andhakaranazhi | ✠ Travel Diaries ❅ My Journey ❅ My World ✠

@Andhakaranazhy, Aleppey, India.

What is a journey if not on a Honda?

Welcome to Andhakaranazhy, translated as “the lagoon of darkness” or as “the darkness lagoon” as we would prefer, as one of those wonderful beaches which lies near the National Highway on the way to Aleppey from Cochin. Located 47 kilometres from Alwaye, 58 kilometres from the Cochin Nedumbassery Airport and 30 to 35 kilometres from whichever area you would consider as the Cochin City Centre. If we consider the most significant landmark of recent times, Lulu Mall as the starting point, that should be 37 kilometres. The journey goes through Vyttila, Maradu, Aroor and taking a right turn a few kilometres after you reach Thuravoor and pass through Vayalar Railway Station.

The sea & the lagoon, greenery around.

We started at around four in the evening; well not really started, but pretended to start as the original journey will happen only a few minutes later. The journey is actually the worst around the area from Pulinchode Junction Alwaye to the Lulu Mall Edappally, which is why we took a left turn for the easier route with less traffic which turned out to be horrible as all the heavy vehicles took that route. But that was the only plan failure, as the rest of the journey was smooth enough even with a slower journey due to the existence of speed cameras. Even as the sun was strong, it was one of those cloudy days, and it helped.

Nature & modernity comes together.

It is all about the journey on Honda, and that is the only two-wheeler brand which we would take for a journey – for we have owned seven or eight Honda vehicles so far and looking forward to more. The beauty of the journey comes when you take the right turn, and there begins a beautiful rural setting with lots of greenery, and special mention for that railway station which sits almost in the middle of the road, with parts of the train stopping in front of you and only a small part at the platform. Then there are the beautiful visuals on the sides, which has lots of water and in the absence of it, greenery, the water threatening to come up, being just one thumb length lower than the path.

A walk through the beach with crabs.

Then there is the bridge on the left which takes you to the Andhakaranazhy beach, and before you get on that bridge, you realize that you have seen it before. Yes, it is the same place which we had seen in the movie Idukki Gold from Aashiq Abu, starring Vijayaraghavan, Pratap Pothen, Raveendran, Babu Antony, Lal and Maniyanpilla Raju. I had noticed this place then too, and as I liked the movie enough, there was a certain need to find where this place was. The interest for the same suffered with the same director’s terrible venture called Gangster, but there was something about that shot of Andhakaranazhy. There is even a lighthouse, seemingly keeping the darkness away from the lagoon.

It is indeed impossible not to take this shot.

As we parked the bikes, there was the huge entrance to the beach, but as usual, we chose another path to enter. The beach was actually very crowded, at around five fourty five on the evening and only managed to have more rush as time passed. There were kids playing cricket and soccer, along with a deserted volleyball court. People seemed to be more confident than ever, venturing quite a lot into the water. There were some fishing boats around, the non-mechanized versions. Strangely, the only creatures around there were black cats and black dogs (contributing to the dark name), and then came the crabs of different sizes threatening to say hello to our legs.

If this is not beauty, what is it?

Despite the occasional attack of the dark clouds, the sunset was pretty much a beautiful thing to watch, and its reflection often outdid the same. The rain threatened to attack, but never really got its troops together. Then there was the beauty of the lagoon which came up with incomparable serenity. It had the sands and sea with the sunset sky on one side, and on the other side, it had the silhouettes of the thin trees which raised their heads to the dark clouds. There were small restaurants and tea shops and there we had cardamom/elaichi tea and finished the journey which was extended to more tea at Indian Coffee House on the way back. Well, when it was dark enough, we agreed to the name of the place.