Badagara to Thalassery — A Trek With Lalitha
Mission Mazhu-5. December 30, 2019, to January 2, 2020
This was not much of a trek (a mere 25 km over 3.5 days). Then why write about it? Because Lalitha (my wife) joined me on this trek and that made it unique.
Lalitha had not yet fully recovered from injuries to her ankle due to a fall during a Trek+Bamboo Rafting @Thekkady. She consulted her orthopaedic who encouraged her to go on the trek but advised her to wear the ankle harness all through.
Mission Mazhu has been my madness. Mission Mazhus have helped me cover the 471 km along the length the legendary Mazhu of Prasurama had covered. (MM-1, MM-2, MM-3 & MM-4). The stretch from Kannur Lighthouse till Kochi International Airport at Nedumbassery now remains to be covered.
My son (Suraj) and/or my student-cum-colleague-cum-friend Arya had accompanied me on MM-1, MM-2, MM-3 and MM-4. But both are now busy/not available to give company to complete the gaping 250 km stretch. So, I began planning to cover Kannur Lighthouse till Badagara all by myself — a distance of around 46 km. That is when Lalitha (my wife) offered to accompany me.
We decided to start off from Badagara and trek towards Kannur and reach as far as we could.
December 30, 2019
We left home by 07:00. Each carrying a backpack with clothes for 3–4 days.
We walked to the nearest bus stop (1.7 km) and took the first bus to Manathavady. We were in time to catch the 09:15 bus to Badagara. On reaching Badagara we went straight to KTDC Motel Araam and by 12:45 we had checked in and occupied a frugal, no-frills room for the night.
We ate a simple lunch and rested.
At 16:15 hrs we set out. Google map did not show a continuous coastal path that we could follow. So we started on the name-less road that pealed off from National Highway (NH-66) and rejoined it 3 km later. We continued on NH-66 till Kannoorkkara Post Office and turned left to head for the sandy beach. We had planned to walk till Chombala Beach House. Idea was to book a room there for our stay on December 31 night. But the Sun had set, it was getting dark by the minute and we were walking cautiously with mobile torch to avoid tripping on pot-holes. So, when we reached Thiruvani Bhagavathi Hindhu Temple we decided to stop. Time was 18:40 hrs and we had covered 9.5 km in 2 hrs 25 min.
We got into an autorickshaw and went looking for Chombala Beach House. Neither the auto-driver nor any of the bystanders seem to have heard about it. So we relied on GoogleMaps and reached a building that looked exactly as I remembered seeing it on TripAdvisor etc. But it was all locked up and we learnt that the place had closed down some months ago.
We headed for Motel Araam, ate a simple dinner and slept.
December 31, 2019
Now that Chombala Beach House was ruled out we had to find another place. I checked online and found that all hotels in Mahe were sold out. New year rush. We inquired with KTDC staff if they knew any place in Mahe where we could spend a night. The cook at their restaurant contacted his friend (Mr Kamal) who was a constable in Mahe police station. Kamal’s boss (no idea of rank etc) managed to block a room for us at Aswathy Guest House, Mahe.
By 11:30 hrs we checked out of Motel Araam, hired an auto, and headed for Mahe. We reached Mahe by 13:00 (after some stop-overs to look at antique furniture shops). We had lunch at MRA Bakery opposite St Theresa’s Shrine and rested at Aswathy Guest House.
At 15:30 hrs we were in auto and headed for Thiruvani Bhagavathi Hindhu Temple where we had terminated our walk the previous day.
The walk was along the coast, some stretches on the sands of the beach and some along a path just on the other side of a bund (loose granite stones piled up to prevent waves encroaching on tenements of fishermen). We crisscrossed the bund couple of times and it was a bit tricky. Once we even had to call out to a fisherman for help.
It was a pleasant walk — visited the Chombala Fishing Harbour, waved to shy, curious kids, contributed to the local football club, Lalitha tried kicking the football of a local team, etc.
By 17:50 hrs we reached Mahe and were at the bund that projects into the sea to provide an enclosure to the fishing harbour. We briskly walked the 400 m along the bund to reach its tip by 17:59. Just as the sun was setting on December 31, 2019 we clicked a snap.
We had covered 7.1 km.
We picked the French Empire Restaurant for our new year dinner. Before proceeding for dinner we opened a bottle of wine.
January 01, 2020
We woke up late (07:30 hrs). Lalitha made a dash to St Theresa’s Shrine (Church) for the New Year Mass (08:15 hrs). I met her at the Church by 09:00 hrs and we stepped into a tiny ThattuKada that announced Dosas. We took our seats (on plastic stools by the side of the only plastic table) and were told that Dosas are available only later in the day. We settled for cold vada and idiyappam.
After breakfast we explored the town, walking down the lanes, looking at houses of all shapes, sizes and architecture; we walked along the Boulevard Road that runs parallel to Mayyazi Puzha (river), also along the walkway that runs along the Estuary of Mayyazi Puzha. We had covered 3.9 km.
By 15:30 we took an auto to Makkootam (just before the Thalassery Fishing Harbour) and walked along the shore. The reason we covered the distance from Aswathy GH to Makkootam by auto was that this stretch did not have a coastal path and the NH was a 2-lane road with scary traffic!
We stopped at Rotana Beach Club for some coffee. We paused at the Kadalpalam (a ‘bridge’ that juts into the sea like a jetty that allowed cargo boats of yesteryears to dock). We continued to walk till Thalassery fort, a distance of 4.5 km.
We had covered 8.4 km today.
Our trek had ended and we headed back to Aswathy Guest House, Mahe.
January 02, 2020
By 08:00 hrs we took an auto to Thalassery Bus Stand and boarded the 10:30 bus to Manathavady.
We were home by 14:30 hrs
Summary
Duration of trip (door to door) = 3.5 days
Distance covered = 9.5 + 7.1 +(3.9+4.5) = 25 km
Expenses =Rs 8,722
The trek was special for another reason. Sole & Suraj recently gifted me a pair Lunas saying “walk more, trek more”. This was my first trek in Lunas. They were extremely comfortable.
Track of the 3-day trek on google map.
