Camping at Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach

Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach is a hidden gem of Orissa. This beach is recently explored and is one of the virgin beaches of Orissa. Located by the dense untouched forest of Tamarix tree at this beach you can explore your soul and embrace the calmness of nature while you walk by the sides of the roaring water. Dublagadi Badga Sea Beach comes under the Balasore Tehsil and is just 30 KMs from Balasore Railway Station. The primary attraction of Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach is the magical phenomenon of Blue Tide that is caused by luminescent marine life, known as Dinoflagellates. The chemicals present in the body of these phytoplanktons react with the phosphorus present in the coastal seawater causing a biogeochemical reaction resulting in the fluorescent colour in the waves.

At Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach you can witness a spectacular sunrise turning the white sands into a reddish one. During the day you can enjoy your time in the seawater while you are hugged by the waves. With the onset of darkness, you can soothe your ears with the sound of waves while you look upon the twinkling sky. If you are lucky enough, especially during the new moon you can watch the fluorescent sea waves under the bright open sky.

Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach has recently become a major attraction for travellers who are in love with beach camping. My Eco Camp managed by Gopal Manav would give you the perfect essence of it. My Eco Camp has put up several dome tents for tourists just a few meters ahead of the sea beach amidst the forest area. A night or two at this camp would give you the real feeling of camping by the beach. Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach will offer you the best bet for a weekend if you are in search of tranquillity.

We stumbled upon this destination because of Subhrangshu Da from Get Lost Eco Travel. They always make sure to send me the details of any new location they come up with and Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach was a new portfolio in their bucket. A quick google search with limited results revealed that it’s still a virgin destination and yet to be explored by the flock of tourists! Without wasting a further moment, I called up Subhrangshu Da and made our arrangements immediately after going through the pictures of it.

With that being done, the next action point was to fire up IRCTC and look for a suitable train to Balasore (BLS). After going through various available options, we made our reservation on HWH SC SPL (02703) which departs at 08:35 AM from Howrah and arrives Balasore at 11:38 AM. For the return journey, the same train SC HWH SPL (02704) which departs from Balasore at 13:53 hours and arrives Howrah at 17:40 hours is your best bet. However, we made an iconic mistake and instead reserved PURI HWH SPL (02838) which departs from Balasore at 01:11 hours and arrives Howrah at 04:45 hours, completely forgetting about the fact that the railway timings are in 24 hours! We didn’t realize this until that very day! Well, more on this later, eh?

Itinerary

Day 1 – 12th Feb 2021: HWH – BLS. BLS – Dublagadi Eco Camp

Day 2 – 13th Feb 2021: Dublagadi Eco Camp

Day 3 – 14th Feb 2021: Dublagadi Eco Camp – BLS. BLS – HWH

Tip: If you are making it all the way to it from Kolkata, I’d recommend spending at least 2N. Else it becomes much of a hectic journey.

How To Reach

Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach being located at around 30 KMs from Balasore, in Odisha, makes it easily reachable within 5 hours from Kolkata. The easiest way to reach Dublabadi Bagda Sea Beach is to take a train to Balasore (BLS) which is around 3.5 hours journey from Howrah (Kolkata). You may also take a bus to Balasore, however presently due to Covid19, Buses to Balasore are now limited and in most cases, it’s suspended.

For the onward journey, HWH SC SPL (02703) which departs at 08:35 AM from Howrah and arrives at Balasore at 11:38 AM makes the most sense to utilize most of the day. For the return journey, the same train SC HWH SPL (02704) which departs from Balasore at 13:53 hours and arrives at Howrah at 17:40 hours is your best bet. The aforementioned trains are special arrangements during the currently ongoing Covid19 phase. Please keep in mind, that these might change later. So please look up through IRCTC to find a convenient option.

From Balasore, you can either hire a reserved Auto which costs Rs. 600/- and can fit in 4 pax or a reserved Car which costs Rs. 1000/- – Rs. 1500/- depending on the vehicle. If you are a backpacker and a budget tourist, you may instead opt for public transport – Tata Magic / Auto at Rs. 60/- per head. However, please keep in mind that shared Tata Magic / Auto leaves at specific timings. As the timings keep changing, it’s best to confirm with your host. Being a local, he’ll be able to guide you based on the latest updates. However, if you are opting for the above-mentioned train, there’s a public transport that departs from Balasore at 11:00 AM.

What To See / What To Do

Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach is a hidden gem of Orissa. This beach is recently explored and is one of the virgin beaches of Orissa. Located by the dense untouched forest of Tamarix tree at this beach you can explore your soul and enjoy the calmness of nature. With the onset of darkness, you can soothe your ears with the sound of waves while you look upon the twinkling sky. If you happen to be there during the new moon, you can also experience a magical phenomenon commonly known as blue wave / blue tide. The spectacle occurs when phytoplankton produces light due to a chemical reaction with Phosphorus dissolved in seawater repeatedly participates in biogeochemical processes resulting in this magical phenomena of luminescent glowing waves!

The local tribal people add up to the essence of coastal life. They are very simple and friendly in nature. You may choose to interact with them and learn a ton about fishing and even participate with them on laying nets.

You may also choose to visit the local Bagda Market if you have never been to a fish ranch (macher arot). Well, a word of caution though! Don’t get lured by the unbelievable low price! It won’t make sense buying fishes from there and transporting them to Kolkata unless you are carrying a freezer with you! Haha!

Although I won’t recommend touristy activities at such a natural destination, however, if you are still up for it, you can reserve an auto and explore the local temples around. Odisha is famous for its rich architecture.

Day 1 – 12th Feb 2021: HWH – BLS. BLS – Dublagadi Eco Camp

We woke up at around 6 AM and took our own sweet time to get freshen up. We had our reservation on HWH SC SPL (02703) which departs from Howrah at 08:35 AM. At around 7 AM we booked a Uber and embarked on our journey to Howrah Railway Station. The journey to Howrah was surprisingly eventful! With the presence of dense fog, hardly anything was visible within the next 2-3 meters, especially near Victoria and Maidan. We were surprised and kept wondering if we have moved into some kind of hill station or what!

The train was right on time and our journey onwards to Balasore was smooth and uneventful. We reached Balasore at around 11:45 PM. Gopal Da – our host, was constantly in touch with us throughout the journey, keeping a tab on our whereabouts. Upon reaching Balasore, we couldn’t control our temptation for Dal Bora (a popular breakfast in Odisha). Throughout our journey, we chose to keep on starving so that we don’t have to take our mask off! I believe this added up to our temptation for Dal Bora!

After having a sumptuous breakfast with Idli and Dal Bora, we fixed on a reserved auto for Rs. 1000/- and proceeded towards our shelter for the next 2 nights – My Eco Camp at Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach.  The journey onward through the countryside was uneventful however smooth and enjoyable. Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach is around 30 KMs from Balasore Railway Station and takes around 1.5 hours.

Upon reaching the drop point, we found Gopal Da – the host of My Eco Camp was already waiting for us out there. He welcomed us warmly and guided us to the camp which was a 5 mins walk from the main road through the dense forest of Tamarix trees. We were already falling in love with the place and got our hopes high! Upon reaching the camp, Gopal Da asked if we’d like to have a glass of Lime Water or a Green Coconut. Well at such a location, coconut was an obvious choice for us!

I won’t lie, but upon reaching the camp, all our thoughts went into the vein as our first words were “Nah, Mousuni Island was way better than this!“. At Mousuni Island, we camped right at the beach itself. Here the camp was situated amidst the dense forest of Tamarix trees with no visibility of the beach. Little we knew what was in the bucket for us and we’d end up loving this place more than Mousuni Island!

Even though Mousuni Island has completely lost its charm nowadays, but 3 Years back when we first visited Mousuni Island, when it was still virgin and unexplored, we completely fell in love with that place. And what turned us off most is Mousuni back than hardly had 2-3 camps and here it is like 8-10 dome tents and more can be added. Obviously at such a virgin destination, within a limited area, if you put in multiple groups altogether, it’d be a turn off for all. Because with hotels or resorts you have the option to be confined in your rooms or balcony. However, at a camping destination, you’d definitely be spending most of your time outside in the common area.

Our first enquiry with Gopal Da was “How many groups are staying?” He answered, “No Dada, we only have another biker group besides yourselves. However tomorrow there’ll be 3-4 more groups coming in“. At that point in time, we knew, tomorrow there’s is going to be chaos and hell for everyone! However, what we liked and were quite surprised by it was, they have a few spare camping tables and chairs. So they can easily set-up a place for you to sit and enjoy besides your camp. Also for every 2 camps, you have a separate hammock where you can choose to take a swing. So technically, there is very less chance of stepping into another! However, we all know how it works back in India!

Moving on, even though the hosts sanitizes each camp after the last group takes a leave, however, we still, thought of sanitizing it for our own mental satisfaction! We already started considering this as a new normal and taking this extra cost into account since our first trip to Sundargram post Covid19!

We took our own sweet time to stroll through the camp and the forest around us. Dilip Da opt to swing in the hammock instead with his glass of whiskey! In an hour, our lunch was served. We were served Rice, Dal, Sabji and Fish Curry along with Salad. The food was homely and kinda okayish, but not that yummy though.

Later in the afternoon, we went ahead for a walk on the beach. It was just a 2-3 mins walk from the camp. The beach was astonishing and full of red crabs. The mild yellow beam from the sundown perfectly lightened up the mood. Although it was a beach without the sea! You’d have to walk at least a few KMs to reach the sea. It reminded me of our similar experience at Bankiput!

We noticed a few kids from the village were playing cricket. Dilip Da went ahead and joined them as an Umpire! This cheered up the kids and I found the perfect opportunity to frame a few memories. Dublagadi being a tribal village, I found the perfect opportunity to interact with the local people there. Most of them make their living out of fishing. We discussed a whole lot of detail related to fishing and their livelihood. They even invited us to for laying nets along with them!

There’s a makeshift canopy built by the locals, especially for the tourists. We went ahead and thought of taking rest for a while. We were enjoying this calmness and we loved the fact that we were the only tourists on the beach except for a few locals and those kids. It reminded us of the maddening crowd at popular beach destinations.

Hoping the locals would be able to answer we asked them about the sea! We came to know that presently we are experiencing low tide and the sea moves back around 5 KM away from the seashore during this period. We also learned that this is the opportunity that villagers use to walk to the deep sea and lay nets for fishing. High tide is expected to begin from around 8 PM onwards and the rest is obvious! Again the low tide is expected to resume back by midnight and the villagers would then use that opportunity again to walk back to the deep sea to pick up the nets at around 2 AM. Finally, they would clean up the nets and go to the nearby fish ranch to sell off the products. Again they would lay off the nets back between 4 AM – 5 AM, as the high tide is again expected to begin from around 8 AM. Once the low tide resumes back by noon, they would come back again in the afternoon to pick the nets back up and this process goes on for days, weeks, months and year. We were kinda taken aback over a glimpse of their life and we also got the answer for which we asked the question in the first place!

There’s hardly any activities out there once the evening settles in. We also went back to our camp as the daylight began to subside. However, we enjoyed our time off with those kids and the locals. A day well spent I’d say. To cope up with the boredom post evening, we had already ordered Barbeque over which we didn’t have much expectation though. However, out of the blue, it turned out to be delicious and perfectly cooked. Well yes, we are kinda snobbish with Barbeque because of our experiences at various destinations we have been to. In most cases, to make it quick, people end up burning the outer part of the chicken making it bitter in taste. Barbeque is meant to be slow-cooked and cannot be done in a hurry. Thus, going by our experiences, wherever we see there’s a flock of other tourists, we refrain from ordering a Barbeque there. Or at least we prefer asking, how many groups have ordered Barbeque or how many Barbeque orders are you going to take. Anyway, coming back to the point, the barbeque was perfectly cooked and it was delicious and yummy.

I had already scouted the location during my previous visit, and I wished to try out a star trail. So later at around 8 PM, we decided to go to the beach. As we reached the beach, we were left awestruck by the magical phenomenon that we experienced. It’s commonly known as blue wave / blue tide, a magical phenomena of luminescent glowing waves that occurs when phytoplankton produces fluorescent colour in the waves due to a chemical reaction with Phosphorus dissolved in seawater repeatedly participates in biogeochemical processes. This is the most visible and well experienced during the new moon.

Well, back when I was in college, I experienced this on my visit to Puri during Diwali, but I was hardly aware of all these details. And due to the immense light pollution in Puri, the experience was not that splendid, however, still a memorable one considering I was experiencing it for the first time. However, here at Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach, it was a completely different experience. Being a virgin beach with no light pollution, it felt like the sea waves and the sea bed is glowing! Dilip Da, Boudi and Suparna being experiencing something like this for the first time in their life, was mystified and left astounded. Well, I found the perfect frame I’d say.

Later after an hour, Gopal Da came up enquiring about us. He got scared when we went back to the camp and the staffs informed him that we went out to the beach in the dark. However, when we explained to him about this phenomena, he was left stunned and overwhelmed. He hugged me tightly and mentioned “Dada, apni ki khuje bar korechen. Amra ekhane jonmechi boro hoyechi kintu amra ei bepare kicchu janina. Amra konodin raate beach e ashbo bhabie ni. This is magical Dada“. (Dada, what a magical thing you discovered! We were born and brought up here and we never experienced this in our lifetime. We never thought of coming to the beach at night. This is magical). He immediately ended up calling the local villagers and started explaining this magical phenomena! It felt very honourable when all these people ended up gathering around me and trying to understand what exactly they are experiencing and what the hell am I trying to shoot in this darkness.

And as everyone was trying to cope up with this newly discovered thing, nature surprised us with meteor showers! This bought a bucket of joy to everyone present there on that day at that point in time. Meteor showers are something that’s very rarely experienced and I can’t thank nature enough to be one of the lucky ones to experience the same that very night.

We all ended up sitting there on the beach and enjoying these glowing waves while soothing our ears with the sound of waves while looking upon the twinkling sky. Later at around 10:30 PM, we went back to the camp as the glowing waves started to fade away gradually. Later, after having our dinner, we called off the day.

Day 2 – 13th Feb 2021: Dublagadi Eco Camp

We woke up with the chirping of birds and the soothing sound of distant sea waves. It was so calm and quiet around that one can even listen to his heartbeat. It’d be a dream to wake up like this every morning and begin a new day. We went ahead to the beach hoping to experience a splendid sunrise at such a virgin beach. After spending quite a joyous moment and experiencing the sunrise we came back to our camp by around 7 AM.

Soon, we were served Tea and Breakfast post which we rushed back to the beach. As explained by the locals last evening, Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach experiences high tide twice during the day. So we had our plans to rush to the sea to have a complete experience! The next few hours we enjoyed ourselves a lot before heading back to the camp. As the day proceeds the sun becomes harsher in this part of the country. As you can guess already, Dublagadi Sea Beach might be well off during summers. Considering this to be forest land, permanent constructions are not allowed. Neither one can purchase land or take a lease in this region. The owner had to go through a lot of hassle to start and set up camps here. The constructed washrooms have been destroyed a number of times. He had to go to the local MLA and involve Odisha Govt to make the forest dept make this single exception for benefit of tourism.

As you can guess, constructing hotels/resorts in this region is not possible which is obviously a good thing I’d say. And obviously, camps cannot be equipped with fans or such luxuries. Monsoon is when this forest turns deadly and fatal. The point where auto/car drops you is out of the forest area and constructions can be done there. Thus, to cope up with the summers and especially with the monsoon, Gopal Da is building another camp out of the forest region. Obviously, it’d a bit far from the beach, but the tourists who wish to visit Dublagadi during summers would have an option.

Unlike yesterday, a lot of groups have turned up and Gopal Da along with the staffs was having a hard time attending to all the guests and to their requests. Rest of the day passed by like a breeze while chitchatting amongst ourselves. Later at around 2 PM, we were served lunch. Today we deliberately asked for Egg Curry instead of Fish Curry. After having our lunch, we went back to our camp for a quick afternoon nap! Bengalis can never let go of their favourite bhaat-ghum!

Later in the afternoon, we went ahead to the beach. Although today, we couldn’t find the children playing anymore. As we kept walking along the beach, we noticed a crowd gathering at a distance. As we went forward, we noticed all those kids along with a lot of local villagers. We were kinda surprised noticing all of them together and was trying to figure out the reason. As we were about to proceed towards them, we noticed a drone out of nowhere following a couple on the bike along the shore. It took us no time to realize the reason behind the gathering! They all gathered here to experience the shooting of a local Odiya music video! We joined them to share the fun!

Later in the evening, we all returned back to our homestay. The evening was well spent over our poison and barbeque with our new acquaintances that we developed with a biker group who arrived today. I, spent my whole evening on the beach though, to try out my luck with astrophotography. Dilip Da took off the pain to keep serving me the barbeque throughout the duration!

Later at around 9 PM, Dilip Da along with our new acquaintances joined me at the beach. I realized they have become close friends over such a short duration. Everyone was quite excited to experience the magical phenomena. Although, the fluorescence was low compared to what we experienced yesterday, however still the glow could be noticed due to the surrounding being completely dark. We quite enjoyed amongst ourselves for the next few hours before heading back to the camp by around 11 PM only to find out about the power-cut! Generators also ran out of fuel! Well, this allowed us a chance of being tempted for having a candlelight dinner! Later, after having our dinner and chit-chatting for a while, we dozed off by around 12 AM.

Day 3 – 14th Feb 2021: Dublagadi Eco Camp – BLS. BLS – HWH

Today we woke up lazily at around 8 AM. Although I had plans to go to the beach with our new acquaintance Saikat Da, however somehow with waking up early for the last 2 days, I couldn’t make it. Today being Valentine’s Day, everyone was busy setting up balloons and decorating the camp.

We took our own sweet time to get freshen up as we were under impression that our train is going to depart from Balasore at 1 PM. However, luckily while waiting for our breakfast I thought of validating the PNR and was completely shocked when I noticed that our train has already reached Howrah in the early morning. Even though in the beginning, I was not able to understand how can this be even possible however, a quick glance over the timetable revealed the iconic mistake we made!

We completely forgot the fact that the train timings are in 24 hours format and it was 1 AM when the train was supposed to depart from Balasore, which it did! When we went ahead to Gopal Da for some suggestions on further options, he informed us that co-incidentally another group of 8 heads also had a reservation on the same train as ours and they too made the same mistake. With this news, Gopal Da became more tensed than us. I guess he sensed that we might not be able to check-out today and he has more groups arriving today. Luckily he had a few more spare camps and he set them all up in a blink of an eye to cater for his new guests that were about to arrive today.

Later he came to us and said, “Now that the tents are ready for the new guests, I’m relieved”. We sat down together and asked for suggestions on further options that we have on our plate. He made a few calls and informed us that due to Covid19, Buses from Balasore to Howrah / Esplanade are suspended. He further informed us that there might be a few buses still running, but he couldn’t get any concrete information. He was happy to take us to Balasore Railway Station to enquire about the same.

Even though there are buses from Bhubaneswar to Howrah / Esplanade that can be booked from online bus ticketing platforms, but unfortunately none of those buses makes a stop at Balasore. However, as the buses must pass through Balasore, Gopal Da suggested us to check with the online ticketing platforms if we can request them to make a halt and pickup from Balasore, but all our effort went in vain.

After several rounds of discussion and brainstorming for half an hour, we realized we only had 4 options left.

• The cheapest option is to take a local train to Kharagpur and then onwards take a local train to Howrah.
• Try reserving the seat on Tatkal Quota on the same train i.e. PURI HWH SPL (02838) and we can leave after having our Dinner.
• Try Tatkal Quota for the train that we actually should have booked i.e. SC HWH SPL (02704) for tomorrow afternoon.
• And finally, the last option was, Bapi Da (a local car operator and a friend of Gopal Da) can drop us at Kharagpur and from there we can take a local train to Howrah. Although, Gopal Da requested Bapi Da to drop us at Howrah / Esplanade instead, however, he already rented out the vehicle to a wedding tonight and thus, he must return by the evening.

After considering all the options deliberately, we choose to go ahead with the last option. It was the most convenient but the most expensive! Although Gopal Da requested us a few times – “Please stay back, we’ll arrange a candlelight dinner for you all on the beach. It’d be fun today. You can leave tomorrow”. We gave it a thought, but we had our deliverables pending and unexpected leaves during this time of the year won’t be granted in a good manner! If you know what I mean! So we chose to stick to our plan and made Gopal Da understand about our obligations.

Gopal Da made necessary arrangements with Bapi Da for our journey onward. Bapi Da would drop us to Kharagpur for Rs. 3000/- and from there onwards we’d have a local to Howrah. After bidding goodbye to Gopal Da and the whole team, and with promises to stay in touch, we left for our journey back home. Even though the journey was completely uneventful however we found Bapi Da to be very friendly and a nice person to travel with.

Reviews :

My Eco Camp, Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach: Located 30 KMs from Balasore, Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach is one of the unexplored and virgin beaches of Odisha. The camping experience amongst the dense untouched forest of Tamarix trees will let you explore your soul and embrace the calmness of nature while you walk by the sides of the roaring water. At Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach you can witness a spectacular sunrise turning the white sands into a reddish one. During the day you can enjoy your time in the seawater while you are hugged by the waves. With the onset of darkness, you can soothe your ears with the sound of waves while you look upon the twinkling sky. If you are lucky enough, especially during the new moon you can experience the magical phenomenon of fluorescent sea waves commonly known as blue wave / blue tide.

The camp premises and the camps are very clean and well maintained. Considering a beach destination, they clean off the campsite and the camps thrice daily to get rid of the sands. During our stay for 2N/3D, we noticed them sanitizing each and every camp before checking in new guests. The washrooms, (obviously not attached) are large, clean and well maintained. The food though has a scope of improvement. It’s homely and completely hygienic however a bit bland in taste. Gopal Da – the owner and the host of My Eco Camp and all the staffs are very friendly and co-operating. They are always there for anything you need.

I’d say we really enjoyed our stay here.

Costing :

My Eco Camp, Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach: Rs. 1200/- per head per day including food and lodging

Barbeque: Rs. 200/- per KG

Our total cost for the trip was Rs. 22,000/- for 4 pax for 2N/3D including train tickets, whiskey, accompaniments for whiskey, barbeque and misc. costs such as breakfast en-route. It’d have not gone to that if we would not have chosen to travel to Kharagpur via private vehicle.

Contacts :

Get Lost Eco Travel – Sintu Da : +91 98368 30342 | Subhrangshu Da : +91 98313 09512 | Email : getlostecotravel@gmail.com. We came to know about the destination from Subhrangshu Da. Both Sintu Da and Subhrangshu Da being a close acquaintance of mine they keep updating me whenever they come across a new destination.

Gopal Da (Host at My Eco Camp, Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach) : +91 97111 07339 / +91 70119 3742 | Website: My Eco Camp. You can refer to their Facebook Pages My Eco Camp, Dublagadi Sea Beach, Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach for recent updates.

Bapi Da : +91 99370 40822. He can arrange your pick up/drop to & from Dublagadi Bagda Sea Beach. You can contact him for any of your transport needs at Dublagadi / Balasore.