🙂 Pristine, unspoilt beaches and diving. This is what South East Asia was like in the 1990s….
🙁 International Airport being built so the end of a special time is approaching…
We had enjoyed a full 2 hours sleep after transferring from Bandhavgarh to Delhi to Port Blair via Kolkata! Every single person from Delhi disembarked at Kolkata and the new arrivals boarded. This lovely lady indicated at her boarding card and I let her sit next to me … it was only when someone pointed out that she had their seat that I realised she was illiterate and had actually been asking me for help where to sit – i felt really bad – she was so sweet.
We were met be a representative who said that the ferry office would only be opening in two hours so he dropped us off in Port Blair centre – most places were still closed. The humidity soared so we found a little shop with fans to seek refuge from the intesnsity of the heat (and it was still very early!).
We had two pepsis and two bags of crisps which came to less than 80p!
We were collected and transferred to the ferry … amusing variations of toilets – note you can squat on either! 🙂 Very clean.
The ferry was comfortable and air conditioned. Bollywood love songs played the entire time (quite fun) and annoying children banged the backs of our seats for the entire two hour journey.
We arrived at Havelock and were transferred to our Barefoot Island Resort accommodation.
At Barefoot Havelock we were welcomed with delicious coconut water. It is a rustic but welcoming environment with cottages set in the forest. Turquoise water and white sand – really pristine – we were often the only people on the entire long stretch of beach!
The sunset was spectacular. We thought that they had said that they serve cocktails at sunset – well, they served chai masala tea – still lovely!
Unfortunately we did not notice the small sandflies all over our bodies at sunset – we suffered for two weeks! Still oblivious we enjoyed some delicious whisky sour sundowners…
Dinner was delicious with lovely waiters…we enjoyed a drink on our balcony with a stray dog who had adopted us.
we were up early the next morning and collected for our snorkelling trip … in hindsight we should actually have booked another two dives as the snorkelling site is a bit damaged. We did however have a fantastic octopus sighting – he was hunting and changing colour and shooting between the coral – stunning! Our guide for the next three days was Akshay Manchekar from Barefoot Scuba Resort – he was just amazing. So knowledgeable and passionate about the ocean. This is a professional and well run establishment with good ear and high safety standards – highly recommended diving centre. We stupidly managed to leave our underwater camera behind every single day but at least they took photos on the snorkel!
Akshay told us that most of the policeman n Andeman were sent to do duty here because they had committed offences on the mainland so they were all unhappy and angry! This is the only place in the world where a person who is mot qualified / cannot swim (!) is able to do a dive! They are held by an instructor as per pic below – crazy or what?! We saw some young barracuda and plenty of snappers.
The most fascinating thing to watch is the symbiotic relationship of the shrimp and the gobi – amazing to see. The shrimp has poor eyesight and relies on the gobi as a ‘lookout’ for danger and hides when the gobi flicks its fins. In return the gobi keeps digging the hole and eats parasites – LOVE nature!
We headed back and enjoyed lunch followed by a lazy afternoon on the beach – which was completely deserted again! Divine. Just the two of us … DIVINE.
Back for more food and sundowners – whisky sours was all that was available as they hadn’t received their weekly shipment of beer and wine from the mainland!
I then headed for a magnificent massage while Paul had a snooze…we then did the forest walk which was simply stunning. The ancient trees and mangroves were so peaceful and beautiful. Very special.
Another stunning sunset with just us on the beach! The hermit crabs kept us entertained for ages! They had found a large shell and the bigger crabs were trying to switch shells…
We headed back for sundowners, shower and dinner. We had been moved to the ultra luxury cottage which had high a high roof and a big bathroom.
After lunch we headed to the opposite end of the beach to snorkel that we usually spent time at as we were told that there were turtles on the reef. On the way we saw loads of soldier crabs … the soldier crab eats the thin coating of detritus on sand grains. Sand grains are scraped up with the downward pointing pincers and brought to the mouthparts that then sift out any tiny food particles. The shifted sand is then discarded in a little ball leaving circular patterns in the sand – fascinating.
We went for a snorkel but that was shortlived as we noticed two little rat bags trying to get int our bags – we screamed at them and they ran off – once we got out of the water we could see our bag had been opened and discarded. Luckily our phones and money were rolled up in our caps separate to the bag…. grrrrr. We headed back for some more cocktails…
The next day was a repeat – more great diving, followed by relaxing on the beach followed by a nap and cocktails and dinner! We were suppose to have another night here but the airline had cancelled our flight as they told us that the airport was closed to work on the international airport. Another British couple had just arrived and we thought their dates were odd as they fell within. the closures that we had been notified about…. well’ the next afternoon we bumped into them at the airport as they had had to leave immediately after calling where it was confirmed that their flights were indeed cancelled – felt so sorry for them. We were collected at 06h00 the next morning for our 08h00 ferry – Bye Bye Andaman – AMAZING.
Go to: India
