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...

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...