Wander Woman

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...

Neil is a small island located a few miles away from Port Blair. Its also an hour away from Havelock. Neil is a very small island surrounded by the most beautiful corals.They say, one of the main reasons why this island was not very affected by the Tsunami tidal waves is because of the corals which stopped the waves from hitting the island. The water around this island is a mesmerising blue,also because of the corals which keep filtering the water. And the marine life!!You dont even have to dive to see that.A few metres off the beach and a snorkelling kit.In fact you can see the fishes and eels right from the jetty. You dont even have to go into the water. We started for Neil on a rain drenched morning with fear that the ferry might be cancelled because of weather conditions. Visibility was nil and the ferry was almost called off.After waiting for an hour, we finally set sail. It was dark all around and we couldnt see anything around.I've been to Neil twice after that in more plea...

journey down the creek Mangrove tunnel beware of crocodiles Limestone caves I did not know that Baratang was an island. It was only when we had to get up on the ferry,I realised that. It was on a clear morning that we took the trip to Baratang on our way to Rangat,another island.The road wound through the Jarawa Reserve, and we were lucky to spot a few Jarawas. The Jarawas are an ancient tribe of people who still live in extremely primitive conditions. They are still wary of "civilisation" and live in the forests maintaining their own way of life. It is forbidden to mix with them or even take their pictures. So, we reached the jetty and took the ferry to the other side. We were warned that the creek was infested with crocodiles and it didnt help when we had to take a speedboat from the other side to the limestone caves. the boat kept boobing up and down on the waters. But I totally forgot about it as the boat entered the mangrove tunnel. The mangroves on ei...

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 ...