Skip to main content

Ross and Smith Islands

There are huts constructed for shade.

tourists can rest here

Ross Island

The disappearing sand bar

Ferry to Ross and Smith

Smith island on the other side
Ross and Smith are twin islands joined by a sandbar, which disappears during high tide.  These islands have to be reached by a boat.We took a boat from Aerial bay and spent the whole day on Ross island. We had some packed food and drinking water. We also took our tent along and pitched it on the sands. It was a super fun day. Its amazing, the kind of marine life that you can see if you venture out a little into the sea. From the beach itself, I saw ray fishes and several other schools of fishes I don't even know the name of. There were a group of marine biologists who were taking pictures underwater and they showed me Sponges, sea lion and an octopus. I was pretty freaked out that these creatures were just a quarter mile away from where I was swimming.The sea was a clear blue and we were lucky that it wasnt raining.We landed on the islands at around 11 and sent the boat back. We spent the entire day swimming and snorkeling, occasionally resting in the tent.It was a day well spent.
If you're going to Ross and Smith, carry your own food and water. Please bring back the containers with you. Its important not to litter because the marine life is endangered,due to plastic and metal. The boat to and from Ross and Smith costs around rs2500/-. If you make the boatman wait, he'll start charging you an extra 200 from the 3rd hour. We sent the boat back, because we intended to spend the whole day there.It helped that we had booked a rest house in Diglipur and had our own ride.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Collinpur and Kurma Dera beaches

Situated at around 30-35 km from Port Blair is a beautiful,sandy,shallow beach called Collinpur. Since its situated a little away from the city, the beach is cleaner and quieter. Its covered by dense vegetation and you wont know that you're near the sea until you actually see it.  Its a long stretch flanked by a hill on one side and since the gradient is not steep,its ideal for swimming and sunbathing. The main attraction for me was however, another beach called Kurma Dera. This beach is situated a little farther from Collinpur and is more deserted and quieter. The car couldn't go upto the beach and we had to walk nearly 2-2.5 km to reach the beach. The walk was through a very muddy and slushy path along a creek andd I expected to see a crocodile pop out any second. In fact, the second time we went to these beaches, we heard of crocodile attacks on the same day corresponding to our visit. Kurma means shells and I found the most amazing shells on this beach. And what surprise

Kasavu Saree

I fell in love with the kasavu saree the moment I laid my eyes on it.Its such a great combination of simplicity and grandeur. I used to call it the Kerala saree or Mallu saree. It was much later that I cam to know that it was called kasavu saree, kasavu being the golden border that runs along the length of the saree. This is the traditional  handloom saree that Malayali women wear for festive occasions irrespective of religion or caste. I have seen women wearing this saree for temple festivals as well as when going to church. Its a completely white saree with a thin golden border. Sometimes threads of other colours are woven along the border and sometimes there are patterns etched on the pallu. But the overall look is simple. Onam celebrations Kasavu Saree My friend told me that earlier (in days of yore), women(especially women of lower castes) were not allowed to wear an upper garment and the saree was just worn as a skirt. I believe this was the just cause of a revolution and subs

Uruli, Cooking vessel

When I first came to Kerala, I used to see these round vessels (of various sizes) kept by local people, mainly at doorways or gates. And I thought to myself "such aesthetical people.So nicely they adorn their doorways with fresh flowers".I asked the name and came to know that they were called " URULI ".It was much later I found out that these vessels are actually used for cooking. Fish and other non vegetarian items are cooked on Uruli . Earlier these vessels would be put directly on the fire on an earthen stove. Now they use it on gas stoves too. Most Malayalis do not cook in urulis anymore.Rather they fill it with water, put some flowers and put it on the doorstep. You can buy small earthen or brass urulis from Broadway, to take as souvenirs. The largest Uruli is displayed at a shop in Fort Kochi.