A short and snappy Cycling tour of Kerala’s backwaters at the onset of the spring season is a fine way to make your South India biking holiday special.
Spring is around the corner. With the onset of the month of March, the flora and fauna in the coastal state of Kerala sprout with new life. Farmers break the ground for planting new coconut seedlings. Varieties of tea and spices are sown just in time for the nourishing monsoon rains. Around this time, the weather is pleasant enough for a holiday traveller to explore Kerala on a bike.
The options are plenty. You can set out for a long and elaborate biking tour of South India, covering the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Or you may choose a two-state tour running close to two weeks. But if you are hard pressed for time and want to experience the ‘God’s Own Country’, Kerala, within a week, you can do worse than head out on the short Kerala backwaters cycling tour.
This biking tour of Kerala is particularly suited to those looking for daylong recreational cycling in beautiful surroundings and restful evenings on pristine beaches and luxury houseboats.
The charming seaside town of Fort Kochi is a good place to start your Kerala biking holiday. It is just an hour-long drive from the Cochin International Airport and a fine spot to shake off your jet lag. Besides, Fort Kochi is one of the most popular tourist destinations of Kerala. There is a lot here to occupy you for days, let alone an evening. A long history of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial occupation gives the town a unique blend of several European cultures, and there is even an old synagogue built by the early Jewish migrants.
History buffs would do well to visit a 16th century church where the Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama – the man who first discovered the sea route from Europe to India – was buried before his remains where exhumed and taken to his homeland. A stroll along the seafront reveals the intriguing Chinese fishing nets, a leftover influence of ancient trade with China. You may even go for a short biking tour of Fort Kochi and spend a whole evening exploring the markets, watching the architecture of buildings, or trying out some of the town’s famous restaurants.
A day or two at Fort Kochi puts you in holiday mood and sets you up for the 43-km-long cycle ride to the Marari beach. It’s an easy-breezy outing on a road that runs south along the coast of Kerala. The setting is gorgeous. To your right are the lapping blue waters of the Arabian Sea and to your left the fishing villages and coconut plantations. A few hours of biking is all it takes to get to Marari beach which – believe it or not – has been rated by National Geographic as one of the world’s top five hammock beaches.
An evening of lounging around in a hammock and watching the sun set on the azure waters is one of the many ways you may pamper yourself at Marari Beach. Many beach resorts here offer luxurious stay and they have in-built lily ponds, coconut groves and organic farms. A budget traveller has the option of cheaper accommodation as well. The beach itself is beautiful and not as crowded as some of the other popular beaches of Kerala, but it does see good footfall on the weekends.
A biking buff may spend a day cycling around the quiet rural hamlets in the vicinity of Marari, but there is also plenty of opportunity to do that on the road to Alleppey, which marks the start of Kerala’s famed backwaters. The twenty kilometres of cycling from Marari beach to Alleppey is no stretch on your legs and it winds through villages that make you want to stop and take in the local culture. Coconut farming and small handicraft industry thrive in these parts. You may stop by at one of the villages to see the coconut husks being processed and then spliced into coir ropes, mats, and mattresses. You may while away the hours with the friendly fishermen of Alappuzha.
Biking in rural Kerala is a pleasant and leisurely experience and the cycling ride to the backwaters of Alleppey is particularly a relaxed and fun outing.
Alleppey is famous for the houseboat rides in Kerala backwaters. These backwaters are an intricate, almost maze-like network of interconnecting lakes and lagoons that lie along the coast and stretch up to half the length of Kerala. They cut through villages, they surround small islands and they run alongside paddy fields and coconut groves. A biker is well advised to check into one of the houseboats and book a tour of the backwaters. These houseboats offer comfortable accommodation with basic amenities and a variety of tour packages of Kerala backwaters.
If time permits, you may lounge around on the Alappuzha beach or visit any of the temples and churches in this town. The religious-minded should particularly visit the Champakulam Church on the biking trail from Alleppey to Kumarakom.
One of the oldest churches in India, the Champakulam was first established in AD 427 and rebuilt many times over the centuries. A rock cross dating back to AD 1151 is one of its main attractions, and several archaeological artefacts and rock inscriptions point to the church’s rich and ancient history. Pope Francis declared Champakulam as a basilica in 2016 and since then the church has acquired a sort of pride of place among the faithful.
A short stopover at the church makes for a welcome break in the 40 km of bike ride from Alleppey to Kumarakom, which is another hotspot of Kerala backwaters tourism.
Kumarakom is situated in the backdrop of Kerala’s largest lake, the Vembanad, and, like Alleppey, it offers a slew of houseboat packages. To avoid repetition, a biker may go on a canoe ride in the canals of Kumarakom or do a short birdwatching tour in Kumarakom bird sanctuary, where one may spot a lot of the western ghat endemics.
A daylong stay at Kumarakom rounds off the Kerala backwaters holiday.This tour takes no more of your time than a week and it gives you a pleasant Kerala vacation involving bike rides to some of the best tourist hotspots of south India.
And the month of March is the best time to do it.
