Post Event Write-up

Photo walk to Gingee Fort – Apr 2nd 2017 | Walk No. 22

We started off from Tambaram Railway Station at around 6 AM; 4 cars packed with enthusiastic photographers!

The journey to Gingee (pronounced as Senji in Tamil) was a little rough, with potholes and tolls hindering the easy flow of traffic, which in itself was unusually high for a Sunday morning. The weather was pleasant, but we could feel the heat rising up as the Sun started to go higher and higher.

We regrouped at a coffee shop en route, to have some much needed energy biscuits and coffee. Being the first expenditure of the day, Allwyn remembered we needed an accountant for the trip. As all of us tried to avoid his gaze, Arun came to the fore and volunteered to take up the arduous task of accounting the expenses. Thank you Arun!

As we set off again, we decided to meet up at Hotel Aryas near Tindivanam for breakfast. At around 8:30AM, we finished our hot hot Dosas and Pooris, and set out to complete the last leg of our journey.

For this stretch, we had to break away from the smooth NH 32 and cover around 30 kms of bumpy, irregular roads. But the end result was just pure visual ecstasy, as we sighted the fort walls for the first time!

The imposing hill and the magnificent fort atop it, the stone studded pathways leading up to it, the impressive smaller structures lining the bottom of the hill; all of us just stood there for a minute to take it all in.

We gathered at the base and got ready for the trek to the top of the hill. Many of us started clicking right away, which was just why we had come here after all! The time was 9:30 AM and thus we began our photo walk!

The road leading to the hill was guarded on both sides by intricately designed huge stone walls. As we walked through them, we came across a couple of arches, which finally opened up to this huge landscape, which was the base of the hill.

The landscape featured a carefully maintained garden, an Elephant tank, a granary, a clock tower type building, lots of architecturally brilliant pathways, and a lot of photoops! All of us were walking here and there to make the most of the photo walk, and to make every click count!

Ø  The granary was dark inside, and had a small hole in the ceiling. Sunlight passed through this hole and landed on the floor of the granary, which presented to be a great photo opportunity!

 

Some of us stayed at the base for a little while longer, while the rest of us started walking up the hill.

But before we could even start climbing the first steps, there came a warning sign…

 

As we huffed and puffed our way through the winding stone steps, looking back out onto the landscape was the sole relief. Every 10 feet we climbed gave a whole different perspective to the scene!

 

We came across small temples, big cannons, a whole lot of monkeys, Pappus seeds flying around, and a whole lot of architectural wonders, still intact and perfectly maintained.

 

 

We had to climb a lot before we could reach the top, but it turned out to be the most rewarding experience of all!

The view of the landscape from the top of the fort was just amazing! Everything looked so tiny from up above, it made us feel big. And it gave us a great opportunity to take some Win-XP Wallpaper worthy shots!

Climbing down from the fort was easier compared to climbing up, although the heat increased the difficulty by around 20 times. And so most of us were tired from all the walking (I mean the non-trekkers ofcourse :P).

It took us around 3 hours to complete the entire photo walk, after which we gathered at the base to have some refreshing watermelons and juices.

After taking a group photo with the fort in the backdrop, we headed back towards Tindivanam for lunch.

Post lunch, we had a small Intro session wherein each of us described what this photo walk meant to us. It was a great opportunity to bond and know each person’s point of view.

After talking for about an hour, we started back to Chennai and our homes.

In all, this was a great photo walk!

Although a bit tiring, it was totally worth it!

Big thanks to Allwyn, Navanee, Saravanan and PK for organising this wonderful photo walk.

And that’s a wrap!

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