Port Blair – Ross & Smith twin islands – Digilipur – Mud volcano, Limestone Caves – Dani Nalla Mangrove walkway – Havelock beaches – Port Blair
We hear more about the jail at Port Blair and Havelock islands, the beautiful beaches, scuba diving and so on. But there are more to add in the TO-DO list, travel Port Blair to Digilipur that is the northern most part of Andamans and travel via the scenic green thick jungles and villages. Also on the way we get to come across the only remaining Indian tribes, Jarawa. We also visited on the way the Mud volcano and Limestone caves at Baratang. In the middle Andamans we visited Dani Nalla Mangrove walk way and the northern most part Digilipur with the beautiful Ross & Smith twin islands.
Ross & Smith Islands, Digilipur:
We reached Ross & Smith islands by a boat after travelling for a day from Port Blair. The sea here had a very unique turquoise color. We couldn’t believe an exquisite sand bar that was connecting these 2 islands. The sand bar narrows and widens twice a day exhibiting the natures magic!
The Sand bar connecting the twin islands
It also started raining and we were lucky to witness the varied turquoise colorful sea turning grayish and the entire landscape changed number of times while all of us enjoyed fully in the beach that had very less crowd and the rains extended the joys.
During a cloudy day in Andamans
Jarawa Indian Tribes:
We traveled from Port Blair to Digilipur the northern most part of Andamans. We got to go through thick forests and also a stretch a forest in middle Andamans for 1.30 hours where we get to see the only Indian tribes Jarawa. We strictly are not allowed to stop, talk, photograph or videograph them. Government has been preserving the area and the tribes.
The Jarawas, apart from the fact that they use rafts, live in oval huts and are excellent swimmers. They are approximately 320 in number, live in the thick forests of the Middle Andaman and were totally isolated from the outside world till very late. In the history of the Andamans for the first time on Oct 21, 1997, 8 Jarawas, 4 of them women, emerged from the jungle close to Kadamtala in Middle Andaman. Signalling for food, they pointed to their bellies. They were fed bananas and coconuts and sent back by villagers who were petrified lest the Jarawas let loose their arrows. This, however, triggered a regular arrival of Jarawas to nearby villages.
The Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese and Great Andamanese are thought to have traveled to the Andaman Islands from Africa up to 60,000 years ago. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands remained the abode of the Negritos and the Mongoloids, who occupied the Islands for centuries.
Dhani Nallah Mangrove walkway:
The Dhani Nallah scenic Mangrove Walk Way is one of the longest and is built among the dense mangrove forest near a place called Rangat. This walkway is made of wood and is 713 mtr long and walking through the wooden bridge curves through lush green dense jungles adds to the beauty of the nature. 2nd largest Mangrove flora and fauna after West Bengal is here and we get to learn some names of the Mangroves varieties too here.
Witnessed number of varied colorful birds and butterflies as well and this walkway ends with an opening to a beautiful white sand beach called the 'Dhani Nallah Beach'.
Active Mud Volcano & The Caves:
There are active volcanoes in Andamans that spill out mud. We walked for about 20 minutes inside a forest near Digilipur and we can find huge deposit of molten mud that had got dried. We further walked further for about a Kilometer and saw some of the miraculous moments of mud spewing out of small volcanoes. Also, this mud flows down like a drainage and is grey in color and sticky that flows down creating its path down the valley.
Havelock Islands:
Havelock Island is 39 Kms by sea from Port Blair is one of the picturesque natural paradise with beautiful white sandy beaches, rich coral reefs and is the most popular tourist destinations. Radhanagar, Elephant and Kala pattar beaches are the few very famous ones.
Radhanagar Beach:
Radhanagar on the Havelock Island in the Andamans has been ranked 8th Best Beach in the world among the top 10 in TripAdvisor's World's Travelers Choice Award-Winning Beaches. This shows the stunning beauty of nature that India has to offer. Also, Radhanagar beach has been rated as “Asia’s best beach” by Time Magazine and has also been awarded “Cleanest Beach Town” in the India under Swacch Bharat Abhiyan by Hon’ble Prime Minister. Elephant beach is considered to be best place to snorkel and scuba dive.
Kala Pattar Beach
The most amazing beach I loved was the Kala pattar beach, as it was altogether an entirely unique turquoise colored God made PAINTING that was kept there just for us to get INTO
Cellular Jail, Port Blair:
The airport at Port Blair, is named after one of the greatest freedom fighters Veer Savarkar. One of the main reasons to have a prison built here as these the remote islands were considered to be a suitable place to punish the independence activists. Not only were they isolated from the mainland, the overseas journey (Kala Pani) to the islands also threatened them with loss of caste, resulting in social exclusion.
This prison was used by the British especially to exile political prisoners to the remote archipelago. Many notable dissidents such as Batukeshwar Dutt, Yogendra Shukla and Vinayak Savarkar, among others, were imprisoned here during the struggle for India's independence.
Each of the seven wings had three stories upon completion. There were no dormitories and a total of 693 cells. Each cell was 4.5 by 2.7 meters (14.8 ft × 8.9 ft) in size with a ventilator located at a height of 3 meters (9.8 ft).
The name, "cellular jail", derived from the solitary cells which prevented any prisoner from communicating with any other.[citation needed] Also, the spokes were so designed such that the face of a cell in a spoke saw the back of cells in another spoke. This way, communication between prisoners was impossible. They were all in solitary confinement
The fantastic Sound and light show showcases the entire history of certain live incidents that happened within the Jail premises, the kind of torture the freedom fighters encountered during the other rulers gives everyone goose bump.
Forced to arise at 5 am, tasks including cutting trees and chopping wood, working at the oil mill under regimental strictness, with talking amidst prisoners strictly prohibited during mealtime and they were subjected to frequent mistreatment and torture.
One can’t imagine how prisoners were put into a cell of 13 X 6 ft dark and dampy coated moss, Food provided was unfit for human consumption and also often one was forced to watch his other friend fellow prisoners being handed in the gallows.
Savarkar was sentenced to two life terms of imprisonment and was moved to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but released in 1921
We stayed in budget hotels in various places like Port Blair, Rangat and Digilipur and tried scuba diving which was an amazing experience.
