Back from an unforgettable trip to Nicobars. I've left the island but the islands refuse to leave me...
We spent 12 days betweenBack from an unforgettable trip to Nicobars. I've left the island but the islands refuse to leave me...
We spent 12 days between Great Nicobar and Central Nicobar enjoying the pristine, untouched beauty of the islands (a selfish thank you to Govt of India for not allowing tourists into this paradise). Amazing birding with many new birds (18 for me), great birding company, beautiful forests and beaches (mostly inaccessible with hardly any roads).
Camped out in the forest for 3 nights - 9 of us sleeping like sardines on a hard undulating wooden platform (tip: ear plugs and sleeping pills are useful!), got bitten by hundreds of mosquitos and sand flies (not to mention a leech bite that left a large red patch on my leg for several days), hiked up and down slippery slopes to finally see a Nicobar Megapode at its nest while sitting in a hide drenched from head to toe in pouring rain (3rd attempt for me - a total of 10 hours of waiting), got lashed by a choppy sea while attempting to navigate around a rocky outcrop to board our dunghi (as a result of which my camera took a salt water bath and stopped working). Whoever said birding was easy?!
It was all worth it in the end though, but more than the birds, the high point of the trip for me was the sighting of 3 leatherback turtles (+ 1 green turtle) that landed at Galatyea beach (Great Nicobar) in the middle of the night to lay their eggs. We were woken by the forest guards who were patrolling the beach (kudos to them!) and rushed there to spend 2 hours watching the turtles go through the herculean effort to crawl through the sand, dig holes to lay eggs, cover up the eggs, make fake tracks (to confuse predators) and crawl back to return to their ocean home. The experience left us humbled, awed and weak in the knees, and am not ashamed to say that I just sat down on the beach and cried copiously, it was such an intensely emotional moment.
The only regret - I forgot my trusty filter bottle in Delhi and had to drink bottled water while camping out. Managed to crush and carry back around 30 bottles back with me (which I disposed off at Chennai airport where it will hopefully be recycled) but had to leave some in the forest at Galatyea to be burnt. Have made a New Year's resolution to myself already - I will not drink any beverage that comes out of a disposable plastic or tetrapak container (water, soda, juice). I wish more people would think about the impact of their actions on this one and only planet we call home, or else be prepared to be haunted by the sight of plastic trash washed up on uninhabited pristine beaches (we found bottles from Thailand and Malaysia at Galatyea beach) and studies like the one shown inhttp://midwayfilm.com/. enjoying the pristine, untouched beauty of the islands (a selfish thank you to Govt of India for not allowing tourists into this paradise). Amazing birding with many new birds (18 for me), great birding company, beautiful forests and beaches (mostly inaccessible with hardly any roads).
Camped out in the forest for 3 nights - 9 of us sleeping like sardines on a hard undulating wooden platform (tip: ear plugs and sleeping pills are useful!), got bitten by hundreds of mosquitos and sand flies (not to mention a leech bite that left a large red patch on my leg for several days), hiked up and down slippery slopes to finally see a Nicobar Megapode at its nest while sitting in a hide drenched from head to toe in pouring rain (3rd attempt for me - a total of 10 hours of waiting), got lashed by a choppy sea while attempting to navigate around a rocky outcrop to board our dunghi (as a result of which my camera took a salt water bath and stopped working). Whoever said birding was easy?!
It was all worth it in the end though, but more than the birds, the high point of the trip for me was the sighting of 3 leatherback turtles (+ 1 green turtle) that landed at Galatyea beach (Great Nicobar) in the middle of the night to lay their eggs. We were woken by the forest guards who were patrolling the beach (kudos to them!) and rushed there to spend 2 hours watching the turtles go through the herculean effort to crawl through the sand, dig holes to lay eggs, cover up the eggs, make fake tracks (to confuse predators) and crawl back to return to their ocean home. The experience left us humbled, awed and weak in the knees, and am not ashamed to say that I just sat down on the beach and cried copiously, it was such an intensely emotional moment.
The only regret - I forgot my trusty filter bottle in Delhi and had to drink bottled water while camping out. Managed to crush and carry back around 30 bottles back with me (which I disposed off at Chennai airport where it will hopefully be recycled) but had to leave some in the forest at Galatyea to be burnt. Have made a New Year's resolution to myself already - I will not drink any beverage that comes out of a disposable plastic or tetrapak container (water, soda, juice). I wish more people would think about the impact of their actions on this one and only planet we call home, or else be prepared to be haunted by the sight of plastic trash washed up on uninhabited pristine beaches (we found bottles from Thailand and Malaysia at Galatyea beach) and studies like the one shown inhttp://midwayfilm.com/.
