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Bordi Beach

Wednesday, May 16, 2012


Bordi is a small fishing village near the Maharashtra-Gujarat border. This small village offers a visual treat of green trees and a beach with black sand. A narrow road running through this village sees a stream of rickshaws, buses, cycles and private vehicles off and on.


Bordi
The roads offer a pleasant sight. As I walked along, I could see chikoo trees on my right and casuarina trees on my left on the beach front. There are a few old Parsi bungalows, all surrounded by trees, on this road. These old and beautiful bungalows rest peacefully near the black sand beach of Bordi.

For a moment, I felt a tinge of envy. What a fabulous way to spend the evening, every day, watching the sun go down right from the porch of your house. And if you were sitting on a rocking chair with a mug of beer or a cup of black tea, why, what could be better?

Beach
Small houses crowd both sides of the narrow roads. I wonder how the buses ply on these roads without damaging life or property. Some of the houses are in a very old and dilapidated state. You never know when they will come crashing down.

I landed on the beach of Bordi late in the afternoon. The heat was killing. It was low tide when I got there, and I had to walk almost a km to reach the water. I noticed that the water was rather dirty and completely unfit for swimming in.

The narrow lanes at Bordi

The crabs on the shore had created beautiful patterns there. Also, there were tiny dunes formed on the shore. This was the work of the winds on the sand. The casuarina trees were gently and delicately swaying in the wind. Altogether it offered me a very pleasing sensation. By this time, I had almost forgotten about the heat, thanks to the swaying winds.
As I walked along the stretch of the beach, I also found a couple of shells in a pattern I had not seen before on any of the beaches I had visited. I picked up some of these shells for my personal collection.

Pattern formed by crabs on the sand

I found a dead snake and many dead crabs on the beach shores. Looks like the waters here are not safe for crabs. I have never seen so much death and desolation on the beach.
I met a couple of fishermen who had just come back from the sea. So I asked them, “Masa bhetla ka?” (Did you catch any fish?) In my broken Marathi. One of them replied, “Nahi” (No) in a sad tone.

Dirty Water accumulated on the sand dunes

The fishermen were folding their nets rather dejectedly as they had not managed to catch any fish. I prayed that they might have better luck tomorrow.
I then moved on to explore the beach further. In the distance I saw a few mangroves in the middle of nowhere. As I approached nearer, I noted that the tide was rising. So I decided to head back to my starting point.

Fishermen pulling their nets
Returning to the shore, I sat on the sand and watched the sun drown in the water. I wished I had a hammock. I would have tied it between two of these casuarina trees, lain there quietly with a pint of beer in hand and watched the sun go down. Already I seemed to have drifted far away from the stresses of everyday life. I didn’t want to get out of this state of mind. But I had to as it was growing dark and I had to head back to my cottage.
My day in Bordi was a mix of both the silent beach and the small fishing town. It kept me away from my daily chores and let me be with myself.

9 comments:

Sheldon Quinny said...

Great Review, Never been there but heard of this place...thanks for the info..

Anonymous said...

Nice one :)

Hithakshi

MERWYNSRUCKSACK said...

Thanks Sheldon Quinny and Hithakshi :)

Weekend Wanderer-Aashish Chawla said...

Very well written ....I too would love to be at Bordi.

MERWYNSRUCKSACK said...

Thanks Aashish

Raj said...

Good piece of information Merwyn.

MERWYNSRUCKSACK said...

Thanks Raj

R Niranjan Das said...

Nice place.

www.rajniranjandas.blogspot.com

MERWYNSRUCKSACK said...

Thsnks R Niranjan Das

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