Day 11 – Renault India Diamond Trail – Kanyakumari to Chennai

The second leg of the India Diamond Trail is behind us. And now we embark on the longest leg of the drive as we’re headed from Kanyakumari to Kibithoo, the easternmost tip of India. We will be covering over 4200km within a week.

Driving the Renault Kwid from Kanyakumari to Chennai

Just outside Kanyakumari we drove through a ginormous wind farm. Located in the village of Muppandal, the wind farm is the largest operational on shore wind farm in India and houses thousands of giant windmills. It produces a colossal 1500MW of electricity which is used by farmers in the state. Heavy winds from the Arabian sea gust through this hilly region all around the year and that’s why this village was selected for the wind farm. It’s quite a road to drive through.

The drive out of Kanyakumari was quite peaceful thanks to the flawless state and national highways that Tamil Nadu has. In fact, the quality of the tarmac is extremely fine in this part of the country and the excellent surface levelling make the ride very smooth. The rare minor bumps were of course gobbled up by the Renault Kwid’s soft suspension set-up, making our drive very comfortable. What surprised us on the way was the cunning weather. Spells of torrential rains and strong winds hit us and moments later there would be sunshine. The CEAT tyres though showed their mettle. Not even once did the Milaze series tyres lose grip, maintaining good traction even in slippery conditions.

Our Kwid is as good as new now after a service in Kanyakumari. Renault’s service staff in Nagercoil were very co-operative and the door to door pick up and delivery of the car was timely and convenient for us. After a night’s stay outside Chennai we’re now on our way to Vijayawada.