Kovalam, the moon beach

The main purpose of our Trivandrum visit was to spend half a day (read sunset ) at Kovalam. We were done with most of our Trivandrum city sight seeing by 2 PM after which we grabbed some quick lunch and headed for Kovalam. From Trivandrum City (M G Road),Kovalam is around 15 kilometres.It is a straight road and the road condition is also very good.

  Since it was noon and traffic was also less we reached Kovalam in less time.
There is car parking where you can park your car. We parked our car and walked inside. Parking cost is Rs 20 for four wheelers.

  Kovalam is a beautiful compact crescent shaped beach.Three parts of the beach are Lighthouse beach, Eve's beach and Samudra beach. These three beaches form the entire crescent Kovalam beach.

The crescent shaped Kovalam Beach

  There are plenty of hotels and resorts on the beach each offering magnificient view. There are lots of eateries offering freshly caught fishes, lobsters, crabs. You just have to choose the fish and they will cook it for you.

Eateries displaying their stock of fresh sea food.

  The beach is mostly popular within foreigners. It is crowded mostly by foreigners in the morning and the noon when they enjoy sun bathing. By sunset the beach is predominated by Indians who come to see the beautiful sunset.

After sunset, Kovalam.

  One can never be bored in Kovalam. You can walk along the seashore admiring the beautiful beach with its blue waters and the far lighthouse in its back drop. The scene is beautiful....... you may also dig in the tasty fresh seafood in the seashore restaurants, climb the lighthouse........ sunbath or simply enjoy the waters... So many water sports are also available. Even there are boats that will take you to the sea.

  We went there almost two hours before sundown. We positioned ourselves with our tripod and camera on the rocks on Eve's beach. From there we could have a wonderful view of the lighthouse beach. We also took most of our sunset shots from there.

Sunset at Kovalam.

Sunset at Kovalam.

  We spotted some strange life formations on some of the rocks.We have no clue what those really were.There were also some big black crabs on the far rocks.

Strange life form on the rocks.

  After we were satisfied with our sunset shots we went strolling on the beach towards the eateries. The full coastline was already lighted up with beautiful street lamps and that was such a fantastic sight to behold.

The beach after sunset, Kovalam.

Walkway at Kovalam Beach.

  Half a day was good for us but if you swear by the beaches, spend a few days in Kovalam.

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, revisited for Painted Storks

The last time when we visited Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary was on 30th December last year (2012). That time we saw plenty of pelicans,spoon bills,open bills and herons. But we did not find any painted stork.

 When we asked the sanctuary officials about the painted stork they informed us that painted stork start coming in, after January 15 every year. Ankur was fast to act on this piece of info. He decided that we will have a quick visit to this bird sanctuary on our way back from Kerala. This served three purposes - first it was on the way of our planned route from Kochi to Bangalore, second - a good time to see painted stork and third - save fuel.

 The park is opened from 9 AM to 6 PM everyday. For more details regarding the tickets,boating and all you can see the previous post here. The costs have not changed.

 We got inside the park at 4:15 PM and then headed for the boat ride.Since it was a Friday, the weekend rush was not there.
Imagine our excitement when we saw trees all covered with painted storks!

painted stork

A bunch of painted storks on a tree

painted stork and spoon bill

painted stork

  The boat took us near the birds........there were so many painted storks,many building their nests on tree tops,some diving for fishes. Last time the same trees were full of pelicans. Now they are full with painted storks... The pelicans must have gone back with their chicks leaving the trees for the painted storks to breed. A very few pelicans were still there,maybe the late arrivals.

pelican

pelican in flight

pelican after a catch

pelican in flight

 Apart from the painted storks and pelicans,there were herons,open bills,spoon bills,cormorants,kingfishers and bats.We also saw river terns, something we did not see last time.

river tern

snake bird with  a painted stork in the background

egret

open bill stork

spoon bill stork

heron

waggie

kingfisher

 And here are some crocs enjoying the sun.

croc

croc

 After the boat ride we thought of walking for some 30 mins just to get rid of the cranks that we got as a result of such a looong drive.

wasp hive

tickell's blue flycatcher

barbet

red whiskered bulbul

zitting cristicola

cuckoo

entrance gate 

 We got some small colourful birds returning to their nests just as we were getting back to our home. 



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