During our Kerala trip, we planned to se Theyyam festival in Kannur and stayed around Thottada beach. This is a beautiful beach in Kannur district of Kerala, south India. This Photo Journey shares some photographs of Thottada beach and our experiences of this place.
Thottada Beach is located 2.5 km from the NH 17 which connects Kannur town and Thalassery. It's approximately 1 kilometer long beach, which is not very crowded. Lot of friegners can be seen around the beach, either playing or sun bathing. There are quite a few beach houses around Thotadda.
The Thottada river (a small one) flows into one end of the beach. There is also a dam/bund built across the river 3 decades ago to keep the fresh water from salt water. Away from the sea the river spreads to form swamps which makes a great habitat for various birds and fishes. More about the beach can also be checked at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thottada_Beach
We also stayed around the beach and hence spent most of the time around it. Early in the morning, all the fishermen boats start from the beach but you need to reach there in dark to witness the real action. I don't have any photograph from the morning when all the fishermen start their journey towards the sea.
Evenings are most happening on the beach when most of the tourists enjoy playing with waves. We also had fun watching crabs coming out from the sand-holes and picked by birds. I have a very shaky video wherein birds are continuously targeting sand-holes after the waves go off from the beach. And they target the small crabs, as they come out. These small crabs walks extremely fast but still birds win most of the time. Probably they understand the pattern well.
Kids from fishermen village can be seen playing football on Thoattada beach and many times, their game gathers lot of audience and suddenly it starts looking like a stadium.
Sunsets at Thottada beach were not very interesting :). I think goa sunsets spoiled it for us. We had very high expectations and probably it was not the right time as well. I am sure that monsoons would offer much better sunset views at Thottada beach.
Whenever we walked around the beach, we always kept an eye on these birds. Flocks of these birds kept flying around the waves. They remain closer to the wave and immediately attach small crabs who had just landed on the beach.
During our two days at Thottada beach, we noticed lot of kids using fancy equipments to build different structures. Since I was not carrying camera everytime to the beach, so I missed clicking those beautiful creations of kids.
Most of the folks in the evening wait for sunset and as sun goes down, suddenly whole beach looks empty.
Thottada beach was clearly visible from our room as well. Sounds of the sea in the evening were awesome and we spent most of our time in balcony only. But we had to switch off the lights of the balcony to avoid insects who keep wandering around the light sources.
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