Saturday, January 26, 2013

Pondicherry Beach

Pondicherry Beach

One late morning we passed the Pondicherry beach while letting us ahead to Point Calimere in Nagai District; the beach looked deserted during that day of the time last March. Guess it was a weekday, and being sunny no one were left around and the way it looked (neat and clean) impressed to shoot few shots. This was the beach shaken up during the Thane cyclone that struck couple of months early to our visit then, seems taken a quick recovery to our surprise and it looked even better than our early visits.

My first time to the Pondicherry beach was at the beginning of this millennium and that time it was only rocks left behind the corridor platform and we could enjoy the drizzle splashed by waves while sitting on the platform. Now the beach was extended into the sea, creating a corridor on the seawall to keep away the erosion and building some sand area for beach visitors. This was my third time in the beach to just pass unlike early spending some time, the beach left quite with no sound of splashing waves and sight of some sea birds at distance.

Gandhi Statue, Pondicherry
The Promenade beach, as popularly known as Pondicherry beach on the Beach Road is one of the main boulevard of the city, where one could find heritage buildings and offices of the Union Govt. including the State Secretariat.  The beach extends for 1.5 km along the shore, has the statue of the father of the nation – Mahatma Gandhi – is the center of attraction.  The four-meter tall statue was beautifully adorned by eight granite pillars, surrounding a shrine like shelter.

Being close to the old harbor, the beach holds a pretty sight of the pier extended into the bay. And the old lighthouse on the beach lane, opposite to the Mahatma Gandhi statue is a wonderful old tower installed by French East India Company in year 1836. This old lighthouse was the first modern lighthouse on the Coromandel Coast, served the mariners for almost a century and half before proudly become a monument under the Union Territory Administration – a fitting tribute to its valuable services.

Old Lighthouse - Pondicherry
The old lighthouse

15 comments:

Optimistic Existentialist said...

Pondicherry beach is yet another place that I must visit. I definitely need to see India someday!

TexWisGirl said...

glad they are maintaining erosion control measures and the like, but it is kind of sad to not have access down to the shore to feel the spray of the waves any more.

ashok said...

Looks clean and neat

sm said...

beautiful photos

Rajesh said...

Wow! nice shots of the place. I was there during the night.

Anonymous said...

Nice shots!

Destination Infinity said...

I have visited this beach a couple of times, and it was here that I first found all those rocks instead of sand in a beach! The first pic shows how neatly the beach is being maintained. Good.

Destination Infinity

Kalyan said...

looks so cool, serene and beautiful...in our part of the country its till freezing cold now.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Beautiful pictures of the beach and the old lighthouse. I love lighthouses --and if I didn't collect photos of waterfalls, I'd probably be traveling around to collect photos of lighthouses. They just fascinate me!!!!

Great recovery since the storm... Thanks for sharing.
Betsy

Rakesh Vanamali said...

You bring us the very best - may you continue to go far and wide and bring us more and more!

Krishna/കൃഷ്ണ said...

looking nice beach. The city also carrying memories of French colonial rules.

thanks jeevan

George said...

You had a beautiful day to see this beach. I'm glad it has recovered from the cyclone. I really like that old lighthouse.

Meoww said...

Beautiful shots! Clean Road too :)

Dawn said...

This one place is on my list to visit as I have seen this place in movies and now here...its just tempting :)

Thanks for bringing this place to us
Cheers
Dawn

Dawn said...

This one place is on my list to visit as I have seen this place in movies and now here...its just tempting :)

Thanks for bringing this place to us
Cheers
Dawn