Trek to Elephant Beach

Hi friends, I am back again with another post on Andaman Island. In this post, I want to share about our experience of visiting Elephant beach in Havelock Island. So far, I have taken you to the extreme North in the Andaman archipelago to Diglipur. And, to the Middle Andaman, where I took you on a mesmerizing journey to the Limestone Caves at Baratang.

In South Andaman, I took you on a cruise to Havelock Island. And in that post, I also mentioned about the best beach to visit with kids in Havelock i.e Radhanagar Beach. While Radhanagar beach is an ideal place to relax & rewind, Elephant beach is a perfect place to enjoy water sports and adventure activities.

So, while coming back from Radhanagar beach, we asked the bus conductor to suggest some fun activities we can enjoy as a family. It’s always better to check with the locals, they can be your best guides, you know! And he suggested a Trek to the Elephant Beach. He told us about the trekking path which goes through the beautiful jungle and leads directly to the beach. And, we decided to try that out the next day.

Trek to Elephant Beach

Next morning, we all were so excited about the adventure. We reached the exact location from where the trek begins. There were a couple of forest guards seated at the entrance where they were noting down details of people taking that trek.

We checked with them about the trail and asked them if it is safe to go with a 2-year-old child and 2 senior citizens. They said it’s a plain trail through the forest and if we can walk for 30 mins then we are good to go. Just then a local villager approached us & asked if we want to take a guide. We wanted to do this trek on our own and at our own pace hence refused him.

During the trek, something went wrong perhaps we should have hired a guide. Though, we are still not sure!

You may check our Andaman Trip Itinerary here!

And, the Trek Begins…

After completing all the formalities we started our trek. We anticipated that this trek could take around an hour since the guards said it is a 30 min trail. We had walked only 15 mins when we were joined by 2 foreigner ladies who were also grannies & they were friends.

For the next 15 mins, we all walked together and chatted along the way. It was getting hotter, I remember it was not noon still we could feel the sun directly on our head. Even though it was hot & humid, we were enjoying the trek. But a moment later, we saw a big mud puddle in front of us.

There was no way to go around it, we had to walk through it. And when we walked into that puddle, we realized that this was going to be very difficult. It was not mud, it seemed like clay, very slippery and it was deep. We couldn’t keep our balance and had to hold on to the little branches hanging from the trees. Now, this was totally unexpected. And, we were not prepared for it. 

Also, this was not the kind of adventure we were looking for!

But to our own surprise, we were quite thrilled after crossing that puddle. We were giving hi-fives to each other as if we accomplished some kind of a mission. We took a short break there.

You may also read – How to manage food for babies & toddlers while traveling?

We had no idea just after a turn, the whole path was covered with even bigger mud puddles. My mom told us that it had rained last night which might have resulted in this. But, forest guards didn’t mention this at all.

Millions of thoughts were crossing our mind. Maybe we were on a wrong path since we hadn’t seen anyone in the last 15 mins. Maybe we should have hired that guide. Our phones were not working so there was no way to call for help. Also, the 2 ladies who were walking with us, they suddenly disappeared. None of us saw them going ahead. All this was freaking us out!

We crossed another puddle and saw elephant poop on that path. Well, that just added to our anxiety. And we thought this is called elephant beach so there might be wild elephants in this jungle too. Oh my God, we were so terrified and all kinds of irrational thoughts were crossing our minds.

The next step was to calm down and look for a solution. In that particular moment when none of us was speaking a word and we could hear our heart’s thudding sound, I felt a moment of Nirvana.

And after some time, we all said together, let’s do this!

Although it took us another one and a half hour to come out of that trail, the feeling was idyllic. I was never so happy to see a beach in my life. We were covered with mud from head to toe. Yes, because at some places we had to crawl on our knees & bums to pass through the puddle.

I can never forget that trek. That 3 hr long trek taught me so much about life, balance, fear, love, will to survive, togetherness, moreover, accepting the situation when it is not as per our plan.

This is what travel teaches us and that’s why I want my son to travel and explore such places from this very early age.

Finally, we saw the white sand beach with the most beautiful turquoise water in the distance. We ran to the shore and cleaned ourselves and thanked our stars. We were happy we didn’t find any wild elephants!

Water Sport Activities at Elephant Beach

After relaxing a bit, we checked what all we can do there. We were shocked to know that they were almost closing. Yes, the beach closes around 3.30 pm. They clear off the beach by 4 pm as it gets high tides in the evening. And, it’s not safe!

We realized why we couldn’t find anyone on that trail. The officials at the beach told us that the best time to reach here is early morning.

There were many activities to do, like snorkeling, banana boat ride, jet ski, and sea walk. We chose to go for sea walk since we had never tried this before. So, our mothers decided to relax on the beach and we left Nemit with them. And, booked a sea walk session for us.

Sea Walk at Elephant Beach – 2500/- per person.

It was a surreal experience to walk on the sea bed, circling around a big coral, and feeding colorful fishes with our hands. What did I like most about that experience? Making poses underwater and getting clicked!

So, guys if you plan to trek to the elephant beach, do consider hiring a guide. And as I always say, be flexible, keep your calm and have a Plan B ready.

You can also take a boat to reach the beach.

Speed boat transfer – 750/- per person 

That’s all for today.

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This is Day 5 of #BlogchatterA2Z and the letter of the day is ‘E’. My theme for the challenge is ‘Traveling with kids‘ & I have chosen E for Elephant Beach. 

You can read all my posts under BlogchatterA2Z here!

I hope you liked reading our experience. Do leave a comment below and don’t forget to share this post with your friends and family.

See you tomorrow!

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