Weekend on an Island - Part II

Lately I'm not finding enough time to complete this one and would shortly sum up in this one. We went to the hotel from station and left for the port to catch our ferry at around 6 am after refreshing and recharging ourselves for the rest of the day. In the beginning we ended up at the wrong port and had already given some "GHOOS" (bribe) to the security guard to let our rented vehicle get in and allow to drop and dump our luggage at the nearest point to the ferry. But all in vain. We started our journey to the island from "Nava Bandar" (New Port) in a ferry which took around 1.5 hrs to reach Pirotan Island. As it was Bakri Eid and no fisherman boats (small) were available and eventually we had to jump into 3 feet deep water from our ferry to reach the shore. Started playing Volley ball and had a good time in the shallow water of the shore finding some dead corals. We're the only humans on the island and were absolutely free to roam around. Later in the afternoon we spent some time in the built-up tents on the island and had our lunch (snacks). Followed with a visit to the Light House and got a better understanding from the care taker about its working and functioning. It was around 3 pm, the water had returned back with the low tide and it was a perfect time for the Coral walk. The care taker became our guide and took us for the coral walk in the Arabian Sea. We went almost 3 kms into the sea which otherwise is not possible without the low tide. The low tide and high tide has a cycle of 12hrs and the start and end timings depend upon the lunar period. It was amazing walking in the Arabian Sea and exploring the water species. We came across some fishes like puffer and other small swarms of black fish, jelly fish, variety of Coral - star, green, finger, etc. some ocean flowers, prawns, crabs, octopus. We were not feeling to move back, but had to return back from the walk around 6 pm as the cycle of tide was getting over and high tide would soon bring the water back to shore. We also had to get onto our ferry which was landed on the ocean floor 1 km away from the shore. We got into the ferry at around 7 pm and slowly slowly the water had started filling and made the boat float. The most part of the adventure began with this. The boat was very inclined on the one side and with the water filling it had started swinging on the either side and we were struggling to keep the balance of boat by moving from one side to the other side of the ferry. It was very much dark and nothing was visible except the the lights been flashed from the Light House. The high tide was on its high which kept us on high with boat stumbling in the waves created by the high current of the water because of the high tide. All were holding onto their nerves lying on the floor of the ferry. Each and every moment made us felt sinking in the sea with the swinging of the ferry in the high tide. Only one bravo Kailash was sleeping as nothing was happening around him, the reason he gave for the sleep was the fear (none of us could understand how a man could sleep because of the fear.) It took us around 3 hrs (in comparison to 1.5 hrs in the morning) to reach to the port from where we had started. It was midnight, we got our rented vehicle to the port and reached hotel at around 2 am in the morning after having our dinner (snacks). The next day on Sunday (November 29, 2009) we left for Khijadia Bird Sanctuary which is 15 kms away from Jamanagar. A haven for the bird watchers which has many Indian and Foreign birds nesting. And on the same day night we had our train back to Ahmedabad and Baroda.

It was a great time spent with the old folks. Hope we have much more of this to relax and enjoy ourselves away from the madness and chaos of the city, undue work pressure and the conking of the managers bull shitting on our head!!

Thanks to Sarang, DG and Jignesh who organised and managed the weekend excursion!!

I'm also posting the links of the moments captured at both Pirotan Island and Khijadia Bird Sanctuary:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashish1712/PirotanIslandNationalMarineParkJamnagar#

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashish1712/KhijadiaBirdSanctuaryJamnagar#

P.S. Pirotan Island is a wonderful place to visit. Its the only kind of National Marine Park in Asia having varieties of ocean species. It's most famous for the Coral Walk!

P.S.S. You need to have a group of at least 10-15 as ferry ride is quite costly. It's more of unexplored and deserted island with no facilities and basic amenities available. One needs to carry the food and water which lasts for the whole day. One also need to take the Permit from the forest department, customs and port officer!!

Bike Trip to Mt. Abu

An excursion after a very long period of time....

It was weekend, and had to freak out. There was a cricket match organized from our office. I was bugged off and wanted to stay away from the madness of the city and it had been a long while I had an outing and that too a biking trip. We were planning to have from last month and hopefully managed with this one. Four of us Gowri, Sarang, Abhinav and Me (on two bikes) were emphatic to have a bike trip and planned one for Mt. Abu. It was almost 250 kms from Ahmedabad. Three of them started from Baroda on Saturday morning. As per the plan they were supposed to reach Ahmedabad by 7 am from where I was joining them. But just at the time of expedition Gowri's bike had a Flat tyre and our trip was delayed by almost 3 hours. They reached ahmedabad at around 9.30 am and after a break we started for Mt. Abu at 10.20 am.

We went through Mehasana, Siddhpur, Palanpur and to Abu. It was great time riding our bike's at a top speed of 110 kms/hr. Speeding up at the maximum and racing between the two was awesome. Where Gowri used to play some hide and seek on the highway. The highway was beautiful especially from Palanpur to Abu. A grand scenery could be easily viewed from the highway with fog covering the Aravalies.

We reached Mt. Abu at around 5.30 pm. Brisk of wind in weather made us relaxed and full with zest on the way from Abu road to Mt. Abu. It was great riding our bikes in the Ghat areas of the Mt. Abu

After having some rest we directly went to the sunset point and had a splendid view climbing to one of the secluded rocks, thanks to the pop-corn boy who showed us the isolated place. None of us was willing to get down after the sunset as we all were enjoying the calmness and serenity of the place away from the unharmonious and grisly sights of the city. Especially away from the workplace, I still remember Gowri saying "kitna accha hai yha, na koi target, na koi deadlines, na koi project aur na koi manager". Atleast we had nothing for mutiny at the weekend against the resistance of undue workload and pressure especially during the regression and recession days... :)

Returned from the sunset and it was already dark, people were turning back from different sight seeing spots and building traffic along the streets and honking of horns from the vehicles once again resembling to the madness of the city which made the cool and calm atmosphere unharmonious and noisy. The streets were all lit up with people wandering around the shops and restaurants fully packed with huge queue's awaiting their turn to grab some edible food after a nice outing at different spots around the Mountains.

After having some sweet delicacies at different restaurants we turned back to our rooms and had a good sleep for the rest of the night. The next day we started moving to two other beautiful spots. One being the pilgrimage of Delwada Jain Temples and other one Gurushikar, an another religious place having a temple of Dattatraya which is located at one of the highest peak around the mountains. The sculpture of Delwada Jain Temples was simply amazing and awesome. It took 14 years to build the temples at a cost of 18 millions and 53 lacs in the year 1031 A.D. with 1400 masons and 1200 labours.

Finally we started moving back at 12.30 pm on Sunday for Ahmedabad. We made it to Ahmedabad at 6.00 pm with an hour and half break at Palanpur for lunch. It was bit risky riding our bikes against the winds blowing at almost 40 kms/hr drifting our bikes on the highway. But that didn't impede our passion from riding at almost 95-100 kms/hr and reached Ahmedabad effectively in 4.30 hours covering 250 kms. And from Ahmedabad Gowri, Sarang and Abhinav left for Baroda.

Overall it was a great trip and all four of us enjoyed it. In hindsight awaiting in frisson for much more trips coming up with the rainy days ahead and I (hopefully all of us) would not rebuff the idea of organising such wonderful trips.