Was in Udupi a couple of weeks back with my friend Tambi and took the opportunity to visit the beautiful St. Mary's Island. The rock formation here is really unique and breathtaking.
Head to the Udupi city bus stand and take a "city bus" to Malpe, about 6 Kms away. There's one almost every 10 minutes. The harbour is right next to the Malpe Bus stand. Its a 5 minute walk then to the jetty where you find the ferries parked. Tickets to the island and back in these ferries cost Rs. 70. The first ferry leaves Malpe by 9 AM.
On the island -
This being a Saturday and thanks to a couple of gangs of college students on an "Educational Tour", the ferry was crammed. We counted at least a 100 people on board! The "cruise" took about 25 minutes. Just off the island, about a 100 meters away, we were transferred onto a smaller boat, which dropped us on the beach.
The island, like I said, is beautiful. You can walk all the way to the top of the highest rock formation (if you dont trip on one of the other million visitors) and the sea breeze was wonderful. Vasco Da Gama was here in the 15th century, apparently. The waves hit the rocks with awesome force and the crevices between rocks have enough water to breed a mini ecosystem within. We found a multi-colored crab, but he was camera shy, despite Tambi's heroics to capture him.
The ferry leaves you there for an hour, before they come back with the next boatload. You can request to stay longer if you wish and take a ride back later. We had to head back, though.
The ideal time to visit the island, we realised, is on a weekday and in the evening, to take in the sunset. Next time, perhaps.
6 comments:
The pictures indeed are lovely. Reminds me how long it has been since I went to a beach! And thanks a lot for linking to my blog.
Sanjay the pictures are really cool. And after seeing these, I feel like visiting the place myself. Really neat, keep it up.
I think its cool ...
Thanks Mridula, Anons (??), for the encouragement.
At least 100 people on the ferry That's overloading it, isn't it? There ought to be some sort of a control.
These lovely pictures here brought back memories of my trip to St. Mary's during school days. :)
Yes, and most of the 100 were Anthakshari yelling college kids! So you can imagine :)
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