My corner….

Coral walk at Narara marine national park.-

Ahead of long weekend of Holi, I was searching for some short

holiday destination which has bit of all, adventure, education and
pleasure (off course!!). And believe me or not but I was rewarded
from most unusual source – Femina. I always thought Femina is a
magazine which lures our females into buying more cosmetics,
clothes and jewelry, only to realize later that those things look
good only on Femina models. So when you buy Femina next time
don’t think you are spending just 50 bucks, you may actually be
poorer by few thousands depending on where your wife sets her
sights!.
Here was a short write up on Narara marine sanctuary and
national park, located offshore same 50 kms beyond Jamnagar.
Fringed by coral reefs, island promises close views of variety of
marine life, including octopi, star and puffer fishes, brittle stars
crabs and lots of coastal birds. This sounded very interesting for
me and my 8 year old son. After a little bit of research I came up
with an ace to convince my wife too. “Well Reliance has opened a
mega, hyper mall at Jamnagar which spreads over 2 lac sq feet and
easily the biggest in Gujarat!”

So after few calls and email bookings we were off to Narara on

Friday. My holiday starts as soon as I leave home and not after
reaching destination, so we really enjoyed 7 hrs drive (500 kms) to
Narara via Borsad- Tarapur- Rajkot and Jamnagar. One starts
appreciating roads of Gujarat only when one leaves city and hit the
highways and still if you are not happy, you must visit Madhya
Pradesh. We had our dinner at a place called Chowkidhani, 18 kms
from Rajkot on Rajkot Jamnagar highway. Its set up in typical
village like set up with 2 restaurants one serving Rajasthani/
Kathiawadi food and other the usual ( Punjabi- Chinese- and south
Indian), beside there are very interesting chat, kulfi, chai stalls and
icing on the cake- a pan ki dukan. We decided to opt for assorted
items, hopping from one stall to other while kids enjoyed bioscope,
magician and Indian rope trick. This refreshing break enabled us to
cover our last leg up to Jamnagar in quick time, all the while
listening to Pakistani FM radio from Karachi. It was very
interesting to note that Pakistani RJs are sweet and sober but too
preachy compared to our loud mouth Radio Mirchi ones, who keep
muttering meaning less monologues.
There are 2-3 reasonable staying options at Jamnagar, but we
decide to stay at Hotel Express ( yes, baby sister of our own
express at Baroda), mainly for 2 reasons - Hotel was beyond
Jamnagar, nearer to Narara Marine park and only last week they
had hosted Kareena Kapoor!! (Managed to get the same room but
alas on a different Sunday!) . Jokes apart this hotel is a good
business hotel mainly built for Reliance refinery traffic, so we see
people from various nationalities and many moving around in their
orange and blue work gears.
We got up really early next morning to reach Narara in time for a
low tide; Permit for entering the marine park is required and was
already obtained by Hotel for nominal extra charges. Narara is
about 30 kms from Hotel and one has to turn at Vadinar on
Jamnagar – Dwarka highway. Roads are quite good as we drove
past massive Reliance refinery – Its worlds biggest refinery and
responsible for changing the present and future of this sleepy
corner of Gujarat. Makes you feel proud to say the least. As we are
nearing island we came across many back water pools, full of
migratory birds. One has to be really early to sight them and
should be ready to skip morning breakfast at hotel. Even the
Marine creatures are best visualized in shallow waters of low tide
early morning before sun really start heating up this mostly
stagnant waters and forcing them to go back in deep waters. Narara
Island is a misnomer because it is connected to mainland by road
and one can actually take cars right up to the forest lodge from
where marine nature walks starts. At forest rest house we got our
permits checked and hired a guide, Abdulbhai. One can not and
should not avoid a help of guide here as going in corals without a
proper guide is like looking and trying to appreciate a modern art
without a painter explaining you about it. On foot we traveled
across the sandy beach and along the marshy land of inter-tidal
zone where we entered ankle deep waters and lo behold! The entire
sea bed lay exposed in front of our eyes covered by crystal clear
thin film of water. We could see abundance of marine vegetation
like sea weeds and algae, broken by rocky outcrops forming rock
pools at places. Soon Abdulbhai started showing us which we
could not appreciate with our naked eyes - crabs camouflaged
among the rocks among the rocks, star fish, brittle stars, crocodile
fish lying motionless o the sea bed to attack the unsuspecting prey.
I was happy to watch my son keenly listening to Abdulbhai and
taking notes in his tour diary. Soon Abdulbhai caught hold of a
puffer fish, fascinating species known and named for its defense
mechanism. Touch it and it inflates rapidly like a self inflating
balloon or airbag. It achieves this by filling its elastic stomach with
water and air and it inflates until it resembles a sphere size of
which can deter its predator. We held it in hand for photographic
session (Can remain alive without water for 2-3 hrs). It was also
interesting to know that most puffer fishes are poisonous to eat but
are considered delicacies in Japan and Korea.
Parks star attraction is octopus, eight armed (or legged) marine
creature is a master of camouflage. It possesses specialized cells on
its skin which can not only change color but also opacity and
reflective ness. An octopus can squeeze itself with a squish into
unlikely crevices of rocks. In clear waters it can eject thick black,
blackish ink in a large cloud and slip away from your sights in
seconds. So it was a pleasant surprise to all of us when Nagesh my
urologist friend put his hand in water and came out with an
octopus.
Next we were in knee deep waters and Abdulbhai led us to coral
reefs. We were introduced to brain corals, star and moon corals.
Coral formation here are much less luxuriant than those you would
see at say Andaman or Maldives, nonetheless wading so close to
them is an unique experience. Because of the protection they
provide to smaller animals and the high nutrient provision to those
who dwell in them, coral reefs are justly called rain forest of the
sea.
We hardly knew that we spent almost three hours in water and
walked for more than 4 kms, though wanted to stay little longer we
had to head back as it was the time for high tide. Only after we
reached at forest guest house we realized how tired we were. There
are no café coffee days around and decision to pack some
sandwiches was being appreciated by one and all. Even after lots
of persuasion the care taker was not ready to serve us even tea,
which he said was only for his sahibs from forest department.
Though, he did allow us to sit in the shade of his trees and have our
sandwiches.

Back to hotel we all slept like a log for three hours. In the evening
we went to Jamnagar for a stroll around a lakhota lake – eighteenth
century water body with a palace at the centre. The lake is ideal
spot for bird watching; pelicans, spot billed ducks, tufted ducks,
herons, gulls and so on. We were hungry again and after a little
enquiry we headed to Rasik’s pau- bhaji. It turned out to be a road
side shack not very hygienic but serving very tasty butter pau –
bhaji. If you ask me- taste and hygiene, you can’t have both at a
time.
Next day morning we decided to give it a slip to proposed Khijadia
bird century and instead lazed around in hotel pool. We headed
back to Baroda after a promised visit to reliance hyper mall.

To certain few this may be worth less effort, going almost 600 kms
just for 3 hour walk in stagnant sea waters. For me it was a
different and satisfying experience. I would go to any distance to
just hold octopus, about which I used to read as kid with lots of
fascination. Or for taking picture of my frightened son holding
puffer fish in his both hands may just be the only reason to travel
so far.

Catch me on anand.naregal@rediffmail.com with your comments and

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 Fact File:
How to reach
Narara marine national park- 55 kms from Jamnagar, turn right
from vadinar on Jamnagar- Dwarka highway
Total distance : 500 kms
Duration – 6-8 hrs
Essentials:
permit to enter the marine park – usually arranged by hotel where
you are put up
for coral walk: Comfortable walking shoes which are also
waterproof, sun protection cream, shorts, sun glasses, hat,
sandwiches, flask of coffee or tea, water to drink
Staying options:
Hotel Express : On jamnagar – Dwarka highway , near Sikka, - 3
star : 3800- 4400 for double occupancy, has swimming pool and
wi fi connection in rooms
Hotel president : 2 star, Centrally located , owner Mustaq is old
hand at arranging trips at Pirotan and Narara.1200 – 1500 for
double
Hotel Vishal international: 2 star, on outskirts of Jamnagar,
relatively new property , 1500 -1700 for double
Other excursions:
Khijadia bird century 10 km– essentially for dedicated bird lovers
Dwarka _ for obvious reasons
Obsessive shoppers:
Bandhni saris, odhanis and stoles – jamnagar
Nicely packed dry fruit kachoris from H G Vyas – exported to
many countries
Did you know!!!
Gujarat created mile stone in India’s conservation history in 1980
when it notified the first marine sanctuary in the country
containing about 457 sq km of the Gulf of Kutch waters,
including 42 islands.