Trip members: Karthik and friends
Trip date: 08 Apr 2017
Trip Plan : Chennai - Pulicat - Chennai
A quickly planned trip to Pulicat - Palaverkadu lake with my team, friends and families.
The trip started around 5 AM from respective locations across Chennai and we were in NH5 by 5:45, We drove towards Pulicat in Tamilnadu, planning to do boat trip to the Pulicat beach. Most of the lake is part of Andhra Pradesh and some part in Tamilnadu. We took the NH-5 and U-turn to take Ponneri Highway at around 12 kms from Padiyanallur. By the time we crossed Ponneri it was exactly 7 AM. We knew there would not be anything to eat if we cross Ponneri. We had packed some snacks, but, hot food is always invited.
We saw a restaurant ready to serve opposite Ponneri bus stand - Siruvapuri Sri Balamurugan Restaurant. The food was simple and good - Idlis, dosais, pongal, vadai and coffee. We completed it quickly reached Palaverkadu (Pulicat). There was a boatman waiting by the road itself to get us lured into boating - it is obvious to have anyone reaching Pulicat to do boating. Boating is through the fishing boats here and nothing done by government tourism. As such there is no notable presence of promoted tourism apart from couple of signboards on welcome to Palaverkadu Bird sanctuary.
Pulicat Lake is the second largest salt water lake in India, after Chilika Lake, Orissa. Pulicat is one of the natural harbours of South India. It used to be a grand port for Portuguese, Dutch and the British. There are Portuguese and Dutch cemeteries and a Dutch house.
By 7:45, it was already getting hot and we wasted no time to proceed with the boatman. We hired 2 boats and started the trip to Pulicat beach.By boat, it was close to 20 minutes ride - the ride was quite enjoyable and scenic. The narrow lanes to begin with across the fishing hamlet and then into the bigger part of the lake, sighting water birds - small and big and many fisherman doing their livelihood.
The beach was so fresh and clean - almost like the Paradise beach we have in Pondicherry. This beach is still narrower and water on both sides gives a great sight ! Nature thrills and woes everyone every time ! This place is nonetheless !! The water is very clean, unlike most of the beaches in Tamilnadu. Crabs, crabs and crabs all over! Apart from a small team who were doing some film/serial shooting in a corner of the beach, the whole beach was just for US !!
We spent close to 2 hours playing in the beach. It was quite windy as well as hot. We took enough water bottles with us and it was very helpful. After couple of hours, it was becoming very hot and we decided to return. On the way back, there were random nets and wastes that was getting stuck on the boat propeller and the boatman had to put some hard work to get them off.
Returned to the main land, and all the water bottles started becoming empty. We returned through the Dutch cemetery and saw the human skeleton like structure at the entrance, The cemetery was locked and we saw from the car itself and moved on. We stopped by tree shades and munched on some snacks and drove home.
Overall, 3-4 of hours of great time at Pulicat is guaranteed. A nice place to go during sunrise or sunset. Roads are good.
Trip date: 08 Apr 2017
Trip Plan : Chennai - Pulicat - Chennai
A quickly planned trip to Pulicat - Palaverkadu lake with my team, friends and families.
The trip started around 5 AM from respective locations across Chennai and we were in NH5 by 5:45, We drove towards Pulicat in Tamilnadu, planning to do boat trip to the Pulicat beach. Most of the lake is part of Andhra Pradesh and some part in Tamilnadu. We took the NH-5 and U-turn to take Ponneri Highway at around 12 kms from Padiyanallur. By the time we crossed Ponneri it was exactly 7 AM. We knew there would not be anything to eat if we cross Ponneri. We had packed some snacks, but, hot food is always invited.
We saw a restaurant ready to serve opposite Ponneri bus stand - Siruvapuri Sri Balamurugan Restaurant. The food was simple and good - Idlis, dosais, pongal, vadai and coffee. We completed it quickly reached Palaverkadu (Pulicat). There was a boatman waiting by the road itself to get us lured into boating - it is obvious to have anyone reaching Pulicat to do boating. Boating is through the fishing boats here and nothing done by government tourism. As such there is no notable presence of promoted tourism apart from couple of signboards on welcome to Palaverkadu Bird sanctuary.
Pulicat Lake is the second largest salt water lake in India, after Chilika Lake, Orissa. Pulicat is one of the natural harbours of South India. It used to be a grand port for Portuguese, Dutch and the British. There are Portuguese and Dutch cemeteries and a Dutch house.
The beach was so fresh and clean - almost like the Paradise beach we have in Pondicherry. This beach is still narrower and water on both sides gives a great sight ! Nature thrills and woes everyone every time ! This place is nonetheless !! The water is very clean, unlike most of the beaches in Tamilnadu. Crabs, crabs and crabs all over! Apart from a small team who were doing some film/serial shooting in a corner of the beach, the whole beach was just for US !!
We spent close to 2 hours playing in the beach. It was quite windy as well as hot. We took enough water bottles with us and it was very helpful. After couple of hours, it was becoming very hot and we decided to return. On the way back, there were random nets and wastes that was getting stuck on the boat propeller and the boatman had to put some hard work to get them off.
Returned to the main land, and all the water bottles started becoming empty. We returned through the Dutch cemetery and saw the human skeleton like structure at the entrance, The cemetery was locked and we saw from the car itself and moved on. We stopped by tree shades and munched on some snacks and drove home.
Overall, 3-4 of hours of great time at Pulicat is guaranteed. A nice place to go during sunrise or sunset. Roads are good.
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