Ganga-Pattanam Beach & Village Visit Itinerary
Ø Tour Operator
Windey-Vivekananda library
&youth club
Village Reconstruction
Organisation (https://www.vroindia.org/), founded by Prof.
Fr. Michael Anthony Windey, a Jesuit, in the year 1969 to provide relief to
the villagers who were devastated by the disastrous floods in the coastal
region of Andhra Pradesh has put in place a detailed plan for the promotion of
tourism in the coastal village to educate and empower the villagers with an
alternative way of income and life.
Unfortunately, after the death of the visionary Belgian Professor Priest, whose
initial plan for the beach tourism included a simple, yet, well provided for,
room in each chosen village home to accommodate the tourists who would visit
for the Beach and volunteer tourism, fell apart and the facilities the humanist
built is lying wasted.
Windey-Vivekananda Library & Youth Club is trying
to revive Prof. Windey’s Tourism plan.
Ø Itinerary
Gangapatnam,
the small fishing village, is 25 kms away from the Nellore Central. The 40
minutes ride to the village and the beach become pleasant as soon as one
crosses the city limit and start the village road with lush green fields and
tall and green coconut palms on either side.
A stop at the Fish farms
Informative and
entertaining, the fish farm visit gives an opportunity to meet the villagers
who are engaged in fish farming, to experience their routines, methods, the
types of fishes in the farm and the way they grow them.
The excursion
offers a guided tour by a local Village farm hand.
Village
house visit
The next stop of the trip is at the house of Ramesh,
our tour operator, a friendly and informative resource person; he will invite
us to his home, introduce his family members, show his house around, take us to
his vegetable garden and tell us about his village and its people.
After a small refreshment we start
our walk towards the beach lead by Ramesh and his team which includes, most of the time, his two
school going children.
Prof.
M.A.Windey’s forgotten legacy
On the way to the beach, Ramesh and his team will take
us for a de-tour to the village where we can meet and talk with the villagers;
men, women, their children, elders in the families. The sea going men will be
usually sitting by the way side knitting their nets catching up on old times,
women talking to their neighbours, children gladly accompanying the visitors
through their new concrete roads which government has built for them recently,
under the various social welfare schemes.
Here, Ramesh wills show us the remains of the Prof.
Windey’s dreams, the houses he has built for the villagers after the flood and
storm, the school, the nursery, the library, social activity centre etc..
A wonderful opportunity to meet the villagers, to talk
with them, learn about their lives, their joys and worries. By now the whole of
the village will know about your visit and you will be accompanied by a group
of innocent children with sweet smiles.
Buckingham
Canal
On our way towards the beach, we have to cross a
narrow concrete bridge over a canal, which calls for some explanation of
history. During the colonial times, especially in the British period, they have
a constructed a canal from Kakinada (a district in Andhra Pradesh) to all the way to Madras and beyond to Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu) for the safe
passage of their ships and cargo during the monsoon months (October to December)
when Bay of Bengal will be unusually wild and violent like the Royal Bengal Tigers.
Though the canal still stays even today, it has taken the beating of the time, since
becoming useless after the road transportation developed after independence.
(The Canal and its surroundings if properly developed
would become an ideal location for the water sports and tourism. )
The
Beach
Further ahead, after the oldest temple of the village, one could start smelling the sea. Beyond the vast empty spaces and over the
sand hills lie the Bay of Bengal, whose waves can be heard from the Buckingham
canal bridge. As we walk by the empty space between the sea and the village,
one can only imagine with terror the fury of the storm and the flood which made
the sea going villagers to abandon their near coastal settlements for the
safety of deeper inland.
The beautiful beach with white sand is almost empty
and one could have the entire beach to oneself as Gangapatnam is still
unheard of as a beach location in the tourism circuit. Our Ramesh and his team
become extremely helpful here as they would advise us to which part of the
beach to approach.
Toward left, if
we walk up nearly 300 meters we can reach the spot where the Buckingham canal
joins the sea. Inside the beach is the back water where water is running and
shallow, better for recreation and water sports.
The
Return
After having our fill at the sea and the beach, we can return by
walk lead by Ramesh, to his house where we have parked our car/Van. On the way
before the canal and the temple we can see the fishermen and their families of
the Yanadi Tribe and their settlement. They are still more like gypsies, moving with the season, but friendly and approachable.
Back at Ramesh’s house, he will serve us warm Dal
Vada, which tastes heavenly with a cup of tea after our exertions at the sea.
After, bidding bye to Ramesh and his team and the
scores of school children that are following us we can return to Nellore.
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