The journey to Kovalam Beach begins:
It was Christmas Eve and I had 3 consecutive days off from the office. My friends were off to their homes and I had stayed back in Chennai for some internship.
For the first two days, I had just casually spent the day procrastinating and watching some videos on YouTube and Instagram and both days had gone past swiftly without any effort.
On the third day, I had to get petrol for the bike and was feeling so tired after spending the two days lazily. I wished to ride to some place on my way back home after refuelling.
Me and my friends were discussing a beach in the outskirts of Chennai; Kovalam Beach. By the review and the photos, it felt good and quite interesting.
Refuelling:
I usually prefer refuelling from a specific petrol pump and wish to get fuel from them only. I thought that I would get fuel on my way to the Kovalam Beach.
When I put on the directions on my phone, I soon realized that the specific petrol pump I was looking for was not in my designated journey and I would have to take a long detour for it.
After this, I thought that the petrol was enough to get me out of the city and I would have plenty of petrol pumps on my way to the Kovalam Beach.
Range anxiety and tire problems:
After reaching about 10km mark on the way the panic creeped in. I was beginning to overthink that I would have to push the bike and it would take forever to reach a petrol pump.
For these reasons, I decided to take a long detour and got fuel from my desired company.
It has become a common practice in many cities where the petrol pumps offer tire refilling of air and sometimes also have tire maintenance and repair.
After refuelling I brought my bike to the air refilling station and as soon as the service person saw my front tire, he said that there was a puncture and suggested that I go to the adjacent shop to get it fixed.
The front tire of the bike had been losing air at a faster rate than the rear tire and I had it in my mind to get it fixed later in the month, who would have known that the time was now?
I went to the adjacent tire repair shop the person started looking for a hole in the tire and found it pretty fast. It took him hardly 5 mins to fix it. I got the bike ready and left for the Kovalam Beach.
Getting back on road:
In the beginning part of my journey, I had to travel with a lot of traffic since there was some metro construction going on, and the day being Christmas the traffic was more pronounced and denser.
After traveling for about 7-8 km, I reached a point where I had to take a turn and join the state highway, previously it was on the city roads;
which were good but pretty crowded and some sections had bad roads due to the construction going on beside them.
Whereas the state highways are much wider with pretty roads which allows for a better riding experience and also for some decent speeds (50-80 kmph).
The journey from there on was quite effortless and I had to just follow the directions and according to them, I would reach my destination in about half an hour to 45 minutes.
Taking break:
On my way, I took a break on a bridge that seemed to be closer to the Kovalam Beach that I was headed to and also there were some water sports along the cost-line for amusement purposes, I was fascinated to watch jet skis, speed boats, and other rides, I wished to try one of these but never found how to reach it.
Anyways I resumed my journey and the Koavalam Beach was now 3 km from the bridge and I had reached it quite fast.
Kovalam Beach:
I found a good parking spot, parked the bike, locked the helmet, and headed straight to the “Blue Flag Kovalam Beach”. It being a blue flag beach there was an entry fee of 20 rupees. I paid the fee and walked to the shore.
The Kovalam Beach was surprisingly clean, for a guy who had gone to the Marina beach and Thiruvalluvar beach. There was no spec of plastic and the only thing shining in the sand were some dried twigs from the shrubs nearby.
I went to an empty place as I didn’t want to disturb any family or couples. As I sat down on my shoes the sand felt smooth and the water sloshing in the tiny pebbles on the sand felt really good. A source of calmness spread across my body and I felt calm.
I put my backpack down near my shoes and went to walk in the water. The water felt cool for the hot afternoon. As I mentioned the sand was really smooth and almost felt like it was placed there artificially. I still cannot say whether it was placed there purposefully or the Kovalam Beach was really clean.
I played for some time in the water and soon felt a little rumble in my stomach for I hadn’t eaten much since morning and I was already time for snacks in the evening.
Heading Home:
I went back to my backpack, wore my shoes, drank some water, and started heading back to the bike. The Kovalam Beach deserved some appreciation for the cleanliness it offered and had to be visited again for some more fun.
I headed back home and faced more and more traffic I closed on the city as the same highway is used for going to Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry.
I reached home soon and, on the way, home I picked up my lunch from MacDonalds some fries and a burger as it was the weekend and Christmas some celebration had to be done.
PS: These types of blogs are in my experience category and don’t really have any purpose and I just enjoy sharing my experiences with you guys.
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