Pichavaram, the second largest mangrove forest in the world - A weekend trip
A long weekend coming up for Pongal/Sankranthi and no travel plans yet. I head for my laptop, while mentioning this to my wife.
"How about Pichavaram?" asks the wife looking at me over her laptop screen.
"Whats that..err where is that?"
A little more digging into Google, Wikipedia, etc and in about 30 mins, we have planned a Bangalore-Chidambaram-Pichavaram-Mahabalipuram drive over the Pongal weekend.
Wikipedia told us this:
"Pichavaram is home to the second largest Mangrove forest in the world, and it is one of the unique eco-tourism spots in South India. The backwaters, interconnected by the Vellar and Coleroon river systems, offer abundant scope for water sports such as rowing, kayaking and canoeing. The Pichavaram forest not only offers waterscape and backwater cruises, but also another very rare sight - the mangrove forest trees are permanently rooted in a few feet of water."
On Friday, 14th Jan 6.30 am, the "Dark Knight" takes us out onto the outer ring road towards the Silk Board junction.
We take the elevated road to Electronic city and soon after we reach Krishnagiri and pull over at Saravana Bhavan for breakfast.
Sunrise at Attibele
A few minutes after breakfast, we are at the right turn to Pondy on the Krishnagiri-Chennai road. We are shocked and look at each other in disbelief. The road looks like its just been bombed and the vehicles in front of us look like they are participating in an off road competition...all bouncing around and turning in all directions while inching forward.
Terrible is just an understatement. It took us around 9 hours to reach Chidambaram. I really felt pity for those in sedans and hatchbacks. It must have been complete torture for those poor souls.
I should have heeded to the advise from my friends and gone via Sriperumbudur-Vandalur-Pondy-cuddalore-Pichavaram....or maybe even via Vellore-Arcot-Cheyyar-Vandavasi-Tindivanam-Pondy-Cuddalore-Pichavaram
A sample of the road condition of the NH 66
After struggling over these roads for a few hours we found a good stretch just before Thiruvanamalai for about 10 kms. Just as we thought the nightmare is over we see more vehicles bouncing around ahead of us, turning in all directions trying to avoid the craters. We saw a tender coconut vendor and decided to take a break, before the off roading begins all over again.
A welcome break after the bone rattling drive
We continued, got badly stuck at Thiruvanamalai and Panruti, due to Pongal festivities and resultant road blockades, and finally reached Chidambaram at around 3.30 pm.
This was one the worst drives I've had, but thanks to the Safari we reached without much damage done-to us as well as the truck. An additional rattling from the right front door and the tail gate is all I can tell as of now. A visit to the TASS would reveal anymore damages.
We put this drive behind us and looked ahead to the next couple of days of great fun coming up.
We soon checked in at the Grand Palace (not so grand as the name), and did a quick visit to the Nataraja temple. Awesome place, but we were not allowed to take any photographs of the temple.
The 'Grand Palace' hotel
Checked out from the hotel early next day after breakfast and headed out to Pichavaram. The road from Chidambaram to Pichavaram was a breeze. Its a two lane road but very well maintained and looks like it was recently done up. There is Rs. 20/- toll collected just before you reach the boat house on the backwaters.
The road to Pichavaram
The boats are all from the Tamil Nadu Tourism department. You have an option to take either a row boat or a motor boat. All boatmen wear uniforms and will help you with the life jackets.
Its Rs. 1200 for an hour in a motor boat.
Some random snaps of the forest as we rode the boat right through the mangroves.
Some of these tunnels were pretty dark inside. The thick foliage has almost blocked out the sun.
In some places we saw narrow tunnels going off into the thick foliage. Initially the boat man refused to go into one of those, but after a little cajoling and tipping he obliged to take us through a couple of these tunnels.
In some places, the roots were so low that we had to scramble to the floor of the boat to avoid being hit by them.
Each of these tunnels are approximately 500 mts long. and they criss cross each other. The boat man says there are places where you can go only with special tourism department permissions (got to get the permits in Chennai). The fauna in those places is awesome it seems. A variety of birds and snakes can be spotted there. I've heard that you can spot the elusive mud skipper fish there, though the boatman mentioned that the mud skipper is seen only in the Sunderbans and not at Pichavaram.
We spent about an hours inside these forests, but did not see any fauna, except a few white storks, a few brahmini kites (or were they fishing eagles?) and a few wild doves.
The boat ride through these tunnels was a great experience. Next time, I will probably will be armed with the right permits and spend more time taking in the fauna as well.
There is a watch tower just outside the booking counter , from where you can view the Cuddalore beach through a telescope. It also gives birds eye view of the mangroves.
A short video of the mangroves:
View of the mangroves from the watch tower
The 'Dark Knight' waits for us to take us onto Mahabalipuram.
Will our babus ever learn to write a single line of proper English?
