Pulicat Bird Sanctuary, Near Sullurupeta.Andhra Pradesh.

Last week my father was in town for a couple of days. We decided to check out the nearby Pulicat Bird Sanctuary. The sanctuary starts from a place called Sullurpeta and is a pleasant 2 hour drive from Nellore. We booked an Ola Outstation from Nellore. On the way we spent time alternating between talking and napping.As it was November it was a cool,pleasant day. Quite different from the usual hot days that Nellore experiences for the majority of the year.

Pulicat lake is a brackish water lake that is spread over a huge area in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The sanctuary is situated in the Andhra area near the town of Sullurupeta, which lies on the Nellore Chennai Highway.The lake starts just outside the town. I was following Gmaps for assistance and I could see there was an island in the lake which was showing as the sanctuary. We decided to halt there. As we were going we could spot a huge flock of birds. There were maybe thousands of them and they were very near to the road. But we thought this was just the beginning and maybe there were still more birds to come ahead. At that time we did not realize how wrong we were. We moved on ahead to the island and stopped near a building complex. I went inside and inquired about the sanctuary.There was a caretaker there and he said there is a small Museum there but it was closed as it was a sunday. We spent some time there and had some snacks.

Meanwhile our driver did some asking around of his own and told there was a Dargah nearby. I looked it up on Gmaps and this Dargah was in the middle of the lake on another island nearby. So I thought why not give it a shot. I wasn't really interested in the Dargah.I just wanted to check out the location. This route starts just beside the complex cutting perpendicular to the Main road. The road was bad and the location of the Dargah even worse. It was a waste of 2 hours of our time. By the time we returned to the complex area it was beginning to get dark. So we went over to the area where we saw the birds earlier in the day and thankfully the birds were still there but they were a bit afar. Nevertheless we stopped and walked over to the edge of the lake and observed the birds.My dad had bought with him his much loved Russian binoculars. We spent an hour there looking at the birds with the binoculars. It was as if I was watching a documentary on the National Geographic or Discovery Channel.

Soon the orange skies slowly turned dark and it was time to go. We left the way we came. It was a good day I spent with my dad, the one who imbibed in me the love of travelling.

Note- The main stretch where you can spot the birds during the season is the road which runs from Sullurpeta to the main gate of ISRO. No turns anywhere. Just the main straight road.