Adventure-Travel

The Arabian sea - shimmering bright orange with the diffused reflection of the dusking sun, was way too tempting. With strong currents and offshore winds, It’s been an intense couple hours. Not much wave riding for all that paddling. Before we called it a day, I decided to paddle one last time past the frothy whites and onto the swells. For a few minutes, the water seemed super serene. Calm enough for me to visualize dolphins far in the distance. Folks who’d been here earlier in the morning had a good spotting and it would have been lovely to spot them now as the sun was slowly setting. And suddenly something didn’t seem that right. Another look at the water and I could see what I should have caught a few seconds before. Even before I could properly pop on the board, the swell quickly built momentum and yanked the board off my feet. Gravity, raw energy, power that looks so beautiful on the surface and all that connects these, unforgivingly engulfed me in their churn and royally spat me on the beach after a few seconds - though what felt like eternity. So much for that glorious sunset on the board! ...

With quite a few developments on the personal front, the last few months has kept me quite ‘busy’. Despite Covid, I did a bunch of travel which is always nice! Last August, Appa kinda lost his patience and wanted to make a trip to India. We figured September was the most optimal time and I flew over to MD to accompany him back. With just a day off work, I was able to finagle a whirlwind weekend trip to the US and back. M and S head over to the states in October to be a bit of a help in MD while I looked after two grand old men here in India. It’s been a while that I’ve done this and but for a few rough days, I loved spending time helping them accomplish what they wanted to over the course of three months. Appa was able to get most of his ‘admin’ stuff done and more importantly got to spend time with his younger brother. ...

Took Appa and S out to the Oregon Ridge Park while M helped getting things ready for Amma’s Shraadam. While at it I also got to test the new action camera that we bought last month. Quite a chilly and windy day. That didn’t deter S from having a blast at the playground. The ‘hike’ quickly turned into a playground outing. I wouldn’t complain. Amazed at how well she handled the low temps. ...

Most of the morning today was spent wasted on getting the RT-PCR for the upcoming travel. M suggested we hit the trails with N & A as they had a snow day - after-effects of the winter storm earlier this week. We decided to head to the Patapsco thru trail since we didn’t have much daylight hours left. The snow showers earlier this week and dusk setting in made this place look terrific! ...

This first, we wanted to take Miss S out for some good time outdoors. With various factors at play, we haven’t had that mental space to prioritize this over the last few months and this is something we definitely wanted to change this year. The Trolley trail was an easy pick since we’d already been there a few times in 2020. [gallery link=“none” size=“medium” ids=“31845,31847,31844,31848,31846”] We directly went to this ‘secret’ spot that’s hidden right at the beginning of the trail. The fog and the weather made this space look even more mystical! Miss S had a terrific time hopping around and throwing pebbles stones across the stream. Later on during the drive back she went on to claim all the fog on the road was because she threw those pebbles in the water. Today was magical! ...

We hit the road this morning and head down south to Mahabalipuram. I of-course had my bucket-list of intriguing places that I’d like to explore on the route. However, with four kids and five adults and then the heat, I had very low expectations of exploring much. The focus was just to have more outdoor time for Shasta. All that said, we did get to cover a decent number of monuments by noon. ...

The Adyar river forms a tidal creek just before it enters the Bay of Bengal. The creek and the estuary formed a great ecosystem for flora and fauna to flourish - until the city’s sewage and industrial effluence heavily contaminated it. Initiated by CAG and ordered by the High court, Ecological restoration projects undertaken by the Tamilnadu government about a decade ago led to the creation of the 58 acre Adyar Eco Park and the 300 acre Adyar estuary. ...

Met a couple friends and their familes on a short hike up the Pallavaram hills. Was good catching up after a while! Despite temperature being in the high 80s, the kids had a terrific time. On the organizing front though, I could have done better. We initially planned to meet at 10:00 but ended up climbing around 11:30 due to travel delays. I wasn’t carrying my first-aid kit and the usual pick-me-up edibles/tailwind. I missed checking on everybody’s general health condition prior to the climb. Had the trail been a few more miles longer, with the rising temps, things could have escalated pretty quickly… ...

Every time we’ve flown in and out of Chennai, I’ve had my eyes on the hills right opposite the airport. Earlier this week, I found the access road to the Pallavaram Forest Hill and we decided to explore it over the weekend. We initially thought it might make sense to take the metro to the airport and then cross under NH45 using the Trisulam subway to make our way to the start of the hill. Decided to drive over instead and were able to find parking right near the police assistance booth on the approach road. This map has all the navigation cues you might need to access the hill. There are two ways to access this hill - One using a flight of stairs up to the Balamurugan temple and then a dirt trail from there to the hill-top. And the other is to follow the tarred road up from the village. We chose the latter since it was close to where we ended up parking the car. ...

We did a quick 2 hour road trip down to the Bird Sanctuary in Chengalpet this Monday. The location and the sanctuary design - amidst tall trees, lush green fields and a vast water body; really set the stage for a fabulous viewing experience. We obviously got to see a ton of migratory birds. Sparky clean surroundings and facilities, and the very knowledgeable ‘spot’ person on the viewing tower made this quite a wholesome trip. ...