Havelock - Day 1& 2

I had ended my last entry looking forward to the kayak trip. And boy, was I not disappointed. I liked it a lot. It was my first experience rowing the kayak. After some deliberation S and I thought we’d go for the single kayak trip with the guide. Here the guide comes in a separate kayak and each one of us rows their own.  I didn’t realize the enormity of this decision till we pulled our kayaks to a small beach. The sea looked so big and dangerous. The swell and fall of the waves made me a bit nervous.

This is how far we kayaked

 Another couple had joined us on this trip. So, the five of us set off with warning from our guide to take a wide berth, as the corals ran along the coast. And just like that we were bobbing along in the sea. I didn’t confess it to anybody at first, but the slight fear of a crocodile which was spotted in one of the marshes got me rowing along quite competently. The barrier between me and the water (i.e. the crocodile), was the flimsy plastic kayak. It seemed like it would tip over if the croc merely snorted. Shiver.

Anyway, thanks to that fear, I rowed along pretty briskly and enjoyed it quite a bit. Our destination was a quaint little lighthouse on the far side of the sea. It’s called the Lighthouse Beach and it is a popular destination in Havelock to snorkel, scuba dive or even laze around. But if you go there with the intention of seeing a beach then you’d come away with a new perspective. There is hardly any expanse of sand here; only rocky corals and gnarled trees. In other words – Beautiful. We lazed around in this beach and took some lovely snaps before it was time to go.

The quaint lighthouse at Lighthouse Beach

Our kayaks

The dead corals seen when the tide is down

Two popular fun activities in the island - speedboats and the sea plane ride

That evening, we tried out the restaurant food for dinner and it was not too bad. The next day we were up early to try out Scuba Diving. I was greeted by a tall, lanky foreigner with blond hair. Before I could feel rather nice about being singled out to be the recipient of his ‘good morning,’ I came to know much to S’s amusement that he was going to be our scuba instructor. Ah well, the whole morning looked interesting now. 

We walked to the beach facing our cottage and reveled in the beauty of the crystal blue ocean. The corals could be seen as we waded to the boat that was anchored in the water. We hauled ourselves and our snorkeling equipment into the boat and sped away to Inglis Island. This island was beyond Elephant Beach. S and I were amazed to see the distance we had kayaked on the first day. After an hour, we dropped anchor. Our instructors taught us how to use the snorkels.  We scrambled, if I may say so, behind Mike keeping his toes within sight and swam into the sea. The seemingly calm water concealed such a wealth of marine life. There were all kinds of colourful fish swimming about. I couldn’t identify even one, but being a lover of everything beautiful, I had a great time watching these fish swim about. Unfortunately I don’t have any snap of what we saw underwater but do take my word for it…it was beautiful. Definitely worth a try.

When we got back that afternoon, I didn’t realize it but I was very groggy and sleepy. I guess water does it you; as with giving other benefits…like I came to realize soon, losing weight! By the end of the second day in Havelock I felt so much lighter and my pants were looser. Imagine that. Fun and workout rolled in one.

After we snorkeled, we frolicked like kids in the water

 But my darling hubby had other ideas of a holiday, especially since it was a honeymoon. He loved Havelock so much that he griped about  having to go back to PB  even before the day ended. He reminded me of a child who anticipated the end of the vacation at the start of it! He wanted to laze around and checkout the town instead of rowing away from er…crocs and diving along the coast. Thankfully, after the snorkeling session I had not planned for anything else in Havelock. Most couples tried out scuba diving the next day. We instead, hired a scooter after our snorkeling and discovered the eateries and places in Havelock.

Restaurants:

The sea is reflected on the glass window of B3

Left to me I’d have checked out almost everything here but there’s only so much food that one can eat. First up was Barefoot Scuba’s enterprise sitting near the jetty called B3. Quite an unassuming name, but the place was quite nice. I liked the idea of sitting in a restaurant watching the local’s life going on below me, including the dropping off of fresh batches of tourists at the jetty – who were flashing their cameras much like what we did on our day of arrival. Wonder who was watching us from B3’s balcony.

B3: The soup we ordered there was good. It was a Thai soup and it was mild and flavorful.  We had ordered an artichoke thin crust pizza which S thought was quite bland and ordinary for the price we paid, but their chocolate brownie made it to our good books. Our overall lunch came up to Rs. 600 per head.

The brownie in B3

 We then took off in our scooter to Radhanagar beach, the famed beach in Havelock. The sun was beating down on us when we reached there and since there was no tree or shelter on the beach, S decided to take a look at Barefoot Resort, pricier sister of Barefoot Scuba resort. It turned out to be a good decision.