A Day in Malpe

Cold infused air, giant wheels, toy cars, coconut trees, food stalls, tourists swimming in the water, ferry’s shuttling between Malpe and St. Mary’s Island, water sports and people enjoying the view of the splendid sea. The coastline of Malpe appeared magical. Just as I was closer to the beach; the blanket of sand, the sound of waves, the fishing nets and the smell of fish indicated the feeling that I was at the right destination. The sights of people playing around on the sea shore and the horizons of the Arabian Sea made me impatient to dive in at once. Malpe beach was brimming with life and activity. I was amazed by the sheer size of the beach, a never ending coastline. Words can't describe this place well, nor do the pics. The island is very calm. The sound of the waves hitting the rocks on the shore is just so very soothing. The view is excellent. The cool evening wind made it a more pleasant experience.

There are many water sports activity happening there with banana ride, para sailing and speed boat. They have beach cricket and volleyball options at very nominal rates. As fond of mangos, after having green mangos sprinkled with chilli powder and salt I took the boat to St. Mary’s Island.

I had already seen some pictures of the place and it looked very appealing with lots of rock formation amidst sea and were pretty excited to reach there. The boat took nearly 20-30 minutes to reach St. Mary’s island. That 30 minutes of bliss as the boat danced in the tune with the waves as they are rising and falling with them. There was an unfathomable scale of blue, if the earth and sky did meet, it had to be here. As the boat started from Malpe the color of water was started to change towards St. Mary’s island. It was really a breathtaking view of the Indian Ocean on the short sail to the island. Finally the boat arrived the island ad if someone has put turquoise blue color in the sea and painted brown symmetrical rocks everywhere to add to its beauty. The island was a tiny island with rocky shore and crystal clear water. The sea presented itself in varied shades of blue and green. And also the geologically significant basaltic rock mosaic in hexagonal pattern added to the beauty of the place. The basalt on this island has been shown by scientific study to have formed by volcanic activity, a completely rare occurrence, proving that India was at one point of time attached to Madagascar. The columnar basaltic lava found in these Islands, which is very well developed in the basalts of Deccan Traps, exhibit an imposing range of hexagonal shaped or multi-faced (polygonal) columns split into a horizontal mosaic. Even though the island is not very large and one can cover the island within few hours, the island allowed each of the tourists to pick each spot on the beach as their personal space. Four small islands together form the St.Mary's Islands. Each of these islands is interconnected and have their speciality. Coconut Island, North Island, Darya Bahadurgarh Island and South Island are the four islands that comprise St.Mary's Islands. Water is very clean and transparent. There are stretches where there are no sands just shells. It’s a beach of seashells, a seashell haven with seashells of various shapes and sizes littered along the coast. I collected many sea shells as souvenirs for the trip. There were jelly fishes in the island and they are very dangerous especially if we put our feet over them. One boy actually was saved in nick of time when he was about to step on one of them.

The beach is shallow with thin sand and perfect for getting into the sea. Away from the large crowd, I decided to walk further north till the end of the beach. After crossing 3 lagoons, I reached to a small village where fishermen were launching their wooden boats into the sea. There I met Dena, 12 year old boy from the village. He was indeed a great help for us, he pointed us to the right direction about various destinations near Malpe and also mentioned some offbeat places. He is studying in some government school but in parallel he was full time engaged in fishing as well.

The magical sunset was the unforgettable I had in Malpe. The sunset filled me with an astounding emotion like never before. . The orange sun at sunset took me into a virtual dream world. The beautiful sunset was marked by colorful sky, astoundingly clouds reflections and soothing tunes of the birds. The air at this time smelled fresh and clean making even the old feel like new borne babies. Additionally, the harmonious whistling of the wind makes the sunset even more attractive. It was a spell bounding moment the one which inspires poets and writers. The beach was empty after sunset and I ended up playing in sand long time at night along with the friends.