When two youngsters from the city gushed about their trip to Italy for a coastline walk, architect Liza Natarajan was not impressed. Instead, the city-based Liza told them about her coastline walk that had taken her from the lighthouse in Vypeen island in Kochi to the lighthouse in Chettuva, near Guruvayur, and, prior to that, her walk from Tangassery lighthouse in Kollam to the one in Kovalam in Thiruvananthapuram.
“They assumed that beaches in Kerala are dirty. I described the beautiful beach at Valapad in Thrissur, the gentle waves, the wealth of birds to watch and the clean sands,” says Liza with a laugh.
On December 25, 2018, she along with her nephew Arjun A and designer Medha Bhatt walked 82 km from Vypeen light house to the one at Chettuva, near Guruvayur, in three days.
Medha Bhatt, Liza Natarajan and Arjun A
Years ago, a classmate of Liza’s would often tell her school friends how she had walked all the way from the lighthouse at Tangassery to the lighthouse at Kovalam, nearly 80-plus km along the beach. At estuaries, water bodies and road-less stretches, they would be ferried across by friendly boatmen who knew the waters like the back of their hand.
Liza had often wished she could emulate her friend. But as the sea came closer to the land, seawalls were put up in some places and beaches were swallowed by the sea in some other places. “Although it sounded so beautiful, it did not seem doable now,” says Liza. That is when Yamuna Sunny, a geographer who is into cartography, told Liza that it was possible even today as she had walked along the coast during her student days.
Three musketeers
“That was enough for me to put on my walking shoes. My friend Girija Krishnaswamy, a teacher of business administration in Australia, pitched in. And I roped in my nephew, 25-year-old architect, Arjun,” she recalls.
On Christmas Day in 2017, Liza along with Girija and Arjun took a train from the city to Kollam. They visited the lighthouse at Tangassery and began the walk from there. On the first day, they touched base at Anchuthengu lighthouse and stayed at Kappil. Their next stop was at Kadinamkulam and on the third day, they reached the lighthouse at Kovalam. “We were too adventurous on the first trip. We discovered that at places like Pozhikkara, for instance, the river is too wide and we could not cross it without the help of a boat. Water travel has fallen out of favour in these parts with the proliferation of bridges and roads and so we could not find anyone to ferry us over. So we had to walk all the way to the bridge to cross the river and get back to the beach again. That was extremely tiring and increased the distance,” recalls Liza.
Walking on the sand was exhausting and strenuous. “We discovered that near the shoreline, the sand is compacted and so it is easier to walk on. Moreover, the waves lapping at your feet is a beautiful sensation,” says Arjun.
Moreover, some stretches of the beach like the one around VSSC has been cordoned off and even locals are not allowed there. So they had to take a detour of about four km to go inland and come again to the beach. While Taj Kovalam permitted them to walk along their beach, another well-known resort, one of the oldest in Kovalam, did not give them permission. “The last leg of our walk in 2017 was not pleasant owing to these restrictions. But this year, it was magical,” she says.
Initially, the plan was to walk from Tangassery lighthouse to the one at Alappuzha. But then they found that the rough sea and the tsunami had resulted in seawalls on a number of places. Moreover, the tide would be high during the time of Christmas owing to the lunar phase at that time.
So they decided to walk from Vypeen to Chettuva. Medha joined them from Vadodara. “Although I had doubts if I could do it, Liza motivated me and I jumped in for the adventure,” says Medha.
Verdant stretches filled with trees along the way from Vypeen to Chettuva
Of the three-day trip, the first day was smooth going what with groves of casuarina trees near the beach and time to shoot the breeze. Halting at Munnambam fishing harbour for the night, they resumed the journey at dawn. It was on the second day that they saw some breathtaking sights near Valapad beach. But the trio could not help notice the damage caused by the incursions of the sea and the sand. As the sea came closer to the seawall, the waves crashed against the walls and the sand was flung against the wall and beyond it. “We saw sand dunes created by the accumulation of sand and some of the sand had to be removed from the coastal roads to prevent it from being inundated. I have never seen anything like it,” says Liza. By the end of the third day, when they reached their destination and climbed the lighthouse at Chettuva, all they felt was elation at having covered the distance.
“The take-aways are many from a trip like this. Till I went for these walks, my idea of a beach was Shanghumugham, Kovalam and so on... all highly commercialised. Some of the places we walked through were so deserted and peaceful. These walks revealed another picture of our coastline: fragile, beautiful and teeming with different kinds of creatures,” says Arjun. He adds: “The scene keeps shifting every few km: the vegetation and even the colour of the sand. Many marine creatures make their home on the shoreline and it was fascinating to see the patterns they had made on the sand. The number of birds we saw was amazing.”
And now the trio is waiting to go on the next coastline walk, this time to leave their footprints on the beaches in Malabar.
VIGNETTES OF COASTAL TRAILS
Medha Bhatt
Medha Bhatt says: “There were many memorable visuals and incidents on our trip, some beautiful, some very painful and sad. Out of a still pond, I saw a cormorant break through the water and gracefully take to the sky. It was a memorable visual. Another one I saw was at Valapad beach. I saw waves of white moving along the beach; colonies of seagulls on the beach. we stopped and watched the scene for a long time. What touched our hearts was the sight of abandoned houses in tsunami colonies near the beach, especially near Azheekode. Sand had swamped many houses, some of which were not even damaged. Residents in the locality told us that the owners were forced to abandon the houses owing to the accumulation of sand. In some places, it was heartbreaking and frightening to see the ferocious face of the sea. The beach was non-existent and the sea was almost lapping at the narrow coastal roads.”
WALK THE WALK
Don’t be all at sea. Here are tips the trio said would make such trips easier:
* They had planned their walk with the help of Google maps. Planning where to break the journey and stay for the night helped them book their rooms well in advance.
* Full-sleeved cotton clothes, sun cream, hats and footwear.
* Travel light.
* Start at the crack of dawn after a heavy breakfast.
