Pongal at Point Calimere - of beaches and lighthouses

Continued from Waders, where are thou?

The diversity of the landscape in the Point Calimere area added to our enjoyment. Mudflats, saltpans, beaches, lagoon and the scrub forest. The children in the group enjoyed the beaches the most, I think. It was interesting that even though we live in the coastal city of Chennai, we never tire of the beach. Young teenager Uttara, wrote up a detailed account of our trip, and here is the bit about the beaches.

Uttara's account:
(words in italics are interjections by me!)

....Finally the British lighthouse (the picture on the left, below)  came into clear view. The lighthouse, built in 1890, is not a very tall building. Except for the roof which is red, the whole lighthouse has been painted white. Around it is a wall which has signs like ‘Visitors not allowed’ fitted near the gate. Some distance from the lighthouse is the beach, which was our final destination before returning to the guesthouse.

The British lighhouse, closer to the Pt Cali beach

While nearing the beach, the ponds and water-bodies increased in size and number. Separating the grasslands from the beach was a sort of mound — an area of sand that rose fairly high — covered in thick vegetation consisting of thorny plants and plenty of Prosopis juliflora. But there was a cleared up space so people could go to the beach without getting cut and scratched all over. We spotted the state flower of Tamil Nadu, Gloriosa superba, near the clearing.

Gloriosa superba in bloom

The beach on the other side was very different from the Chennai beach. Firstly, the beach was dotted with a variety of shells, including several kinds that are hard to find in the beaches of Chennai. Secondly, there weren’t any waves crashing onto the beach. Further out at sea, you could see the breakers dashing against an invisible barrier: there was definitely a barrier of sand submerged in the sea somewhere there that was breaking the force of the water. 

Thirdly, there was some kind of sad, worn-down brick structure jutting out of the water in the calm regions that were behind the sand barrier. It was covered in barnacles around the base where it was in constant contact with the sea. It also had a thick layer of bright green moss, so thick and bright that from a distance it looked as though there was grass growing over the structure. Overall it was an unimpressive sight. That said and done, imagine my shock as I learnt that this was the great Chola lighthouse! I had imagined a better preserved structure but it was only later that I read somewhere that the lighthouse was wrecked in the 2004 tsunami. No amount of maintenance could probably fix the damage done. We waded upto the structure. Beneath the water, the structure extended sideways a bit more than expected. 

The remains of the Chola lighthouse

(It appears that the cyclone Thane had further damaged the ruined lighthouse, as we saw this bit on the sands, close to the standing structure.  It was amazing to think that these bricks were from the twelfth/thirteenth century!) 

At the beach, there was a watchtower from which you got an amazing view of the setting sun. From the direction of this spectacle, you could make out another difference between this beach and the one at Chennai — the beach was not facing the east, in fact it wasn’t even entirely facing the south either, but more south than east. On the other end of the beach (opposite the sunset) were bars of sand. Somewhere beyond were the tidal mudflats.

The shadow of the watchtower from where this picture was taken - looking east

Looking north - A sea of green with the Brit lighthouse sen in the distance.

Looking west from the watchtower, the bund of sand that separates the wetlands from the sea?  If you click on the picture, at 2 o'clock, you will see a spire - the new lighthouse at the Kodikarai boat jetty.

The Chola lighthouse ruins - forlorn and a far cry from the action in Ponniyin Selvan

East and zooming in on the tidal pools and the sandbank.

Looking back at the watchtower

Seaweed, washed up

Ravana's meesai, all poky and hostile, foiling attempts to get around to the eastern beach!

Back down, the rest of our time was spent playing in the water and with shells (there's a whole post about shells coming up next) where we collected different shells of different kinds and tried to outdo each other in our quest to find who could collect the most uncommon shells. This part of the trip was really relaxing what with the wind in our faces, the soothing sound of the waves and no birds waiting to be spotted.  (Uttara, there is not a single bird picture in this post!)

We went to the main lighthouse (near the boat jetty) which was a fairly tall building painted in red and white stripes. It is located at a walking distance from both the boat jetty and the guesthouse. This lighthouse has a flash pattern of 1 flash every 10 seconds. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed inside though the man in the guesthouse said visitors were allowed till 5 o’clock in the evening.


The sun had already set and the light was beginning to fade rapidly when we decide to call it a day and return to the guesthouse.

The new lighthouse, close to the boat jetty

Soon after we returned there was a scheduled power cut and the whole place turned pitch dark. Chandrasekar uncle asked us to bring our binoculars and come outside where he took us on a trip through the stars, showing us a nebula, a red giant and some star clusters. We came outside and there was the sky like a slate of darkness and sprinkled across this vast space were the tiny, twinkling lights that were emitted by the stars. A sight that is no longer seen in cities, the sky was imposing and awe-inspiring and pacifying all at once; the awesome sunset from that evening was no match for a peek into the cosmos. It was, in fact, with groans that I received the return of the power and the lights. Somehow, the sky seemed to lose some of its ‘overwhelmingness.’

So we went back inside, binoculars and all, where everyone was assembled for the day’s usual bird, mammal, reptile, insect, every-other-species-seen-that-day list-making event, where Vikas flourished his pen and waved about his little pad…and then screamed at everyone for not taking his work seriously.