Jarada Island: The Blink & Miss Haven Of Bahrain

Located far away from the mainland and in the middle of the Gulf, Jarada island is a unique natural wonder in Bahrain that is so small that it appears and disappears every few hours, with the rising tide.

- Varsha Singh

It was still barely dawn, but our adventure had already begun. Sporting life-vests and holding the rails tight, because our lives literally depended on our grip, as soon as our speed boat left from the jetty at Prince Khalifa bin Salman Park, it was bouncing off the waves of the Gulf, almost vaulting us up in the air or sending us hurtling down as it skimmed the surface of the sea.

After about 45 minutes of a rather bumpy, yet fun and adrenalin-pumping ride, all of a sudden, we came to a halt in the middle of nowhere, far away from land. For several moments, I could not figure out why we had stopped abruptly as the boat, now still, began swaying gently with the waves that lapped its sides. At one point, I began to wonder if the boat had not developed a snag, bringing it to a halt like this.

"Just wait and watch," was all our guide said when I asked him about why we had stopped in the middle of the sea. All I could see, and at a fair distance, was what looked like a mini lighthouse or some kind of navigational aide sticking out of the water. So, we all sat. Patiently, waiting and watching. And viola! After sometime, the answer began to literally appear on its own from underneath us, or rather from beneath the water.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, as the high tide began to recede, land emerged, allowing the crew of our boat to cast the anchor into the sand below and asked us to disembark from the boat. Stepping into water that had by now receded to almost ankle-levels, we walked towards what looked like the highest point of this mystery land - the same pole that had been sticking up from under water and which we could clearly see as a marker for the boats plying in the area, warning them about Jarada, the disappearing island of Bahrain.