Day 2 - Chilika Lake & Narayani

We arrived promptly at 8:45 AM as said, but had to wait for other passengers till the tour kicked off. For the day, a Tavera had been organized as the number of people were less. Finally, one by one came and we started from Railway station only by 9:30. To our surprise, the old couple from previous day tour joined us along with 2 other ladies.

It took about 1.5 hours (100 kms) to reach Barakul, the starting point of the boat ride on Chilika. There were a few people waiting already and as soon as we joined, got tickets for a 3 hour boat ride at Chilika covering Kalijai island and the bird sanctuary. The 20 seater boat costed Rs. 850 per hour, and we were around 15 people by then. We started the ride by 11:30.

Chilika Lake is Asia's largest brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khurda and Ganjam districts of Orissa state, at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal. It is the largest coastal lagoon in India and the second largest lagoon in the World. The lake is home to a number of threatened species of plants and animals and provides largest wintering ground for migratory birds. The best season to visit Chilika was October to December and we were at the right time :) It’s so huge that you feel you are in the middle of a sea, with no visibility of the shores.

After about half an hour into the lake, we reached the Kalijai island where a small temple of Goddess Kali is located. We went to the temple and then later adored the beauty of Chilika Lake.

After that, the ride continued for an hour before we reached the bird sanctuary. Its a mind boggling sight at the sanctuary with water covered everywhere and birds flying all over at a distance. Sigh, I'm not a bird watcher ;)

We could make out 5-6 different species of birds, but not their IDs.

After being there for about half an hour, we drove back to Barakul and it took a little more than an hour to reach the boarding point. This was the longest boat ride I've ever had earlier. Thoroughly enjoyed each and every minute of the boat ride both sides.

We thought lunch would be arranged by the time we got back at Panthanivas, but we were disappointed on hearing that the lunch timings were already over as it was 3:30 PM. They gave some kind of pulav rice which we managed to eat somehow as it tasted bad and we were really hungry.

After food, we went further down Chilika to a small temple located on the hills - Narayani temple. It is about 6 kms from Barakul. Goddess Durga is worshipped here. We quickly had darshan of the temple and proceeded back to Bhubaneswar as it started getting dark by 5 PM itself.

We reached Bhubaneswar at around 7 PM and did the bookings for next day’s Puri-Konark trip which costed Rs. 350 per head. He asked us to be by 8 AM the next day, but we knew what he meant!