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 Chunnambar is an easy name to
forget but as a friend suggested it was a great beach to
head to, close to Pondicherry.
Not many buses go that far so hire a cab. Its a short
drive along the sea front Groubert Avenue with its wide
promenade, the sea twists and turns along the
Pondicherry- Cuddalore road. You will pass cemeteries
with impressive tombstones. Shops. Women sitting on the
road with baskets containing flowers, vegetables and the
bright yellow bananas.
FACT FILE |
 Fly to Pondicherry and then you
could drive up to Cuddalore and on to Chunnambar.
For more information get in touch with Tourism
Information Centre:-40 Goubert Avenue,
Pondicherry 605001, India. Telephone: 0413 - 339495,
334575 Fax: 0413 - 358389
Email:
tourism@tourisminpondicherry.com
Or Seagulls Backwater Resort, Cuddalore Road,
Chunnambar, Pondicherry. Tel: 0413 - 356816.
Pictures courtesy: PTTDC |
The driver should turn off onto a dirt track that will
lead you to the beach. A few feet further on there is a
boathouse and beyond it, the backwaters. Cross the
blue-green waters in a boat to recah the beach, finally.
This beach here is known as Plage Paradiso. You will
pass fishermen in their slender palm-tree rafts balance
like graceful tightrope artists, the whispering groves
of coconut and formidable thorny bramble. Till you see
on the horizon, a small sandy bar and beyond it, the
bright shade of blue.
 The
boat berths on a tiny bamboo pier, the water is teeming
with tiny black fish. A few bamboo huts spread across
the beach greet you, the empty ones can be hired for the
day or night. Fine sand, strewn with shells will give
you a sheer sensual experience. The sea is azure and
covered with white foamy waves. The small bamboo
observation deck is a good viewpoint – for the crescent
shaped beach stretches for miles on either side, with no
human habitation and amazingly clear waters.
It is not advisable to swim far out into the sea,
the undercurrent is strong here, but it is perfectly
safe to have fun in the waters close to the shore.
Here there are no crowds, no vendors, no garbage to
impinge your enjoyment of the pristine beach! Carry your
own food for only drinking water is available here. At
the mouth of the lagoon there is a small inlet from the
sea which led to the formation of the massive blue
lagoon you cross to get to the beach.
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