The Backwaters of Kerala, India - Poovar

This hub briefly portrays my experience at one of the backwaters of Kerala last month (May 2012) during my visit to India. I have added pictures that I was able to capture during my cruise along the backwaters!!! I hope you enjoy reading this as alongside you have pictures to exactly see what I am talking about.

The backwaters in Kerala are a chain of lakes and lagoons that are interconnected and lie along the Arabian sea. These are formed at the mouth of rivers that flow down the Western Ghats.

It was a totally different and fantastic first experience. The journey began in a small village called Karaikattu, which has one of the so many backwaters in Kerala. We hired a boat towards Poovar a small fishing village originally. We cruised through the river with wild trees and shrubs, mangroves and coconut groves on either side. The wild trees included a few like the wild mangoes and pineapple which I have never seen before and we were made aware that they were inedible due to their poisonous nature. We could sight a few birds like the cormorants, and storks not many as it was not the season, probably too early for the migratory birds to come in. Cruising along the river, listening to the songs of birds, and rustling of leaves in the coconut groves, we could witness local residents having fun in the river water.

Cruising along, we reached Poovar, a breathtakingly beautiful island, a place where the river joins the sea water forming a beautiful estuary. It looked like a lake and the boundary between the river and the sea looked like a two sided sandy beach. I could not for sometime figure out the difference between the river and the sea. The tides in the sea were not too high and the kids had a fantastic time playing in the sandy beach as the waves kissed the beach. The beach was neat and tidy unlike a few beaches around that area, must be because we do not have any stalls around that area for people to throw away waste. However it is a natural place where you can enjoy the beauty of nature, especially the sea, the river and the trees around, as there are no artificial man made theme parks or other leisure activities in the place where we landed. The reason must be the fishing activities, and I could see a large number of fishing boats by the beach.

On the way to and back from the beach, we could see a few resorts and restaurants, and we were advised by the guide that we could place our order before start of our journey and have them ready when we arrive at the restaurant. We could also see people on recliners outside the resorts, enjoying the weather and the beauty outside. There were many other groups of people cruising alongside too.

One another most important thing that I witnessed was the boathouses. It has been my long time wish to holiday on one of those, though it still has not happened!!! There were many along the shores of the river close to the estuaries and we did see a few cruising along the river too. These boathouses I believe are rented depending on the needs of the tourists as in the number of day they need it for and their budget, and are provided with all requirements and furnishings. There are a few other island-villages nearby which are individually famous for various things like martial arts, herbal medicines etc.

Unlike other holiday or honeymoon destinations, Poovar is not very crowded and you can spend time all by yourself or with your loved ones, without any disturbance from the public. You can choose a spot to spend your time and just stay there for hours watching the wonderful changes of nature.