Saltwater 8 Days Offbeat Andaman Package | Fathomless

The drive to Chiriya Tapu covers approximately 30 kilometres south of Port Blair to the southernmost accessible point of the main South Andaman island — a forest road that closes in as it approaches land’s end. The morning at Chiriya Tapu is for the mangrove belt and the forest edge, the birding in the canopy at this hour before the day heats and the birds settle. The boat to Cinque Island departs from the Chiriya Tapu jetty in the late morning — approximately 30 to 45 minutes to North Cinque Island inside the Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, entry permit checked at the boat, snorkelling over the reef in the midday hours with equipment hired locally.

The water around Cinque sits away from the Port Blair harbour turbidity and the reef here, in good conditions, is among the clearer available in South Andaman. The Chiriya Tapu sunset over open ocean closes the day on this offbeat andaman package before the morning ferry south tomorrow. Overnight in Port Blair.

The government ferry from Port Blair to Little Andaman departs in the early morning from Haddo Wharf or Phoenix Bay terminal. The crossing covers approximately 120 kilometres of open Bay of Bengal water in around 6 to 8 hours depending on the vessel and sea conditions. This is the longest single water crossing in the entire offbeat andaman package and it is worth approaching as part of the experience — the open ocean in every direction at the midpoint, the Port Blair coast disappearing behind and Little Andaman’s forest line appearing ahead in the early afternoon.

Hut Bay jetty is the arrival point. The Bon vehicle meets the group and the afternoon is for the first walk to Butler Bay Beach — approximately 5 kilometres from the jetty, accessible by road, where the western exposure opens onto open ocean and the late afternoon light comes in low across eleven kilometres of undeveloped sand. Overnight at Little Andaman.

The full day on Little Andaman in this offbeat andaman package has no resort infrastructure to navigate and that is the point of being here. The morning is White Surf Waterfall — a short jungle trek through forest to a falls dropping into a pool, the forest closing on three sides of the clearing. Whisper Wave Waterfall follows in the late morning — less visited, quieter, the same forest with a different fall. The two waterfalls together take a comfortable half day without rushing. The interior of the island has coconut plantations and paddy fields alongside the forest.

The afternoon returns to Butler Bay Beach. The wave action on the western exposure is different from anything in the standard circuit — consistent swell reaching an undeveloped beach with no operator at either end. The Onge tribal reserve on the island’s southern section is strictly protected and entirely off limits. Overnight at Little Andaman.

The return ferry from Little Andaman to Port Blair departs Hut Bay in the early to mid afternoon — the Bon team confirms the exact departure time based on the government ferry schedule for the travel dates. The crossing takes approximately 6 to 8 hours and arrives in Port Blair by evening. The return journey on the Bay of Bengal after two days on an island with no motor vehicles and eleven kilometres of empty beach carries a specific quality — the city arrives at the end of the ferry run as a reorientation rather than a return.

The evening in Port Blair after the ferry is for rest. Day 6 starts the northbound run through Baratang to Rangat and the long road north begins early. Overnight in Port Blair.

The northbound drive on Day 6 of this offbeat andaman package opens with Baratang — the convoy through the Jarawa Tribal Reserve near Jirkatang where stopping and photography are strictly prohibited under Indian law, then the motorboat from Baratang jetty across the mangrove creek to the limestone cave landing, the jungle trek to the cave entrance where stalactite and stalagmite formations are visible by torchlight, and the mud volcanoes — low grey clay mounds with slow subsurface gas activity — on the road back.

The drive continues to Rangat after Baratang. The Moricedera mangrove creek in the late afternoon — tidal waterway through dense canopy, small boat, herons in the root systems — closes the day before the night in Middle Andaman. Overnight at Rangat.

The drive from Rangat north through Mayabunder to Diglipur covers approximately 150 kilometres taking around 4 to 5 hours with a stop. Mayabunder is the stop — the Karen community settlement, descendants of Burmese Karen people brought to the Andamans during the British colonial period who have maintained their language and hand-weaving tradition across multiple generations on this island chain. The visit is brief in this offbeat andaman package — a passing encounter rather than the dedicated programme of the Mayabunder Andaman Package — but it is enough to register that the Andaman Islands carry communities whose presence here traces to the colonial economy in ways that most visitors never discover.

Diglipur in the afternoon is for the Ross and Smith Islands sandbar — the boat from Aerial Bay jetty approximately 30 minutes to two islands connected by a pale strip of sand barely above the waterline at low tide, the sea at ankle height on both sides, open water in every direction. Overnight at Diglipur.

The final day of the offbeat andaman package is the long return — approximately 320 kilometres from Diglipur to Port Blair taking 9 to 11 hours with the southbound convoy through the Jarawa Tribal Reserve on the same rules as the northbound passage. The group has covered the full length of the accessible Andaman chain across eight days — south to Little Andaman on a six-hour ferry, north to Diglipur on a two-day road journey, with Chiriya Tapu’s forest, Baratang’s geology, Rangat’s mangroves, a Karen village and a natural sandbar between two uninhabited islands in between.

None of that appears in the standard Andaman brochure. The return drive through the now-familiar forest road back to Port Blair closes a circuit that started at the same airport eight days earlier. Port Blair Airport drop for the return flight. The departure gate carries a different weight when you know what you have covered.