MUZHAPPILANGAD DRIVE IN BEACH

MUZHAPPILANGAD, till a decade ago this fishing hamlet was unknown and obscure to the tourists who rarely frequented this part of the world. To the British it was synonymous with “kallummakaya” (Marine Mussel or “rock berry”) as this area gets the best variety of Marine Mussel in the whole world. The Officers from Madras Presidency travelled all the way to nearby Tellicherry to eat this delicacy of Kerala.

 One English Officer who wrote a book about this “rockberry” went to that extend that he mentioned that this (rockberry) can be consumed only during English month which had a “R” in it. In reality it was true becoz  from MAY TO AUGUST nobody eat ‘rockberry’ as it was unhealthy to eat in pre-monsoon month of May and it was impossible to get ‘rockberr’ plucked from the sea rocks as SW Monsoon will be raging in its furriest best during JUNE, JULY and AUGUST. (All these months an “R” is conspicuous by its absence. In SeptembeR there is respite from Rains and “R” also starts appearing till apiRil. (septembeR, ocotbeR, novembeR, decembeR, januaRy, febRuaRy, maRch, and apRil.

In mid 1990s someone from this fishing hamlet bought a new car and he took the daredevil act of driving it thru the beach. To his pleasant surprise it was found that he was driving this car better than in National Highways which was notorious for ‘backbone-breaking’ potholes during those days. The beach was so inviting that he even dared to move further and took the car down to the sea and still it did not get stuck anywhere, but this guy did not understand its tourist potential at all at that time. He was looking for a good road to teach his wife how to drive. He was a newly married guy and this vehicle he received as dowry. So naturally his wife was pestering him to teach her to drive. So from next day onward she was taken by her bounteous husband and she learned how to drive smartly. Now the same lady mother of 3 drives smartly in NH-17 negotiating the chocking traffic and impeccably eluding intimidating long distance buses.

But she and her husband never knew what they have discovered. But when more and more people came to know about this it became an area for free driving and this came in the notice of district authorities who examined the soil (call sand) and they endorsed the tourism department and they elevated it to the status of “Drive-in-Beach.”

It is the second longest drive-in-beach in Asia