As you may already know that Sea or Vitamin Sea as you can say really is medicine for your mind and body. According to various studies, people who live by the coast have better physical and mental health. Sea waves are known to calm your nerves as their sounds and visuals activate your parasympathetic nervous system and eventually help you relax.
I recently happened to have visited Gadani with like-minded photography enthusiasts during a fine weekend and was taken aback because of the sheer beauty of the various spots at Gadani. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to travel from Karachi to Gadani which is quite a picturesque place no matter which particular beach you hit. We can only hope for perhaps less human intervention here, for unfortunately the Gadani beaches too are being polluted with trash, plastic waste being the major invasive item.
The picture above shows a lagoon at the first beach out of the three we went to and the ship breaking yard was another sight to see altogether. The soft sandy beach with water so clear that you could see tiny fish swimming along the waves gave a feeling of a fish spa; the only difference is that the fish could hurriedly swim away because of the vast space. Much to our surprise, there was a sea snake too which tried to pretend it was dead … One of us picked this actor up and sent it to Hollywood, in other words it sent to its natural habitat in the sea.
If you do visit, that you must, you’ll realize that Gadani truly is a gem that we have.
One of the group members brought a drone camera and all the dogs of the beach went berserk, gathering and trying to chase the flying alien, I’m sure they are not accustomed to alien or UFO sightings like us … we experience aliens almost on a daily basis in Karachi, most are angry at traffic jams, some express their delirious discontent with the authorities for the lack of basic amenities or rather the absence of, some complain of recurring Mondays. Basically, we are all aliens
Finally it was time to reach the SHIP BREAKING YARD!
Gadani ship breaking yard is the third largest ship breaking yard in the world. It’s almost like a necropolis of ships coming ashore to be dismantled and recycled. In other words, this place is the ships’ afterlife where they are judged based on their remaining potential to serve the world again.
Hats off to the diligent labourers who work hard for these ship breaking projects and truly earn by the sweat of their brow, working a 12 hour shift from 7 AM to 7 PM. With such astounding perseverance, they could go on forever. Do you what the faces look like that reflect hard work and put out a show of immense efforts? Below are those faces and tired eyes that keep the show going on!
One cannot simply imagine how labour intensive the job of ship breaking workers is, amidst the fumes and flames and those random sparks. The smell of the ship’s death was quite overwhelming and people like us can only watch these strong people perform in awe. This ambiance and place also reminded me of the song by Gordon Lightfoot called ‘The Wreck of Edmond Fitzgerald’, it’s simply beautiful, somehow good music has become extinct and perhaps the taste too.
Here are the men of steel in great action!
Our final destination (eh! Not that Final Destination or its sequel … was the third beach which didn’t seem to be haunted by any human being for several hours at least, it was still very, very clean and allowed to be left in its natural form as the sand felt too good to be sand itself.
Gadani is a must visit place, it’s really one of the gems in Balochistan that you should have been to already but it’s never too late!