Photos: Here Itinerary * Day 1 : Fly to Chennai and halt * Day 2 : Fly to Port Blair and proceed to Havelock Island, Stay at Dolphin resort * Day 3 : Snorkeling at Elephant Island, Radhangar Beach and back to Port Blair * Day 4 : Day trip to Baratang for Mud Volcano and Limestone caves. * Day 5 : Three islands (Ross, Viper and North Bay) trip * Day 6 : Local Sight seeing Port Blair * Day 7 : Fly from Port Blair to Chennai to Mumbai Highlights * Snorkeling in the crystal clear water at Elephant Island near Havelock Islands. * Laying on Radhanagar's white sand beach and swimming in the turquoise green crystal clear water. * The boat ride through the mangroves to the Limestone Caves. * A glimpse of ... read more

The Goan shopkeeper kept his promise contrary to the 'sushegat' (sth like Take it easy in Goan) attitude so common here. He was actually up at 6 am and actually reproached us for turning up at 6.30 am. Four of us Rana, Vishal, Gayatri including me opted for the omelet, while others left ahead asking us to catch up. Relishing on the delicious omelet, little did we know of what the day had in store for us. Our tummies full, we got on our bikes and missed the first left turn which we were supposed to take for the Bondla wildlife sanctuary. It was claimed to be the roughest and most exciting terrain by those who did it. Four of us took the right instead for a longer route bypassing the sanctuary. Rana got the idea ... read more

Today we bike to Dudhsagar waterfalls, approx 55. km away. The first half of the trip is through the mining area and is quite boring. On the way we took a short break at our guide Chandan's house. Rana and Rajath brought some suger-cane out of somewhere and we gave a little exercise to our lazy teeth. We took a break every half an hour. Once we just laid ourselves on the road. At the other point, a huge spider was a subject to the constant clicks of 7 cameras. We were exhausted and surrendered ourselves to an hour long afternoon siesta in a beautiful temple on the way where we had our lunch. A light, cool breeze made it very difficult to get our sore asses back on the bike. But we still had a ... read more

At 8.00 am we were flagged off from the base camp. We were told to peddle to Donapaula Jetty, load our bikes into the motor-launch and get down at Mormugao Port Trust where we would meet Narendra, the mechanic and Chandan, the guide for our expedition. It was a pleasant biking experience with no sun overhead. We loaded our bikes in the Ferry and settled down to soaking in the refreshing morning air. There was a minor scuffle at the Mormugoa Port Trust, where two cops asked out for some legal documents required for landing at the Port. The guy that seemed in charge was 6 ft in blue jeans and a white shirt which was a little tight for his beer belly. A call to the expedition director, Manoj Joshi, settled out the matter and ... read more

Youth Hostel India (website) organizes several affordable and very nicely organised national adventure expeditions. With good experiences on their Himalayan expeditions, I signed up for the 7 day Goa Biking Expedition for Rs.3000 that covers the stay, meals, renting of geared bikes and travel accessories like helmet, gloves and knee caps. Quite a deal ! No wonder the expeditions get booked 2-3 months early. There were 6 batches of bikers starting their expeditions every alternate day starting from 12th December. I was in GB-3 (Goa Biking group 3). The base camp at Panaji is located behind the Sports Authority Ground on the banks of the Mandovi river. There is a swimming tank at stone's throw to relieve you from your biggest enemy at the camp, the heat. Some 15-20 large 10 person tents were pitched for ... read more