desperation that may arise to any person in the car due to hunger/delay in getting into a decent restaurant on time. 3. Saves a lot of money (The charges in a renowned road side restaurants in TN have gone up for nothing) So food and coffee were packed. All set and we started by 3:40 PM. Route Taken: Trichy - Veppur- Vridhachalam bypass -Karuveppalankurichi- Srimushnam Bhuvarahaswamy Temple-Karuveppalankurichi-Kolanji Appar temple-Veppur-Trichy. Total Kms: 269KMs Veppur-Vridhachalam Road was newly laid and was a breeze to drive. When I last did this route a few months back, the entire stretch was totally pot holed. The route from Vridhachalam to Srimushnam was totally scenic with green fields on either side. It had rained in this stretch half an hour before. The roads were wet. One word to describe the climate and the drive: Beautiful! Reached Srimushnam temple sharp at 5:40 PM. About Srimushnam (wiki) : Srimushnam's presiding deity is 'Lord Bhuvaraha', which gives the town its alternative name, 'Varaha Kshetram'. Lord Bhuvaraha's consort is Ambujavalli Thayar while the temple icon is formed naturally from a saligarama (black smooth round stone). Other data: Brahma found Lord Vishnu resting on Adisesha, and was informed that He had come as Swayamvyakta - on his own as an idol. He would also appear likewise in seven other places on earth -- Srimushnam, Venkatadri, Saligram, Naimisaranya, Thotadri, Pushkar and Badri. Here are some photos of the elegant Gopuram: [ATTACH=CONFIG]n20896[/ATTACH] RED in front of the temple tower [ATTACH=CONFIG]n20897[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n20898[/ATTACH] We had a good darshan of Bhuvaraha Swamy and Thayar. Post the temple visit, we had our coffee. Then we started to Kolanji Appar temple which is en-route to Trichy (located very close to Vridhachalam Bypass) as desired by my mother and had good darshan of Lord Murugan there too. We had our delicious packed food then. We started the return journey at sharp 8:20PM. Reached Vveppur at 8:40 PM. And reached home at 9:40 PM. The trip details are: [ATTACH=CONFIG]n20899[/ATTACH] At the end of the trip, all of us were happy and felt good about such a pleasant trip! Thanks to RED for taking us to places. Thanks to readers for reading my first kind of travelogue.