Chennai, this word can immediately send two signals to the brain about Chennai — its Weather, and Beach.
The only aspect that I hear people complain about Chennai is its humid weather (but nothing can be done with it, its nature). But, the reason for the humid weather is its magnificent and breathtaking beach.
There are many beaches in Chennai, though the source of water is just one – Bay of Bengal. Famous beaches in Chennai are – Marina beach, Elliots / Beasant Nagar beach, and Thiruvanmiyur beach.
Nowadays, all above beaches are very crowded, the natural beauty is now commercialised with too many shops / stalls on beach, papers / plastic items thrown all over, et al.
The best hack to experience Chennai beach is to drive upto ECR. Once you are on the ECR road, all the roads to your left hand side (for about 100+ km, all the way upto Pondicherry) will lead to the beach.
If you want a very secluded experience on beach, take any of the left side road after crossing the toll gate in ECR road.
The best time to visit beaches in Chennai are early in the morning – between 5.30 am to 6.30 am, and late in the evening – between 5.30 pm and 6.30 pm.
Almost all of the beaches in ECR road will have boats parked (because they live right infront of the beach area) and you can see some fisherman fixing their nets, some offloading the fishes from their boat, some prepping their boats to get into water, some fixing their motors, and a section of people just taking some rest.
If you have time, just walk up to them and strike a conversation – ask them about various challenges they face when they get into water for fishing.
Recently, we went to a beach in Uthandi (an area right before the toll gate in ECR). There was nobody in the beach, it felt like a private beach through out. Below are some photographs (and edited) we took during our early morning beach walk in Uthandi.
Crab’s home for sometime – until its completely washed off by next round of water wave.
Father and son duo catching crabs on beach. Father digs deep on all crab homes to locate crabs, son puts crabs inside the red cover he holds in his right hand.
Merits of going to beach early in the morning — you will see lot of fishing boats in water. The silent movement of boats (because of its distance from shore) and the mild sun rays glittering the entire ocean makes a dream sight.
Our most favorite shot during the walk. This was taken at 6.30 am.
