Exploring Port Blair
The next morning me and gold pearl bid farewell to the rest of our companions. Our intended plan was to visit the North Bay Island and the Ross Island (different from Ross and Smith island). And this too didn't happen. Wait, I'll tell you why.
(If the beginning seems a little off you know what you have to do. Go read my previous blogs to get the continuity!)
After a quick shower, we went to "Boost" for breakfast. To our delight, they had traditional South Indian Dosa and Idli with chutney and sambhar. And vadas, of course. It was delectable. And then we enquired how to reach those islands. They dropped a huge bomb on us by saying it was election day and so all the ferry service would be close. Damn it!
But we got other suggestions. We had to choose between a movie and the beaches. Guess what we chose. But there were three beaches to choose from. Corbyn Cove, Wandoor beach and Chidiya Tapu beach.
Corbyn cove was nearer so we decided to skip that. Wandoor beach was like 30-35km from our lodge. And so was Chidiya Tapu. But they were on opposite sides. So the distance between them would be 70-75 km approx. And the time was close to 11:30 a.m. Which normally would be fine but the sunset happens around 5-5:20. So, tick-tock. But we were up to the challenge.
We quickly found a bike rental from where we picked up an Activa (Again, budget travellers, remember?). After riding it for a few kms we found that the turning angle was restricted and the brakes weren't up to their full strength. That didn't deter us even a bit as we had ridden bikes in far worse conditions.
The Wandoor Beach
It took us an hour to reach there. We took some wrong turns along the way. I was the navigator. But finally, we arrived there. The route was scenic and filled with trees. We realised it was kind of a picnic spot where families would come to spend some quality time. The beach in itself was pristine. It wasn't as blue as the elephant beach but still really pretty.
But swimming wasn't allowed. We were pissed off as we had ridden for an hour and were really looking forward to the respite the waters would provide.
But they had other plans. Oh, well. And we quickly realised that if you turned into a rebel and splashed head-first into the water, you'd probably break your head. Because the waters were filled huge rocks underneath, it would be impossible to go for a swim. This was the rest of the beach, the swimming area was fine.
So we strolled leisurely along the beach shore and after a while, just sat down, breathed in the fresh air and reveled in the warmth of the sun, the soothing sound of the waves and the comfort of the sand. We sat for almost an hour and a half.
We then contemplated whether we should visit the other beach or just sit on forever. Then we found that the beach had a short trekking path and from the viewpoint, the sunset would be amazing. We couldn't not go after that.
Chidiya Tapu beach
The sunset usually occurs between 5-5:20. We started from Wandoor 2:30 reached our room, took the power bank as his phone was going to sleep, hurriedly ate some biscuits as we skipped lunch and left for Chidiya Tapu beach around 4. Hell, we were determined.
After the first 30 minutes, to our amazement, the route took us through a forest route. It was wild but it consumed a lot of time as we curved and curved not being able to accelerate any harder. Time was the one thing we didn't have. We had ample petrol, money, charge, energy basically everything except time.
And we arrived right on time. The beach was glistening as the sun was going down. And we enquired a vendor about the trekking path. He said due to election the path cannot be accessed. BAM! Another huge bomb. I mean, what was the relation between election and trekking!?
Cursing, we bought some vadas which were delicious, sat on the ledge and just relished the feeling of the beach and the sun. We saw a static boat nearby and Goldpearl got excited as apparently the sunset pic from the boat would be amazing. With the little Hindi I knew, I talked my way in and we got on the boat. I had no idea how much the boat guy understood but was glad that he permitted us. We took some beautiful sunset shots.
Having our fill, we started back to the lodge. Being the pillion rider, I started a hyper-lapse video throughout the whole jungle route. It came out beautifully.
Meeting Siva- a solo traveller
In the evening we went to meet Siva, a solo traveller who was gonna be joining us on our trip for 3 days. The meeting point was the national flag. Yes, there was a beautiful park and nearby the majestic national flag hung high on a pole.
We discussed our plan for the next day which was going to Ross and Smith island in North Andaman. We had already enquired in the bus terminal the timings. And we perfected our plan. Catch the bus at 4:30 a.m next morning which meant we had to wake up at 3. We just thought that we could sleep on the bus. Oh, how wrong we were.
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