Starting out - Chennai
History Lesson - Ross Island, off Port Blair
And Finally, that first perfect, blissful, deserted beach, and that gorgeous, deceptive surf that picks you up and tosses you around before you know what is what. Oh well, it's like a nice massage after the strenous hour-long cycle ride down the only road on this island.
It's called Neil, by the way. The island, not those strange discolourations we woke up with all over our bodies the next morning.
And then, The two beaches explored, random South Korean surfer picked up, we made our illegal and highly dubious hired way to Havelock, and "the most perfect beach in the world" - Beach No. 7 - otherwise known as radhanagar.
Which I must admit was sheer bliss to wake up to at five in the morning.Tho' I guess you really can have too much of a good thing. What else would explain our picking up and leaving that perfect, well-supplied existence after a mere five days and then heading off into the complete unknown under a rainy sky and the gathering gloom of nightfall on a strange mysterious island about which we only knew random things overheard at random times from really random people.
On our way to long island, through marshes eerily reminiscent (in our belatedly uncertain mood - once we were already on the last boat out) of the heart of darkness-ish representations.
Whither blowest thou, wind?
And then, those crazy, ten days of fending for ourselves in the wilds of uninhabited Lalaji Bay - seperated from the locals by a jungle on a hill. Getting there by boat with the ever-elusive,exclusive boat service of Mr. Catraman (Quartermain? Catamaran? we never did find out for sure - the most mysterious of them all - not to mention unreliable, bare-faced liar and thief of the highest order!)
.jpg)
Our friendly neighbours
Our Front Porch
Su Casa Mi Casa - literally
And then the journey back to the now well deserved hedonistic pleasures of Havelock
Ah, back in the lap of luxury, with Nutella-Banana pancackes on call till twelve at night, and free deer meat dinners with the extremely friendly staff who invited us to share their meal with them. And even though snakes could, and did get into the room, at least there was a room to get into and out of right. And someone else to light the fires, thank Godfrey!
Not to mention the constant reassuring presence of a boat or two tied up right in front. The psychological significance of which sight is not to be underestimated on two souls fresh away from the experience of being marooned on long island for ten days and ten nights. Without the dubious benefits of Iced Tea!
.jpg)