NH4 road drive one road, which connects entire Andaman. It is 340 km from south to north. Chiriyatapu is southern most of Port Blair that’s where NH4 Starts and end at bottom saddle peak, which is Lamiya bay. Out of 340 kms we have covered 311 km. The remaining 29 kms is from port Blair to Chiriyatapu. Every one knows about other national highways except NH4.
First part of this journey you can catch here
Here I am going to talk about second part of journey starting from Pristine beach resort
Here I am going to talk about second part of journey starting from Pristine beach resort
DAY 2: 26/04/2017
Got up and went for run. Nice beach for run. Later had breakfast with Alex family, they are really welcoming.
Then we went see the olive Turtle hatchlings and hold themplayed with them for a while. (Click the link to watch video)
Then we went to Rose and Smith Island with Alex family. It was 15 min boat ride and then we went into seawater and enjoyed. Played volleyball. And walked on the sand bar which connects Rose and Smith Island. We were on Rose Island a big one and smith is a protected area so we need to take another permit to go there.
We didn't have a chance to go there, as we were tired from playing in sea water. Water was so warm and good to sit on seabed and have a chat.
When we took permit to Rose Island police will check for alcohol as it is banned on islands to protect the place.
Followed by we had nice lunch and he'd back to room.
We spoke to Selva hotel manager about tomorrow's saddle peak trek, he said he is going to give us packed lunch and water and guide to go up tomorrow.
We had some coffee and headed into town to pick up some supplies for tomorrow's trek.
While we were in town we popped into local market, it is very good and much more neat and organized than ours. we came back and had dinner and got out packed by breakfast and eggs. Went to bed.
DAY 3: 27/04/2017
Saddle peak trek. Started at 6 am, reached the starting point obtained permits and started walking @ 6:20 am.
Trees here are so big, a type tree called moovati in local language grows only next to sea.
After 10 min walk we crossed ranger office house on left. Route is well marked with arrows.
You will see sun and hear the sound of waves. So amazing to hear, which you don't get to see everyday.
Later we crossed a stream and came to sitting and viewpoint. We could have taken a route next to shore as tides were big we couldn't do it. But we have shore in our sight. We come across beautiful things like a tree, which opened its stem like wings as it has taken a lot of pressure from stream water. But still survived, nature at its best. Saw some creatures which are local to island. A hermit crab (see pictures).
Red arrow marks are painted on trees to point the route. Forest is so thick and dense that small lower and small trees and plants get less sunlight. So they creep on to bigger trees and climb higher by jumping and creeping on to near by trees and reach high to get sunlight.
We heard a loud and disturbing noise from trees and realized it was a small insect size of butterfly and it makes use of tree barks to echo there small noise. I couldn't take picture because they are fast and ran away. I tried to record the noise. So much background noise of waves dominating it.
We saw an Eagle, so big in wingspan. There are two native eagles, one lives in jungle with small wingspan feeds on chicken and mice and other stuff. Another lives on sea with much bigger wingspan, it feeds on big fish and other birds.
Later we stopped to collect water from stream. Water is so fresh and sweet, and cold. It runs all year. That was three km mark. We got 5 km to go.
Tired pooji ha. (Look picture).
(Playing with natural swing)
We are off from coast and picking up gradient. Sweety was loosing her motivation I had kept my promise to not loose her hand in tough times. We finally managed to reach summit.
We finally reached and Sweety got some sweet smile on face. Then we sat on porch and had sandwich and drink. Enjoyed the views and started our way down.
Sweety says she loved it and would love to do it again.
We reached summit at 9:45 am, we started at 6:30 am. So it took us 3 hours 15 min.
Started back at 10:30. Reached down by 13:20. So it took us 2 hours 50 min. We would have been a bit early; as it was Poojis first walk we took it slow and steady. She got a blister as she wore wrong foot ware.
(Natural waves)
Reached pristine, stretched our muscles took hot shower, hot food and rest. Later we came out for coffee then we slept.
People are so nice here nothing compared to anywhere in mainland India or anywhere in the world. They are not bothered about money they don't ask you money. They wrote it down and ask you at the end. I was worried and asking them to pay the bill. But they were so laid back and keep on telling me it's fine we can sort it later.
They say comfort first and enjoy and money comes later.
Elsewhere when people talk to you nice that means they need something back from you mostly money like for tips and stuff. Where as here people talk to you so nice warm and welcoming but they never expect anything from you. Don't even see a single thing ok their face to ask for money, the only thing you see is smile and warm welcome.
I hope everyone behave like this and hope we can learn from them. Food is so delicious everything was made to order and fresh from their organic farm. We had a tour of kitchen it was neat and tidy. They showed us the fresh fish "Spanish mackerel".
My Journey continues in Part 3. More of journeys can be found on http://travellershubinfo.blogspot.co.uk/