Saturday 11 March 2017

Postcards from Andaman : Neil Island


During my trip to Andaman with my family back in 2014, we made our way to Neil island on the 17th of November from Port Blair. It takes about 2 hours by ferry, and we reached the island at about 7:30 in the morning. We had a quick breakfast nearby and left for Laxmanpur beach 2. 

The main attraction in this beach is the 'natural bridge', which is basically a rock formation resembling a bridge. This involves a 5-10 minute walk through dead corals, and is kind of a trudge, which some might find a tad difficult.


As can be seen here, the walk up to the natural bridge is somewhat rocky and full of dead corals


The natural bridge in Laxmanpur beach 2




View of the ocean from the Laxmanpur beach 2


Around half and hour later, we made our way towards Bharatpur beach. This is a slightly more commercialized beach, and there were plenty of boats offering glass-bottomed boat rides. The idea is take us a little far away from the shore and through clear glass at the bottom of the boat (as the name clearly suggests), we would get to see fishes and corals. We went for one such ride, and it was pretty good.

Even though there were people and boats at the beach, it was quite peaceful. We lay there for a long time, enjoying the cool breeze. 



Bharatpur beach




We made our way to the last of the beaches at Neil island, called the Sitapur beach at around noon. There was nobody at the beach and everything seemed so calm and relaxed. We hardly spent half and hour there though, and made our way back to the dock from where we started on Neil island, as we had a ferry to catch to go to Havelock island.


Sitapur beach








Neil island is just about an hour's ferry ride from Havelock, which is one of the most popular destinations in Andaman. Even though Neil island is all about the 3 beaches I've mentioned, they are all unique, and worth visiting on a trip to Andaman. The water is almost cyan, the bluest I've ever seen in any place. For a detailed account of my entire trip to Andaman, click here.

I have many more travel stories and photographs to share. I'll be posting again next Wednesday. Have a great day!

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