Day 2 - Sholebay Bliss

Plan for the day is to leave Port Blair, ride from south Andaman to middle Andaman, total of 58KM cycling followed by TT ride (support vehicle) crossing Jarawa reserve forest and covering the last leg in a jetty to reach Baratang.

Route is Port Blair – Tushnabad – Ferrargunj – Wimberlyganj – Shoal Bay 19 – Lunch at Shoal Bay 19 – boat ride to Shoal Bay beach – TT ride (in support vehicle) – Jetty to Baratang – TT ride to Coral Creek hotel.

We pedalled out of Port Blair town, crossing suburbs, the ride itself was not by the sea or greenery but in hot sun, at least first 20 KMs. Roads were good though; we took good breaks with juice and banana at small petty shops.

Brij Krishna IIMB professor caught up with me, he, and his brother Purushotham(Puru) looked so similar and are often mistaken for twins. It was hard to distinguish them.

Brij was truly a bridge across India and America with his family still living there, while he worked passionately at IIMB. One of them even wore a t-shirt that read “Not Puru”, not sure if it was Brij or Puru himself playing tricks with their identity. They were much fit for their age (58 & 60), regular tennis players, kick starting their first cycling trip at Andaman learning to use the gears on day 1. Everybody gets inspired/pulled-into such adventure activities by somebody close, for Puru and Brij it was their nephew Samarth, for Dr.Amritha it was her crazy doctor friends(in her own words) Dr.Vimalin and Dr. Ajith, for teacher Shwetha it was her friend Nagraj.

Local government authorities of Wimberly Ganj have task at hand, roads were bad in Wimberly Ganj. Past Wimberly Ganj, scenery completely changed as we entered Shoal Bay, opening into a tropical rain forest. Lush greenery, soothing scenery was much needed, ride itself was like ride in Western Ghats but more pleasant with slight drizzle, typical of rain forest.

I was mostly riding solo, internally calculating on pending distance until I caught up with Shwetha & Nagraj, enjoyed the drizzle and moved on. Shoal Bay was an area segmented with numbers and apparently Shoal Bay 19 was the end point for our ride.

Chidu after finishing his ride and lunch rode back to check on me, joined me for the last 2 KMs. Finally, I reached the lunch point, helped myself with boiled rice (unlike fancy rice coated with oil), dhal providing us the required protein, tasty vegetables, devoured many crunchy pappads without any guilt, can’t ask for more.

We hopped onto the waiting boats, across the stream of freshwater amidst mangroves just relaxing after our ride. It was a short 10-minute ride when we joined unassumingly, into the open

sea.

 

When you have no expectations the experience is bliss, it was a treat to souls and eyes, lone long-gone tree with its dried-up bark across the white sand, against the backdrop of bluish sea, just for us.

Excited we ran across the secluded beach, Raj announced that we had only 10 mins assuring us of more such heavens, Prateek, Puru and quite a few still jumped into the sea and swam across.

Raj had to remind us as otherwise we will miss the convoy, convoys are required to cross the Jarwar reserve area (45KM) and have specific timing, at frequency of twice a day. Andaman grand trunk road connects south Andaman to middle and north Andaman, cuts across the reserve forest area of Jarwar tribes, indigenous people of Andaman. This road is important for the island’s connectivity as the alternate via sea takes more time. But it breaches the lives of tribes intruding into their space, heard stories of how tribes were treated as tourist attractions, promoting human safari. Private tour vehicles like us needed approvals for individual persons, well taken care by Dheeraj. We crossed in our TT (support vehicle) the reserve forest area, following rules of no stopping, windows closed always and strictly no photos. Tribes do come out occasionally to the main trunk road, and I was hoping to get a glimpse of their rare appearance. Chidu and Raj Kiran spot a tribe, but I missed it narrowly despite  sitting next to them. 

All our cycles were meanwhile packed and loaded by Rajshekar single handedly into the second support vehicle, to follow us until Baratang. We took another jetty to reach Baratang, across river past scenic mangroves.

Ramita police staff at Baratang jetty point was very warm sharing slice of life at Baratang, life that follows sun, settling down after dusk, on her career from Port Blair to Nicobar and now to Baratang, on Jarawa kids (she referred them as black beauties), their smartness, on their hindi proficiency and inviting me to settle in Baratang. In our fast-paced mainland lives, our work and schedules rob us of warm human connects making us more efficient human machines!

We checked into a nice cosy coral creek hotel at Baratang, except for limited wifi there was no signal. Run by Keralities, hot and tasty phulkas served at a long table accommodating all of us, served as perfect set-up for chit-chats. Dr. Amritha an outspoken doctor, her analogy on doctor consultations/second opinions to online shopping (check & compare prices at amazon Vs flipkart, etc.,) was quite amusing.

Highlight of the evening briefing was, tomorrow being a ride free day we will have at least 3 hours of beach at Long Island. Cyclist Uma Reddy’s teen son Dharshan added all the humour needed for briefing, not sure if they full-filled mother son bonding over the trip, but sure he built a good bond with Prateek (at least 10 years senior to him), strengthened by their football craze. Prateek was a very open next gen coorgi lad, who just finished his degree and was motivated by his professor (Raj Kiran) to the tour. The way he connected with a young teenager was a welcoming surprise. Night was filled with music and dance, from Salsa to huli aatam(Karnataka tiger dance) by Dheeraj.