Pichavaram - an Undiscovered Beauty...!!!

Having taken photography as a hobby, going out for a dedicated photo shoot trip was something which I wanted to do for quite sometime. February seem to be the time for it and after some debate on where to go we finally decided on Pichavaram.

A few of my friends asked where is this place and whats so special about this place, frankly speaking we didn't know anything more than "It's the 2nd largest Mangrove Forest in the World" (courtesy Wikipedia). But going out in my Skid along with some photo enthusiastic friends for a photo shoot sounded quite a nice experience in itself, never mind if the place doesn't turn out to be a beauty.

My Skid..!!!

February 5th & 6th are the dates we decided and we finally made it. Started by around 05:45 in the morning on saturday and everyone assembled in Guindy bus stop by around 6:40. We were on the move as a gang a little before 0700. We decided to go via the ECR even though there was another route to Chidambaram, which is the nearest town from Pichavaram. 

Driving in ECR is always good and no surprises there, soon we were in Pondy where some surprises were awaiting for us. 1 Onion Dosa = 75 Rs/- and 1 Large Vodka = 70 Rs/- really a surprise isn't it.. :-) After having our breakfast in Pondy we were on our way to Chidambaram via Cuddalore. That stretch of road was a little problematic as the traffic was worse and the road wasn't that broad. My GPS kit (SatGuide) was quite handy as it helped us to identify the route where we had some doubts (thanks to no sign boards). We reached Chidambaram before noon and the next big task was to hunt for a descent lodge. Unfortunately there was a conference going on in Annamalai University and so most of the hotel rooms were booked, finally we managed to get a couple of rooms in a descent lodge (INR 600 for AC Room and INR 300 for Non-AC). 

After a bit of relaxation we had our lunch and went to Pichavaram, which is around 14 kms from Chidambaram. We were not sure if we wanted go on the boating ride immediately or to go for it on the next day morning, but some how we decided to go for it and that was a blessing in disguise. Our boat rover, Sampath, was a experienced person and had complete knowledge about that forest, he started spelling out all the botanical names of the trees and also the tamil film names which were shot in Pichavaram, to name a few, Dasavatharam (Kallai Mattum Kandal Song), Suriyan, Peraanmai, etc., After a while in the open waters he took us to the speciality of Pichavaram the real Mangrove forest experience, have a look at the below snap to get an idea of what it looks like.

Mangrove Forest

Its like going into a natural cave which is made just out of trees. The total height is not more than a few feet, we had to literally crawl within the boat at some places, its so densely covered with mangrove trees and you can hardly feel sunlight in there. We were debating whether to take a motor boat or the normal one, thank god we took the normal one, motor boats wont come into these beautiful areas. While starting we thought spending 2 hours within the forest will be too much but at last it turned out not to be enough. The water level keeps fluctuating, while going it was more than 4/5 feet but while coming back it was just a couple of feet from the ground, Sampath showed us the depth by putting his wooden Oar vertically to touch the ground, unbelievable shallow waters. Over all it was a life time experience and a must visit for everyone.

Having spent the day at Pichavaram we headed back to Chidambaram and visited the famous Natarajar temple. The temple was huge and nice, but I was really disappointed to see such a tiny little Natarajar, in there. I was expecting a huge or atleast a normal size Natarajar, for all the hype that I have heard about Chidambaram. He is not more than a couple of feet, which was quite little, even when compared to the Natarajar in our Madurai Meenakshi temple. Never the less we had a good darshan and after dinner went back to our hotel room, hoping to have a nice day out on the following day as well.

The original plan for sunday was to spend a while in Pondicherry or try exploring some other places around Chidambaram. Luckily while playing with my wonderful Nexus One, I checked out the "Places" app, and it brought up the interesting name "Porto Novo - Light house". As said the name was quite different and we said lets see what it is !!! So the next day morning, we headed towards Porto Novo, and surprise surprise, it was an awesome place. Umanath managed to speak to one of the locals and he agreed to take us in a fishing boat to one of the near by island inside the sea. It was amazing, we had the shore in our sight all the time, but a amazing place. When we landed in the island the setup was quite perfect and I thought thats a nice place for me to grab some stunning images of myself. I don't want to say anything more, just look at the below snaps.

To my memory I couldn't remember being so excited about taking a snap of myself, and no wonder its all stunning. After a tiring jumping exercise in the little island we came back to the shore. From there we started towards Pondy. Went to Auroville, but by that time, i was a little tired and my legs were paining awfully, so decided to stay put in the car while others went out. Finally our eventful photo shoot came to and end and it was really an experience in itself. More than the trip and photos, we developed a good bonding with each other, and it was a good opportunity for all of us to know each other better.

I cannot end this without adding a thank note to my brother Ambhu who took all the above snaps of me. My colleagues also enjoyed his company and am sure we will continue to explore more places in the future...!!!!!