Pirotan Island

Until last week everything was pretty quiet in my neck of the woods, but then all the sudden out of the blue the wind picked up. Before last week the most exciting part of my day was attending hindi and gujarati classes, and although not the most exciting thing in the world, around now it is one of the most important. Then all of the sudden my counselor informed the three exchange students in my city that on Saturday we were leaving for Pirotan Island and wear thick-soled shoes. After a few seconds of gaping he informed us that a trip we had been planning for earlier was now rescheduled for tomorrow, and then also as a side note the day after we got back all the exchange students were going to Kutch for three days. Although I think because everything was such a surprise it made both trips a lot more fun!

The first adventure was to Pirotan Island in Marine Nation Park in Jamnagar, near the central coast of Gujarat. The special draw of Pirotan Island is its fame for a coral reef that is visible by walking when the tide goes out (although walking on the coral totally kills it). To get there we took a 12 hour train ride to arrive at the bustling hour of 3:00 am. Of course since most of the modern world as we know it doesn’t wiggle until around 5:00 am we slept in the station dormitory until the more reasonable hour of 6:30. We then took a mega rickshaw to the meeting temple (mind you in India you have lots of temples to choose from so you need to be specific) where the rest of the tour group was waiting already eating their breakfast and drinking their tea.

After a crowded bus ride sitting squished between several people, and holding one person and our bags on my lap we started our short bus ride just as the sun was beginning to rise. Once we arrived the tide wasn’t up far enough to let the boats out, and we spent the first hour receiving a wilderness protection lecture. Amazingly (since it was in gujarati) I understood most of it thanks to all of the scientific and English terms he used, and my slowing improving gujarati (thanks to my host mother). When the tide finally came in we filled three heavily overloaded boats for our two hour boat ride (not a life jacket in sight) I remembered how little of my classmates in school knew how to swim. Was this boatload full of people any different? Thankfully the mangrove forests, and variety of herons and egrets seen on the way out provided a healthy distraction from me mulling over the survival statistics (I however had lots of time on the way back). Once we hit open ocean our boat died. Thankfully we were only the second to last boat to leave, and we were towed safely to the island.

Finally on the island everyone was so happy to be on the beach that the majority of the people started taking off their shoes to enjoy the sun and the sand. Some of my enjoyment was lost when I saw someone throw their trash on the ground (esp. after just finishing an hour lecture on protecting the environment), but I quickly gained it back when the afternoon project became “project beach clean-up.” Although there was a ton of it to clean up (like any regular street in India) it was great to see how many people helped us. Of course it was a bit frusterating when the multiple bags we collected were refused to be taken back on the boat, and instead was suggested to be burned, by a very educated person, but we tried. Sadly, this is India, and burning their trash is a regular occurrence, and throwing trash out of the windows is a daily practice, and with one look at their streets you see proof of that. Despite the trash the beach was truly breathtaking, and the sand was white, the water emerald, sun, and the company was so fun!!!

After our trash collecting we did a little sightseeing of the lighthouse and more of the island before eating lunch and heading out to see the corals. At first walking out was like most things I’d seen before minus a blowfish and octopus that someone caught, but then we started to see small colonies of corals, then the got bigger and bigger, until finally they covered the ocean floor with colors of dark green, some neon yellow sea anemones, dark red, purple, and blue corals. Before coming I really had no idea what to expect, and I must say I walked back satisfied.

Until the tide came back to take the boats back the everyone watched the sunset, wandered around the beach, and enjoyed their surroundings. Once it started to get dark we went to spend two hours in the boat before the tide came in. When the tide finally came in at 9:00 at night I again remembered that our boat had broken down on the way in, we were heavily overloaded, and most likely only a small handful of the people in the boat could swim. Well we managed to get in safely around 10:30 at night the relatives of my counselor rushed in to take us to our 11:00 train. Luckily our train was a little late, and we made the train on time, and the relatives brought us dinner. To make up for the first night on the train everyone slept hard until morning, and as soon as I got home I had time to rest for a bit before then starting packing for the next trip.