Olive Ridley Turtel
A dream Journey that failed
It is thursday evening I read a notification from the chief minister’s news board at social park saying mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtle has been started at the coast of Bay of Bengal. This was like a sudden wow moment to stop my destiny there. I took sometime there to gaze the notice board and think about the past. It was in the year 2009 when I went as a young curious traveler to the coast of Bay of Bengal at the Rushikulya River mouth, Ganjam to see the Olive Ridley Turtles laying egg. It feels like you are inside the nature’s lap and all the thing happening as it should happen very far from the mankind. The total night stay that day at the beach, walking down the sandy surface, tireless excitation, talking to the like minded people over there, everything about that night was magical. At every few meters an innocent animal called Olive Ridley turtle was coming, digging its hole in the sand, laying eggs, again fill the hole with sand and walk away to the sea as if they know all the route. The animal is light sensitive. So all the villages around will be dark. So walking in the night was completely in the dark, Night without Light. I wanted to go there again. But I need a friend. I approached some of my friend to come along with me. But everybody refused. Finally I called a friend called Indresh. I explained him the story and gave him a adventure feeling for exploration. He agreed. We fixed the plan to go on the next day morning and stay the night over there. Then come back the day after that. I was so excited that I was not able to sleep properly in the night. After days it will be a travel story again, it will be an adventure again. I researched some contacts from the internet and slept for the night.
It is morning now. I woke up and called the first person over telephone whose no I have saved as Turtle Rabi. It was a bad news. He said you can come along roam and go. But there is no turtle at all right now. Mass nesting is already over. Call me after 19th or 20th and then come. I called to Indresh and mentioned the situation. He said we will go somewhere else. This is how my dream journey of Olive Ridley turtle failed. I was bracing myself for another journey. The best thing to have a friend in the journeys is they help you to come over the let downs.
So we did not cancel the trip, instead it was a another trip to the east to the greatest lake of Orissa, Chilka. It will be beautiful if we can take a boat ride in Chilka, watch some siberian birds. By the time We started our journey to Chilka it was 2 O’clock in the afternoon. We reached there and had a meal of Chilka special crab, prawn and Roti. It made our stomach full. It was one a crab meal long after I left Orissa. I was feeling good.
Now We searched for a boat to go into the lake. Few people were playing cards to pass their time. They were the owners of the boat a man told. As the season was off and there were very few tourist they had nothing to do except playing cards there. When they came to know that we are interested going in to the lake, a man came with a menu card and showed us the rates for the different plans and site scene. The price was varying from1000 to 1500. And it was on hourly basis. Because we had time constraints he gave us a plan for 2 hours for 1200 rupees. We bargained it down to 500 directly. Because it was off season and the sun was also setting down. After a long discussion he agreed us to a price of 600. The trip was to see the Dolphins and some birds inside the lake.
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| With Indresh Kumar |
After a 15 min of ride, we saw a herd of birds eating on the sea weeds. I took a beautiful photograph of them. But I was always curious how the small birds were walking on the water surface with their tiny feet. Sleeping on the boat facing the sky is a beautiful feeling when the boat sails with out the noise of the engine. The boat person woke me up and told me look there are the dolphins. I saw 2 of the small dolphins popped out of the water and started swimming along with our boat. Then another 3 of them, total 5. It seems very unusual to see dolphins at Orissa as as they do not seem to be the native of the place. But It was like a fun event for them. They were happy giving us a glimpse of them. We followed them to their direction to so see them more and more. 15 minutes we did like that then we set off for the coast again. We saw the magnificent sun set at the west of the lake.
Lessons from the last trip- “There is something somewhere always beautiful waiting for you, just do not stop. Let the wheel run”
