We left from Rajkot to Jamnagar in the evening. After resting in the Jamnagar Circuit house, we left for the dock at around 3 AM in the night. After jumping across many boats, we reached the boat that would take us to the island. Initially it was dark and we couldn’t really see anything. But as the dawn broke, the beauty unleashed. There were many small and big islands along the way with mangroves and sandy beaches. We had to jump into a smaller boat(usually used by fishermen) to reach the shore.

Pirotan (originally known “Pir jo thaan” meaning the place of the holy Saint Khwaja Khizer Alaihisalaam) is a Marine Sanctuary & National Park. It is one of the rare places in the world where one can look at corals without having to dive down into the water. One just has to walk in the water, when the tide ebbs, in about 1 to 2 feet of water and watch this fascinating underwater world of corals.

We reached the white sand beach and took a stroll towards the tents (esp. built for Narendra Modi’s visit). We waited for the tides to change and then went into the waters with a guide. The water was just till our ankles, but the world beneath was something one would have never seen before. We saw octopus, jelly fish, star fish, colorful corals, exotic marine flowering plants and the puffer fish. We touched many of these marine species and even checked different rocks and undergrowth. We were actually walking on the base of the Arabian Sea.. 🙂

After lunch, we walked towards the light house. We saw some people had made this island their home and they welcomed us to visit the dargah.We waited for the high tides to return so that the boats could reach the beach. Due to lack of enough water level, we had to walk almost in 4 ft deep water to reach out boat which took us back to the Jamnagar dock.

The experience was out of this world. I wish many people could go there but as we have seen that human touch can destroy most of natures creations. Pirotan Islands are better off reach..!

Pirotan Island, a set on Flickr.