Road trip: Day 5 Tuesday: 6.12.2011 Charna Island

Most photographs in this blog post have been taken by myself and Bilal Hameed. A few have been taken by Khizar from divers reef Karachi.

Today was going to be an adventurous day for us. We were all going snorkeling and that too for the first time in our lives. Manzoor had made arrangements for us and we were to leave the guest house at 6am. It was going to be nearly an all day activity.

Manzoor came to pick us up and the first order of the day was breakfast. Our snorkeling package included breakfast and lunch both. So he took us to boat basin in Karachi first where we were to meet our snorkeling instructor Khizar and have breakfast with him first.

Khizar is a very talented 23 years old who has started this business a while ago. His company divers reef karachi organises these snorkeling trips for different groups. He takes them out to Charna island in Baluchistan. Our snorkeling package per head was Rs. 2500/- which included breakfast, lunch, boat ride and all the necessary gear that is required for snorkeling. Khizar had also brought his under water camera for some great coral life shots.

After an amazing breakfast at boat basin we headed out towards mubarak village from where we were to get on a boat out to Charna island. The drive was about 50 minutes long: it was early in the morning and there was hardly any traffic on the road.

I personally had great trepidations about snorkeling. I do not know how to swim at all and therefore was quite apprehensive about going in the open sea, although we were all wearing life jackets; Khizar was very particular about safety.

Nonetheless I decided to keep my options open and see if I can overcome my hesitation and try it out once we get there. Everyone else in group were super excited about it. It was the first time in our lives that all five of us were going for snorkeling. Manzoor was already quite a pro in it.




Charna Island, Baluchistan



Khizar giving us life jackets. Our boat in the background.



Rustam, the captain of our boat

 The tide was really high that day so the boat ride was exhilarating and quite bumpy. It took an hour to get to the spot where we anchored for snorkeling.

After anchoring at the spot much to our surprise the first one to jump in the water was Balouch. Now Balouch in our group is someone who is constantly worried about one thing or the other. And whenever we take trips in the mountains he always sits in the front passenger seat with his hand on the door handle: ready to jump out if it seems that the vehicle is about to part ways with treacherous, curving, uphill mountain roads...  :)  But here he amazed us all with his swimming prowess: the man swims like a fish....  :)

Usman was also in his elements in water and was thoroughly enjoying the experience. Samina turned out to be quite an adventurous gal as well. Manzoor was an apt swimmer and an expert in snorkeling. Bilal started out with quite an enthusiasm and energy but after a while he started feeling seasick. He came out of the water and lied down as he was really not feeling well at all. This gave Balouch an opportunity to gloat and which he did to it's fullest...  :)

It was no doubt Balouch's day and he milked it to it's extreme....  :)

I on the other hand very shamefully accept that I chickened out at the end...   :(  The most I did was float a few meters away from the boat and that too with Bilal and Samina's help. I really need to learn how to swim......  

But other than this it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Weather was gorgeous. The tan that we acquired that day was still with us even after 3 weeks.  We stayed at the place for about 3 hours or so. Khizar served us lunch i.e. really yummy biryani ( rice dish) and cold drinks.



On our way back: tired after our froliciking in the sun and sea

 We decided to build a sand castle once we were back on shore. Samina and Usman went in search of sea shells and other offerings from the sea for their aquariums back home.

After a short while it became apparent that our sojourn back into childhood was not that creative as we were unable to come up with any fortified shape for our castle. So we settled on a round shape giving it more of a dome look....   :P



Who's got a bigger mouth?!  :)

 So after filling our car with water we headed back to the city. We also noticed that the car was making a funny sound as well.

At the guest house after refreshing showers and much needed rest we went out to dinner at a restaurant called Sajjad's. Khizar also joined us. The food as usual was really sumptuous. A very good friend of Bilal's, Noreen, also joined us for dinner. She was a bit bumped out that we had not taken her with us for snorkeling, which was a clear over sight at our part. Sorry Noreen!   :)




Sajjad's, Karachi



So a great day with lots of fun and adventure and we also made a new friend, Khizar, one of our adventurous kind....  :)