Incredible India thru my Lens

An Early Morning Visit to Kolavai Lake, Chengalpattu (Jul ’11)

This was rather a quick trip to the lake, which is around some 60km from Chennai. I have been hearing about this place quite a while and planned to pay a visit this weekend. Spoke with couple of friends and finally 5 of us from different parts of city decided to assemble just after Tambaram. It rained last night and I am bit worried about making it to the place and also worried about sunrise as the condition seemed overcast. When inquired about the condition in Porur, my friend confirmed it’s not raining in Porur and decided to start as planned.

This place lies on Chennai – Trichy highway and can be reached easily in an hour from Chennai. If you are interested to see sunrise from different places around Chennai, then this is just another perfect place. We all assembled at the place just after Tambaram around 4.40 and from there we reached the lake around 5.20. Parked our vehicles and went to the spot around 5.30, perfect time for shooting.

While my friends were checking out different vantage points around the lake, I tried to venture out another point, which is just opposite the lake. But you need to climb a rocky hill. I told my friends about this and started to climb the hill. When climbing, I got a very good view of the entire lake and a shot which will show the ‘S’ curve and the lake together, where morning trains will pass through quite frequently. A passing train on the ‘S’ curve will be a nice shot. But as expected, we couldn’t witness the perfect sunrise but it played cat and mouse with the clouds and we got some superb sun rays shot. Also, got one of my favorite shot of a train passing the ‘S’ curve.

Overall, a very satisfying outing with my friends….

Now enjoy the pictures and post your valuable comments 🙂

A Day Ride to the ruins of Alamparai Fort (Mar ’11)

Alamparai Fort located in Kadapakkam, a village 50km from Mahabalipuram is one of the unexplored places around Chennai. Infact I came to know about this place couple of weeks back and since then itching to go this place. You can learn more about this place here.

Last week, I got half a day free and decided to check it out. The idea was to watch sunrise from the Fort. So, started as early as 4.00 AM and tanked up my bike. In 15 minutes time we are cruising in ECR Road. Early start means literally no traffic. Reached Muttukadu around 4.55 AM and decided to take a night shot. When I was unpacking the camera, the Lens cap committed suicide by jumping into the lake. I couldn’t digest it for a moment and then clicked couple of pictures but not so well. Then packed up again and started my journey towards the fort.

I had clear information about the area and watched carefully when I saw the board “Kadappakam”. After travelling for another couple of km you will see some shops around and here you will also notice a green board which says ‘Alamparai Fort’ & marked a left arrow. But the green color turned into pale and you will miss if you don’t watch it carefully. Once you take the immediate left & travel for a couple of kms you will notice a small bridge. After crossing the bridge, you will see a ‘Y’ fork and take a right on that road which leads to ‘Alamparai Fort’.

There was nothing to substantiate the word ‘Fort’ as you will see only few fragments of the wall standing amongst the ruins. But that doesn’t spoil the beauty of the place and when you climb up on the ‘ready-to-die’ footsteps along the wall; you will witness one of the beautiful landscapes. Backwaters & Sea separated by small patch of sand, several small boats roaming around fishing etc..,

I was bit confused and couldn’t decide what to shoot and what not to shoot. Sun hasn’t come out yet and the atmosphere looks a bit of overcast. When sun finally came out, it was well above the sea. So, couldn’t get what I intended for but got couple of good shots of the golden color. Then took a walk along the Fort and then I met a fishermen who offered me to take a ride to sea. I asked him if he can take me along for fishing, and he readily agreed and he said it would take not more than 2 hrs. So, he asked to follow him immediately and we were on the boat in next 5 mins and ready to take on the sea.

The ride was awesome and the feeling when you get while switching from backwaters to Sea was spellbound. I managed to click some pictures during the ride but that doesn’t do justice to what I experience there. I will write a separate blog post about the experience with Fishermen/fishing. When we are into the sea I was clicking photographs insanely and when I switched from 18-55 to 55-200, my SLR conked out again. The same old problem with my ‘Nikon D60’. But thank god, I got a backup camera ‘Canon S5IS’ with me and it took few mins to come back to my senses and start shooting again. Spent couple of hours with fishermen and patiently waited and saw the art of fishing.

Once we are done with the fishing, the fishermen took me a ride back to where we took off. I thanked them and started my walk back to the place where I parked my bike. I was bit tired and the problem with SLR made me leave the place immediately. Before leaving the place tried a bit of off-roading & rode into the sands to take some photographs of my bike. Left the place around 10.45 and the ride back was nothing more than usual. The roads are clean & traffic was less till Tiruvanimyur, and then on navigated hard in city traffic and reached home by 1.45 PM.

It was an awesome experience overall and will be heading back when I get back my DSLR.

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