As we approached Neil Island we could see the outline of beautiful beaches and swaying palm trees and we knew it had all been worth it!

We went with one of the resort touts in a free rickshaw to a resort called Pearl Park. The resort was beautiful, bamboo huts that were set around luscious gardens and the accommodation was cheap. 50Rs for what are called the chicken huts (if you see the pics you’ll know why), slightly bigger huts were 100Rs for a basic hut with no mattress and shared bathroom, and because there were very few tourists the resort was empty and so they offered us a bigger hut with a mattress and private bathroom for 200Rs. It was very nice so we took it and then headed off for a stroll on the beach which was beautiful and the sea was stunningly blue. Heading back to our resort we then realised that we were in mosquito hell, they were massive and everywhere, it was impossible to sit out so confined to our hut we called it a day.

The first thing the following day we packed up and checked out then went to the next resort called Tango. Little did we know that this was to be our home for the coming weeks and a place we dearly miss and will most definitely be back to. We were offered a hut for 100Rs, it had a mattress and a piece of tarp for a door, it was modest but cosy, and after the night before more importantly it was sea facing and so had a lovely breeze which would keep the mosquitoes away.

We went for some food at a restaurant in town called Chand’s, the “town” wasn’t really much of anything, far less than Havelock in fact and this was a real local place to eat. We got chatting to an English couple called Martin & Beth who advised us that the food was very good here but you had to wait a long time, they were right on both counts but it was worth it and extremely cheap. They told us they were spending a month on Neil and I remember thinking how odd, there’s nothing here! How can you possibly stay for that long? Little did we know then that that is exactly the beauty of this place.

The first few days at the Tango resort were spent settling in, we met some lovely people there that we grew to know quite well. The food there was very good, no problem with mosquitoes and the dogs were beautifully friendly, especially the little puppy called Panda who was also called ankle biter, trying to brush your teeth each morning was a dangerous game with him about. We were invited to a party one night on the beach which was good fun but we drank too much, myself especially and I still cannot go near Rum over a month later!

Still we were trying to fill our days with things to do and struggling because Neil Island isn’t that kind of place, we went diving one day with the only dive outfit on the island called Ocean Explorers.

The day didn’t start particularly well as we had waited nearly an hour for breakfast and then had to leg it to the jetty for the boat. I had lost my hired bike key along with my bag at the beach party and so Sam had to peddle like mad on his bike and give me a backy. Unfortunately by the jetty it goes downhill so against my wishes we picked up quite a bit of speed and then went flying over a ramp, well Sam stayed on the bike I went flying!!! So the dive was started with cut wrist, leg and feet which wasn’t ideal for wearing fins and jumping into salt water. I was then the first to enter the water and 20 mins later I was still sat in the water shivering waiting for the other divers to be kitted out. It’s a fairly new dive company and although we have no doubt the instructor is competent in the water there was a definite lack of organisation, neither of us were particularly bothered about repeating the experience. The dives were however pretty nice and that’s where we saw the turtles, the waters around Neil have a lot to offer.

So with diving ruled out we were still struggling with the fact we had nothing to do and even thought about leaving in search of another Island. We also had the dilemma of our visa which ended on Boxing Day, we had no way of finding out when the boat ran back to Chennai, we had asked at Havelock and Port Blair but no one seemed no know! We enquired about flights but they were out of our price range at about 180 pounds each. We had accommodation pre-booked over Christmas in Goa so we were toying with the idea of sticking with our original plan of going there.

We went for breakfast and said that we would make a decision that day on what we were going to do. We went for a walk on the beach first and there again we saw that familiar figure, Allanda! We had breakfast together and chatted with him about our options and he basically told us that we should stay, accept it and try just not doing anything, so that’s exactly what we did, we left our means of leaving the island to chance and headed off to sit on the beach with a book.

After a few days we got used to not doing anything and decided we quite enjoyed it! Days were spent drinking lots of tea, chatting with a great crowd of people at the resort, reading and snorkeling. We hung out with Allanda and explored the island which really is beautiful, the top end of the island near beach No 5 has some great little villages and you can walk through watching all the local farmers whilst the children all shout out “Hello!” repeatedly at you.

The snorkeling is very good at many different spots around the island. The couple we’d met at Port Blair ticket office who were also trying to get to Neil on that day, Henry and Marie, were also staying at Tango resort and Henry did a lot of snorkeling each day. He saw turtles and even dugons which are a rare site and supposedly a protected creature involving imprisonment for capture or harm, it was therefore a sad thing to find out that of the 9 remaining around the island a local fishermen had caught and killed one at Christmas time.

There is a great group of guys called Laurie, Nori and Dave who volunteer their time and money into looking after the dogs at Tango resort and had successfully done so for a few years now, thanks to them the dogs were well looked after and under a family planning scheme! The puppy Panda and all the other new puppies who’s den was in a tree in the middle of the resort, along with the older dogs, one of which Frank,  looked liked he’d been in many dog fights due to the big scar across his head but we later found out that was a machete wound courtesy of a local. They were all under their care and they also took it upon themselves to try and find out and bring to justice who had killed the Dugon, we hope they succeeded and can bring some education to the local fishermen.

On the 21st of Dec our neighbour who was a Russian lady called Ira, had gone to cancel her flight so she could stay for Christmas and returned with a ticket for the boat back to Chennai which left on the 26th, perfect for us. The next day we headed back to Port Blair, this time we knew fully what to expect and had made a pact that we wouldn’t get stressed, instead it would be a stroke of luck if we got a ticket and also an opportunity to do some shopping.

We were ready for this!