Essential Andaman in 8 night / 9 days - Detailed Travelogue - Day VII

Day VII - Ross Island, Chatham Saw Mill and Chidya Tapu beach

On this day our schedule was visiting Ross Island, the oldest penal settlement, and seat of Andaman's British Administration of British India (Till Cellular Jail was built) and Chidiya Tapu Beach.

Starting the day peacefully, we got ready and reached Water Sports Jetty (the same one which we had used earlier to go to  North Bay island) which happens to be right opposite Ross Island. This time we had time in hand. We decided to use it to explore the Jetty and do photography. First important landmark we stumbled upon was Sunami Memorial. It is a memorial built to honour those who got killed in Dec 2004 Sunami.

In Remembrance of those who died in Tsunami

After visiting this memorial, we went to jetty and we both young couples decided to do little more photography.

On the Water Sports Jetty

 We got into the boat around 0930and by 0950 we were at Ross Island. Ross Island is under the administrative control of the India Navy which maintains a very small detachment of sailors on the island for administrative duties.

Arrived at Ross

Ross is where first British formal settlement was built by prisoners. Once the settlement was built the prisoners were transferred to Viper Island (Viper was the name of the British ship that got the first batch of Prisoners to Andamans).

Ross island was what a best small city could be. Chief Commissioner's Bungalow, other bungalows, accommodation for subordinate staff, A Church, Bakery, clubs, Tennis courts and above all a heated swimming pool, all this is in the era of around 1857 and thereafter. It was known as Paris of the east (should have been called little Paris though). While the jail moved from Viper to Ross to Cellular Jail, Ross remained administrative HQ till 1941 when an earth quack struck that area and damaged the buildings, after which people started abandoning that place.

Vegetation has taken over a Building

Old Boilers for  Feeding the Swimming Pool

Deer for the Company

Renovated Bakery

Coconut trees

Subordinate's Club

Introduction to Church

Stairway to Church

Church Must Have been Majestic, once upon a time

A visit to Ross really makes one feel the opulence with which the British lived at Ross. I guess many thousand miles away from their home and many hundred miles away from the main land India, they had to create a haven for themselves.

Stairway to Commissioner's Bungalow 

After visiting Ross, we returned to Jetty and took our boat back to Water Sports Jetty.  After a quick lunch at Port Blair, since we had time, we went to visit Chatham Saw Mill. A saw mill established by British in 1883, it is Asia's oldest and biggest saw mill processing the abundant timber of various types that gets produced by forests of Andaman & Nicobar. This mill can process over 18000 logs per year if work is carried out in three shifts. The mill has various sections for sorting, seasoning, cutting, etc.

Other highlights of the mill are a Timber museum having historical photographs, wood artifacts and many other exhibits.  There is also a gift shop in the mill premises selling wooden items. There is a memorial to commemorate 125 years of forestry. This was erected in 2009. There is also a Bomb pit created by a Japanese bomb dropped in 2002 (which we did not visit).

Timber Museum, Off cuts and Furniture

Timber Museum

One More View

Forestry Memorial

Log Processing Section

After Chatham Saw Mills visit, the final destination for the day was Chidiya Tapu. A beach about 30 km from Port Blair and a place famous for the best Sunset around Port Blair. Chidiya Tapu also is the start point for Munda Pahad trek, which is a whole day affair.

There are few Playground equipment available for Children, There are also few uprooted trees with massive roots laying around and also a huge hollow tree for passing through its trunk. After enjoying in the children area (don't laugh, we all have a child inside us) we did some more Monkey Tricks on trunks of fallen trees.

Entry to Chidiya Tapu

Way to Hallowed Log

Let me Crawl 

Trying my Hand on Horse Riding on a Log

Hanging on to the (Massive) Roots

Stunts with the Roots 1

One More

Man hi Nahi Bharata

I am Happy Here

After all this, it was time for The Sunset. Sunset was obliviously fabulous and we enjoyed it.

Starting to Set

Going

Cloud is Spoil Sport

After sunset, it was a drive back to Port Blair, have dinner and sleep. Early sleeping was vital as we had to go to visit and we had to start early morning (really early) at 0300 hrs.

Essential Andaman in 8 night / 9 days - Detailed Travelogue - Day VI

Day VI -

Having arrived yesterday and witnessed the spectacular sunset at Laxmanpur II beach, today we were to cover other attractions of Neil Island.

In  that list first place was Laxmanpur I beach (if it can be called a beach, which it is not) where we were to see Natural Bridge, a rock formation that has become a bridge due to centuries of erosion of rocks under it. here was a catch in this visit. The place can be accessed only during low tide which was around 0930 this day.

This peculiarity gave us adequate time to roam around on the sea front behind our hotel for some time. It also gave us time to have leisurely breakfast. Post breakfast and check out, we headed for Laxmanpur I (and this time I would not call it a beach). After a short travel, we reached the parking space from where it was about half a kilometer walk over the volcanic ground and then ankle deep water (thus a strong and water resistant footwear is necessary for this visit). We took a guide and moved towards the main site (and I would recommend a guide as a must).

We were looking forward to visiting the Natural Bridge. We did not know that even before we see the bridge, we would be privy to a virtual marine park kind f marine life. This became a true bonus.  These shallow ankle deep waters are home to sea anemone, sea cucumbers, star fish, etc. To get a glimpse for yourself, see the photos below.

Sea Cucumber 

Sea anemone 

Star Fish

Afer witnessing the marine life as we walked further,  the natural bridge in its pristine glory was visible. We were about to become shutterbugs when our guide told us to hold on till we go on to other side of the bridge (definitely can not be done once tide starts flooding (increasing)).

Once we crossed over to the other side skirting the bridge (no one is allowed to walk under the bridge and nor any one is allowed to climb over the bridge) we realised how true his statement was. The bridge is even grander viewed from the other side (may be because morning sun rays come from that side). The view was just awesome.

Natural  Bridge

See this is what is called Natural Bridge

Had to Support this Falling Rock

We visited Bharatpur beach next( the whole of Ramayan is present in Neil but surprisingly Ram is missing) which is The Beach in Neil where one can either enjoy the beauty of the place or indulge into taking a dip into the sea or enjoy water sports and if one is very enthusiastic, both can be done, enjoying the beauty and also water based activities. We, however, opted for only viewing the beauty.

Seen Such Colours ever - Bharatpur Beach

Makruuz Liner

Boats to take people for Seaborne Activities

There are a large number of shops here who are selling sea shells, Shankhs, a variety of T - Shirts, tea, coconut water, etc. It is where I picked up a Shankh and learned to blow it. Having managed to blow this smaller one, I bought another bigger one which was even easier to blow.

After spending adequate time at Bharatpur beach we headed to Sitapur beach. It is a horse shoe shaped  beach (well, almost there type, not truly horse shoe shape) with tree lined smaller mountains on both ends. This beach is also not safe for swimming. This is where we photographed the beach (nothing new about it) and had our Titanic moments with romantic photography (that was after a long time).

Sita Pur Beach

Sun and Sand

One more View

It was time to catch our Makruzz Ferry (which was on Jetty for some ime as it has over one hour layoff at Neil). After a jurney of over one and half hour we were back to Port Blair.