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. ...
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. ...
It’s so hard to find long dirt trails here in Chennai. So when I heard about the Adyar river trail, I hopped on the bike and head over across the city. Thoroughly enjoyed the 6kms of solidarity amidst this bustling city. Got Shasta and Meena over this weekend and they had their bit of nature-fix too. I need to actively scout for these secluded nature spaces. They come far and few but I’m pretty sure there’s got to be more! ...