A palpable excitement pervaded the four of us at we set off very early
in the morning from Jamnagar to reach Narara Island. This is about
60 Kms away and though an island, is accessible by road! The
children jumped out of the car with barely contained anticipation
of finally getting to do the coral walk.
Within minutes, our guide materialised and we were off…
We had checked out the tide timings beforehand so as to reach
the place at low tide when the beach is exposed.
The short walk to the beach was pretty with mangroves all along the way. In fact, on either side of the path were mangroves complete with their breathing roots around them which have been planted by the forest department. They are really cute since many of them are all of 5 feet in height, like mini plants!
We stepped onto the shore, which resembled a seemingly endless canvas of sand littered with stones and rocks and little puddles of water trapped in the depressions around them. Little did we know the enormous amount of marine life trapped in them!
To our delight, we spotted the coral crab right away! Pretty creature… followed in quick succession by various other crabs, a sea spider, starfish, different kinds of corals, octopus and sea weeds.
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| Brittle starfish |
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| Octopus |
And finally, after a bit of searching, we found the puffer fish... the star attraction of the place. This is when we realised that it was imperative to hire the guide there since we would have managed to see maybe a tenth of the species there but for the knowledgable guide.
We totally enjoyed this trip... enjoy the pictures that follow... and come back for more soon!
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| Puffer fish |
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| Puffer fish with it's very strong teeth visible |
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| The puffed up puffer fish |
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| Grey heron |
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| Lesser sand plover |
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| The ripples in the sand... at low tide |
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| Western reef egrets in grey and white morphs |
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| Breathing roots of the mangroves |
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| Sanderling |
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| Neptune crab |
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| Baby hermit crabs |
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| Live coral at the top edges |
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| Live moon coral |
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| An Octopus in it's element! |
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| Ruddy Turnstone |
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| Crab Plovers |
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| Whimberel with Curlew in background |
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| Sea anemone |
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| Sea cucumber |
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| Sea grapes... the sea weed |
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| Sea spider |
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| Wolf crab |
Just too good. I am not at all knowledgeable about marine life, but enjoyed the write-up and images
ReplyDeleteUnfortunate to see that you are disturbing them by pulling out of water.. especially corals and fishes etc.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very relative thing... disturb yes but minimally. This exercise helps sensitize people and especially children to the wonders of nature and helps in the cause of conservation. To me, that is very important. I have seen the positive effects of such tours as well as just the pictures on impressionable kids.
ReplyDeleteAlso, after pulling out, they are very carefully set back in the water with no harm done...
ReplyDeleteit was an awesome experience visiting this marine sanctuary.. even i have some good photo's of starfish and corals and other species which i would like to share.. is it possible...
ReplyDelete