Road trip from South to North Andaman (Diglipur)

We planned to visit Diglipur. The journey was via the Jarawa Tribes forest

To ensure that tourist don't disturb the tribal life, the gates to the forest are opened on specific 
time periods only. So we had to reach the check post by 9am and prepare permit for our passage.

We reached an hour before, ie. By 8am. Fortunately, there was breakfast facilities at the check
post. We had tummy full food and guess what my fav breakfast - Idili Vada. Yummy. There are 
atleast 50-60 vehicles Lined Up right now. As We are waitIng for the Check post to open, I am 
writing my blog and Dad is chit chatting with fellow tourists coz he luvs to talk. ;-)

I am back !!!

When we left the first check post, two police vehicles one at the starting and another at the end 
followed us, just like a VIP Convoy. Nobody is allowed to take pictures in that 50km stretch of 
Jarawa Forest. Plz don't dare act smart, Coz last week a Bengali family was caught and hefty fine 
was charged. And it was a Jarawa tribal who caught this Bengali taking pictures. Well it took us 
around 1.5 hrs to cover the Jarawa stretch and trust me we were dying to get a glimpse of a Jarawa 
tribal but we were completely fallen out of luck. It was as if I was on a Tirupati Yatra and i was 
fighting in the queue to get a glimpse of Venkateshwara.

As the stretch ended, there was a dead end. There was a Ferry waiting and it was supposed to take 
us along with our vehicle to the other side of the bank. There is this stream of Andaman Sea 
flowing East - West known as ****###.(well I tried looking up in google but couldn’t figure out!) 
When we reached the other bank, before moving ahead towards our destination- Diglipur, We 
wanted to visit a Limestone cave.

Fresh deposits of Limestone

Cave Pillars - when stalactites and stalagmites meet
together

It is in the Barahtang district Of Middle Andaman. The way to caves is via 30mins sea (motor boat)
 and 15mins Trek. Those are one hell of caves, beautiful and fresh deposits of Limestone. At that 
movement, i could recall all the geography studies related to Karat topography (Limestone 
formations). We returned from the caves, had lunch and then continued our journey towards 
Diglipur. Its a 5 Hrs drive from Baratang. But there is another break in the ATR(Great Andaman 
Trunk Road –NH 223) where again there is a Ferry service. As i wait for my Vehicle to get
onboard the ferry, i am penning down my thoughts. :-D

On our way to Limestone Caves

I am back Again !!!

I reached hotel in Diglipur at 8:30pm. Had my fav Prawns for dinner. Heading to bed. Hopefully 
tommrow’s day is full of surprises. I am told, some interesting places to visit !!!

DAY : 2


Morning morning, fresh air and no sunshine yet. That Is unusual in Andaman at 6:30am. It was 
time to visit places in Diglipur. The first stop was Mud Volcanoes. No no don’t run your imagi-
nation wild, these are small volcano holes with grey mud coming out of it. It is a 20mins trek 
up the hill. One gets to see 4-5 small and big volcanoes. It is worth the trek.

Fresh and Hot Mud coming out of the Volcano

Trekking to Mud Volcanoes

Then we halted next at a Beach which is famous for Turtiles. But don’t bother to visit this beach. 
It is complete waste of time. It is as ordinary as any other beach and given low tide when we 
visited the beach we couldn't get into the waters either. As you can see below what was I doing 
on this damn beach

Ross & Smith Islands

Now the last tourist attraction left in Diglipur is Ross and Smith Islands. It is famous for a particular reason. When it is high tide, both Islands look separate and when it is low tide, it looks as a single island one can walk from Ross
Island to Smith island. However, there is a small twist in the tale.The boats carrying the “ Tourists”are under maintenance and only 
‘One’ single boat is carrying “Guests”to & fro. So basically there is a big queue of people waiting to get into the boat including me. 
Its mid day here in Andaman, i can see twin islands from far away and now keeping fingers
 crossed hoping to get the ticket to visit the twin islands.

Day 3:

Well I am back again for the last time !!!

We had worst luck yesterday, couldn't get the permit for twin Islands - the person just in front of 
me got the permit. Nevertheless I didn't push for more coz it would mean risking life in the return 
journey via boat, as there won’t be much natural light to navigate in the Sea. Anyway, new day it 
was our return journey from Diglipur to Portblair. We left hotel in the morning at 7:30. On the way 
had breakfast at Mayabandar, no big hotels but good food at road side dhabha. And on our return 
journey via the Jarawa forest I finally got to see two Jarawa tribes. Sigh!!! My trip is a success.

Jarawa Tribes look like this !!!

Overall, it was a wonderful road trip across the Andaman Islands. If you have time, I suggest you
 make this trip.

P.S. I didn't take the picture of the Jarawas, Above picture is Google uploaded one ;-)