Odisha Sea Beach Expedition with YHAI

Odisha Sea Beach Expedition with YHAI

Youth Hostel association of India (YHAI) has been fore runner in promoting adventure sports has been successful for decades in providing unique experiences to trekkers in unexplored areas across the nation. This time I joined them for a 6 day Odisha sea beach expedition which was spread around Puri district and the islands around Chilika Lake.

YHAI trekker’s group is usually around 25 in number, but due to unforeseen weather conditions and last minute cancellations we ended up with a group of 8 trekkers. The base camp at Youth Hostel, Puri was very well arranged and the simple vegetarian food they served made me nostalgic of home cooked food.

Day 1 being the registration day for the participants, gave me enough time to visit the popular Hertiage village Raghurajpur known for it’s unique artistic skills and dance art form and the very famous lord jagannath temple in the heart of puri.

A typical day in youth hostel trek starts at 5.30 am with bed tea (customary for privileged people), and breakfast at 7am and all get set to start of sharp at 8am. Day 2 the team starts with bustling busy roads of puri and the sea beach flooded with visitors and slowly move towards the deserted beaches and head south towards chilika lake. 

 

The excitement of being in a new place spending your vacation and adventure into an unknown land slowly starts nauseating one. Unlike the other beach expeditions which are usually beach shacks, foreigners, life guards and liquor, Orissa beaches are more or less deserted except for small fisherman settlements. The villages are moved interior into the land in order to protect from unprecedented cyclones. All along the beach trek one is greeted with numerous dead turtles. These turtles are unfortunate targets which get caught in the fisherman nets and since they are prohibited from trading and either killed or left to die in the sea coast. One of the government institutes is carrying out a physical survey to trace the amount of dead turtles but hundreds of the left unturned. 

On the way we meet local fisherman, villagers and interact with them on our destination and brief about their profession village etc. An interesting encounter was this small fisherman settlement which uses a small solar lamp to survive in the evening hours, at this moment you feel proud about the advancement in technologies and penetration to unknown lands.

And finally this trek covers 12 kms on day2 and 14kms on day 3 all along the sea coast. End of day 2 is we rest at a multipurpose cyclone shelter built by the government in each of the villages to protect the villagers from cyclones.

End of day 3 was spent on in tents in a beautiful camp site which is encircled between bay of Bengal and chilika lake. All along we find continuous man made forest built to protect the village from cyclones.

Though the sea as well as the lake is salt water, there is this  small well in between these with fresh sweet ground water, which is the source for a few hundred fishermen around this area.No one is sure the principle behind this phenomena.

Then we proceed in lands of Chilika lake viewing the sea mouth where chilika meets bay of Bengal and the migratory birds flocking into chilika. The small white  building seen in the picture is a mosque around a small islam following people settlement known as Bhagwanpur and also    next to it is a hindu people settlement known as shahjanpur. Classic example of community living in a democratic secular India. 

This led us to the next island Rambhatia which is usually visited by inland visitors to experience chilika, migratory birds and of course enjoy the fresh sea food.

Then spend rest of the day exploring the island which is inhabited by cows and ox  and finally reach SATAPADA Wild life Range.  As shown in the picture this area is popular for the dolphins. We were equally excited to see them.

At 4pm we set off to visit the dolphins while the sun sets and towards   our next destination which is a forest guest house in Brahmapura.

This is the best moment of the whole trek. Cool calm serene environment   surrounded by gustling of the dolphins and other sea animals or the birds returning back to their nests. In the background sun sets quietly.  Moist sea  breeze dust out the tiredness in you make one lose self and hug the wide arms of the splendid nature, it was priceless.

That night was spent in a well laid forest guest house of Brahmapura facing chilika lake. 

After another long 1.5 hours in the boat we reach inlands and catch a bus and return to the base camp at Puri. Rest of the day spent in exploring the Sand art exhibition by Sudharshan Pattnaik sand art institute, the old city puri around the temple and savouring sea food.

 Evening was well spent in sharing our experience with the next group of trekkers and wishing them luck. Next day a local tour was arranged with Odisha tourism, heard stories of Konark, Lingaraj temple, Ashoka  and visited Khandagiri Udaygiri hills, Stupa and of course the Konark temple. In the end bid good bye for my trek friends I made in these days and moved back to my abode.

I must appreciate the splendid hospitality of the camp leaders in various camp sites who fed me more than my capacity. As it’s always said “No one loses weight in YHAI treks” is indeed quite true.  

(nitin29687@gmail.com)