Sea Diving @ Alamparai Fort

"Thambi thannila kuddhi pa....!!! Athan Lifejacket pottu irukala....!!! Thannila muzhigadamata....!!!!"  (Jump into the water... You are wearing a life jacket... You wont drown) Yuvaraj the boatman screamed for the last time. Everyone else on the weekend sojourn were already in the water.

      I scrambled to the edge of the boat, took a deep breath and jumped into the water. After seeing some hazy bluish green figures in the water, i came floating over to the top thanks to my life jacket and started to search for the thin rope attached to the boat. People who have gone through the ordeal of drifting in mid sea with life jackets on would endorse with me the value of the thin rope ( I remember some of my friends going through this while diving in the sea for the first time).

     This was part of my idea on our trip to Alamparai Fort. The Fort's ruins lie on the East Coast Road around 100 kms from Chennai, which qualified into our list as an easy weekend getaway. If you are expecting a Fort with lot of inbuilt structures on the inside you would be disappointed. All that remains of the Fort are the Red Brick Stoned Walls which too have large cracks in between. The rusted Plaque present at the Fort's Entrance suggests the British ruined the Fort in the year 1760. The inside of the Fort has no structures inside with thorny bushes growing along the walls of the fort.

The Entrance to the Fort

The Inside of the fort is nothing but a playground for the locals

Bushes overgrown on the walls of the fort

       We started strolling towards the beach, The Fort Wall stands close to the backwaters. Walk a few paces and you could see the damage done to the fort by several natural events on the east coast. The Backwaters with the remnants of the fort on a cloudy day was picturesque.

The Ruins of the Fort on the Sea side

    
       Look closer in the backwaters you could find crabs, molluscs and snails on the receded water floor, On the other side is the sea lapping on the shoreline.
 

A small crab peeping out

      To the north of the fort is the fishing hamlet where we hired a boat to go for Sea diving. We ensured all the 9 of our team got life jackets and went in a single boat. The duration was one hour and soon we drifted away from the coastline.

After the Sea Diving Exercise

       The Sea diving concluded with a lot of giggles and banters, the one hour floating in the mid sea experience had drained us of all the energy. We took snaps of ourselves along with our bikes and started towards Chennai. But soon the cloudy weather turned moist and ensured all of us got drenched in the rain.

Riders on their Horses & Bulls

USP: If you are looking for a drive on the East Coast Road to a picturesque destination to be covered in a single day, go for Alamparai Fort.

Wikipedia- Alamparai Fort

Route Map

The Biking Team