Kayak Trip to Kumarakom (24 kms , DEC 2015)

In the recent years Kerala has rose to the international attraction of travelers willing to spend their valuable time. Kerala, a small southern state of India is famous for its natural beauty, Ayurveda, Coconut, Spices, Tea, Rubber Plantations etc. Kerala is blessed with 44 rivers and 34 lakes.

I was lucky to have been born in this beautiful place and majority of my childhood I spent on the banks of one of the rivers in Kerala, the Meenachil. The Meenachil River is 78 kms in length and ends in the Vembanad Lake. The Vembanad Lake is the largest lake in Kerala and the longest in India.

All my life I used to wonder about the river. I had no much clue about the river or the lake. My forefathers lived on the banks of this river and it provided fresh water and food for generations. When my house was extended the raw materials were transported to our house on big boats through this river. The infrastructure has developed and now the newer generation is less dependent on the river. It was my childhood dream to explore the river and get answers to all my questions. My house is situated in Varissery (9.6059648, 76.5138286), 16kms upstream of the Vembanad lake. In order to explore the river I bought a Kayak in 2013 and I used to paddle in and around Varissery. Recently (Dec 2015) I bought a second kayak.

                My relative Mr. Anish, (who is equally passionate about the river as I am) used to accompany me on small kayaking trips. One day I shared with him the idea of paddling the kayaks to the Vembanad Lake. The same moment Anish extended his complete support and agreed to join me in the kayak trip to Vembanad Lake. Now I got a kayaking partner, next is home work. The home work included proper planning, some practice, getting information from local people, understanding the routes, understanding the risks involved, things required, weather forecast, essential tools etc.

                We set the start point as my house (Varissery) and the destination as Cocobay resort  in Kumarakom. The total distance to be covered was 24 Kms. 24 kms was a huge target for us since we had experience paddling in the river and the maximum distance covered(in a day) during our previous kayaking expeditions was 6kms. From our previous kayak expeditions we calculated the max speed of our kayaking to be 4kms/hour. Out of 24kms, 16km is through river and the remaining 8 kms is through the Vembanad Lake. We selected 19^th Dec 2015 (Saturday) for our trip. Based on the data available we selected 3km/hour as the average cruising speed and the expected total time as 8 hours to reach the destination (Cocobay Resort). We discussed our plan with Mr.Unni of Cocobay Resort and we received his complete support. Since we were not much aware of the lake, we got the advice of Mr.Kuttan, who is expert speed boat driver and has more than a decade of boating experience in Vembanad Lake. We also got expert advice from Mr.Shihab who is an expert local who led numerous trips to the Vembanad Lake.

                On the breezy morning of Dec 19^th , we started our journey at 6.45am. Me and Anish had one back pack each with necessary amenities, water, food, medicine, camera, hat, gloves, etc. Since we were heading downstream we could cover nearly 4.5kms in the very first hour. We took advantage of river flow. The sun rise was at 6.38 am.

Setting the GoPro Camera

               It was a beautiful sight to watch the sun rise while paddling. The river was slightly foggy and our kayaks pierced through the fog. We were full of energy and excitement. We had no idea of the adventures awaiting us downstream. We passed the Cheriyapally church with its daily mass in progress. To our surprise, a small percentage of people still depend on the river for bathing as well as cloth washing. Soon we passed the Thazathangady Juma Masjid, which is one of the oldest mosques in India.We could see the people getting busy with their daily shopping from local shops. Senior people after their daily dose of morning walk gather in the parks for chit chat. Birds roam around in search of their daily bread.

Thazhatangady Bridge

 

Under the Thazhatangady Bridge

          In Lakes the Chinese nets were a common sight. People who stay near the river are now installing small Chinese nets to catch fish. The practice of installing Chinese nets in rivers has started recently and the owners of the Chinese nets are very much satisfied with the catch. Mr.Sadar, a local businessman is the proud owner of one such Chinese net and he recently caught a river fish weighing 5.5 kg. Once we completed the 4.5km mark, we stopped for a small 5 minute break.

Chinese net of  Mr.Sadar

                After the break we proceeded towards Kanjiram. Kanjiram is 8 kms from our start point.On the way to Kanjiram we met Mr.Shihab from whom we received valuable resources and suggestions during our planning phase. We reached Kanjiram at 9am. It took us 2hrs and 15mins to reach Kanjiram Jetty from the start point. Our plan was to stop at Kanjiram for breakfast. We had our breakfast from a small local tea shop in Kanjiram.

Breakfast @ Kanjiram

Tea shop @ Kanjiram

              There are boat services from Kanjiram Boat jetty to Alappuzha Jetty operated by Kerala State Water Transport Department (KSWTD). For any travel enthusiast, these boat service provide a cheap and effective means of exploring the lake beauty. Alappuzha is 16kms from Kanjiram Jetty. The Kanjiram is a junction where the river splits into 3. The river is no more called Meenachil, it becomes Puthiya thodu. Kanjiram Boat Jetty is in the Puthiya thodu.

Kanjiram Jetty

KSWTD boat (Kottayam-Alleppey)

                After our breakfast we continued our journey at 9.45am. We could see the paddy fields on either side of Puthan Thodu. One interesting fact is that the paddy fields are at a level lower than the river water level. Most of the workers on the paddy field were women due to the cheaper labor cost. Keralites depend on Rice for their daily nutritional needs. These paddy fields are part of Kuttanad, which is one of the very few places in the world where paddy is cultivated 4 to 10 feet below sea level. Also Kuttanad has the lowest altitude in India and is known as “The Rice Bowl of Kerala”. We could see the local toddy shops on the banks of the Puthan Thodu. The toddy is an alcoholic beverage which is made from Coconut and Palm. The Kerala Toddy shops are famous for its spicy food.

GoPro Selfie (Background Paddy field)

Country Boat @ Puthiya thodu

                As we progressed through the river, the intensity of sunrays were increasing. We were prepared for this and we had the sunscreen lotion in our arsenal. As we approach the lake, the width of the river increases. We took special care in paddling the kayak close to the shore, in case of any emergency situation arose. At around 11.45 am we entered the Pallikkayal. The waters were calm and we paddled slowly into the Vembanad Lake. We could see the House boats with tourists engaged in day cruises. Most of the tourists gazed us with astonishment and we were subject of discussion and photography for some time. The tourists waved us good bye and proceeded on their course. Our kayaks moved in zig zag manner as the House boats passed by. Some House boats had loud music playing in the background with youth performing unsynchronized dancing steps. Some other House boats had families relaxing.

Toddy shop

We passed by a small country boat with two ladies paddling by. They had fresh drinking water and some commodities loaded in their boat. We asked them the route to the Vembanad lake. In response they explained in detail the route. They mentioned that the “Daivathinte Moola” was around the corner and the Vembanad Lake starts from there. In Malayalam “ Daivathinte Moola” means God’s Corner. We actually didn’t understand the significance of the name or place. We kept paddling and we entered the Vembanad Lake. There was a mild breeze with sun shining brightly and we were happy that we completed almost 65% of the route by 2 pm. Most of the famous tourist Resorts were on our way. Some are operational and others are under construction.

A small break (Orange break)

Anish relaxing (paddy fields in the background)

Kerala house boat

As time passed by we stopped for a small break. We noticed a slight increase in the wind speed. The wind was stronger than before and in no time we were paddling again. Our aim was to reach the destination (Cocobay Resort) at the earliest without wasting any more time. The lake was getting rougher and rougher as we paddled. We haven’t experienced such waves in our previous paddling expeditions. The kayaks were flooded with water from huge waves. We could see that the small country boats were finding it difficult to proceed. Our Kayaks were designed to withstand such waves and thanks to Samudra Shipyard Ltd for their efforts.
         The wind was blowing, the waves were bigger than before. The thought and fear of sinking was haunting us. It was difficult to paddle the kayak in a parallel line to the shore. By this time we developed a strategy to say alive in this journey. Paddle the kayak at almost 45 degree angle against the wave or Paddle the kayak at almost 45 degree for the wave. After paddling almost 30 minutes using this strategy, we could safely reach Kumarakom boat jetty. We reached Kumarakom Boat Jetty by 2.30pm.The waves were comparatively less in this area where a canal from the lake leads to the Kumarakom Boat Jetty. We safely stopped for some time to discuss about the future of the journey. My kayak was fully filled with water. This made paddling difficult but made our kayak heavier and more stable. We somehow got rid of the water from the kayak. We could see our destination (Cocobay resort) but the weather was not allowing us to proceed any further. This was one of the crucial moments of our journey.  We had to make a decision whether to proceed further or stop now. We have paddled almost 20kms by now. Only distance left is hardly 4 kms and the destination in our eyesight.

Near Kumarakom boat Jetty

The lake is rough, we started paddling towards the destination ignoring the weather. Our aim was to stay focused and tackle all the obstacles both physical and mental. Thoughts of my family, parents etc. flashed through my mind. “Brother. Don’t let fear defeat you. Let’s reach the destination” : My partner reminded me. Though he is 8 years younger to me, his determination surprised me. I prayed to God Almighty to give us (Me and Anish) the strength to complete the task undertaken.  I felt a new energy and enthusiasm pumping through my veins. “Let’s do it” I shouted. It was a non-stop paddling. With all the lessons learned and our previous experience we paddled for another one hour to reach the destination. From distance we could see Mr.Unni and Mr.Kuttan waiting for our arrival. 

“Mission Accomplished”.

Destination Cocobay Resort (Photo courtesy : Mr.Unni)

Since the Lake was rough, getting to the land was a bit difficult. Getting out of the kayak was a much more difficult task. We lifted the kayak off the water and secured the kayak. We were in much relief. We both felt like Tenzing and Hillary of Kerala. All our joints in the upper body were aching. To us this journey could had ended an hour ago, we thanked God Almighty for his protection and he answered our prayers. This journey helped us boost our confidence.

Mission Accomplished (Cocobay resort in the background)

Chat with Unni (Cocobay Resort)

We were welcomed by the Cocobay Resort staff with fresh watermelon juice . We were given a heroic welcome since were the first visitors to Cocobay resort on Kayak. We felt relieved.

We later came to know that the Daivathinte Moola, is notorious for paranormal activities. Anyway we did not have any problem there. For us Daivahinte Moola was very safe. The Cocobay Resort in Kumarakom is one of the best backwater lake resorts in Kerala with facilities such as Kerala traditional kitchen, Ayurvedic massage, Yoga, Backwater cruises.....