Hello guys, hope you are doing great.
This is the third part of my "Andaman Expedition".
You can checkout here the first part and second part of the series.
Now lets start the journey. It was 4rth day of our tour, and it was destined to visit the 'Limestone Caves' and 'Mud Volcanos' in Baratang Island
The journey started with an early morning run towards Baratang which is nearly around 120KM run for one side in a taxi. The road to Baratang goes through Dense forests of tribal reserves. Which is considered to be adventurous as a couple of years ago people feared passing through this area because of attacks by native tribes.
Before actually entering the jungle area of Jirakatang, you need to stop at Jirkatang checkpost from where vehicles are allowed to go ahead only in a group of atleast 8-10 vehicles, that too is accompanied by security personnel vehicles at start and end.
This is actually for safety of both the travelers and the 'Jarawa Tribes' who lives there and they don't like intrusion in their area so sometimes they attack on vehicles passing by.
When passing by this reserve area we were told to not open windows and even don't take any pictures. Vehicles also run in a speed limit of around 40 here.
The experience was very enthralling knowing the details of the place and we were constantly looking outside of windows to get a glimpse of any 'Jarawa Tribe'
Then after crossing the jungle we reached to 'Nilambur Jetty' from where our taxi along with many other cars and even a Bus boarded a big ship. This was a vehicle ferry which can accommodates trucks, busses, cars, bike and people passengers too.
It was a small journey in that ferry as just accross was the 'Baratang Island' our destination to further visit 'Limestone caves' and 'Mud Volcanos'.
Limestone Caves
These limestone caves are made in thousands of years through rain water that falls on the forests above the caves and gets mixed with the soil to turn into some weak acid that eventually slowly slowly passes through the soil and takes random shapes in the caves.
Upon reaching Baratang we boarded a 10 seater boat for Limestone Caves. In some time the boat was moving through the mangroves, the view was like right from a movie. Scrawling through the mangroves we reached to a trekking point from where we de boarded the boat and started our trek to the limestone caves.
Upon entering the caves you feel it straight out of a fairytale. They have a picture-perfect look owing to their exclusiveness. These promise you a perfect blend of adventure and natural beauty with fascinating views. There was dark in the caves so I couldn't capture the perfect pictures but the cave was ready to awestruck you at every corner.
Then came the next part of journey we trekked back to the boat and again moving through the mangroves we reached back to Baratang Island. From there we took a jeep to take us to mountain where a mud volcano was our next sight to visit.
The jeep dropped us to some distance from volcano point and from there again the trek begin to reach to the spot.
It was hot and humid by now and very tiring because the trek was to reach to top of the hill. Thankfully the trek was not very long and soon we reached to the point of mud volcano.
Most amazing thing about the journey was you enjoy every bit of it the journey itself feels so enchanting that views weather its when passing through roads, jungles, trees, sea, a small boat or a big ship everything excites you and makes you happy.
Thanks a lot for reading all through it.
Keep reading, keep exploring.
Have a wonderful day. Stay healthy keep smiling :)