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Day eight started in the middle of the night. Our alarms were set for 3am with the plan that the bus would collect us from the main road at 4am. Often things don't quite go according to plan so at 4am the bus driver had realised that he couldn't get the bus through the school gate, this meant that all the contents of the school kitchen were carted out of the gate and onto the bus, as was all the food. The staff from the school and the children who were accompanying us on the trip were then loaded on the bus. Eventually we were herded to the main road at 4.45am to board the bus. A 60 seater bus is the same size as a 40 seater bus but there are 3 seats together on one side of the aisle a bit like an aeroplane. It should also be pointed out that bus journeys are not the smooth ride that we are used to on English roads, it is a much more bumpy, start-stop experience with lots and lots of aggressive beeping. I'm not entirely sure how but most of the group settled down to sleep for the 3 or so hour journey to the Sunderbans.
The Sunderbans is the delta of the Ganges and flows out into the Bay of Bengal. It is a very significant place for the planet as it is a Mangrove Forest, in Bengali, Sunderbans actually means beautiful forest, and it certainly is. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and the Mangroves are as important for the planet as the Amazon rain forest. It is also home to the Royal Bengali Tiger.
We were going to be spending a whole day on a boat, wildlife spotting. Our students and the children at the school have worked so very hard throughout the week and this was a chance to do something quite incredible. I had considered the first time I did this trip the chance of a life time and feel immensely privileged to be able to go again.
Once all the kitchen equipment had been carried from the bus to the boat by the 10 men who had special bandages for their heads, not because they were injured, but so that they could carry heavy boxes, giant balti dishes and other things that we were taking with us for the benefit of having safe, good food and drink all day on a 10-11hour boat trip.
Once we were all loaded the boat set off, as we settled down and made ourselves comfortable. The latter was not hard as their were beds and cabins dotted around the boat. Anup adopted the central upstairs cabin from where he could direct all proceedings and still see what was going on. A number of students and Mathieson children settled on an open air bed at the stern and another group found that the bow provided a novel perch and great view.
Breakfast was served, Brioche, fruit, cake and little curd sweets that are really just pure sugar. As we headed towards the first stopping point Dan, Ange and myself had to fill out forms for each of our party with visa, passport and travel date details. The bureaucracy here is something to behold, one piece of paper is never enough if six will suffice, and they must all be in duplicate or triplicate at least. The good thing was that we could simply hand them over and pay for our permission to enter the Mangrove (200 rupees per person) much quicker then the hour we had spent waiting for this process to be completed last time we visited.
At this point I also introduce Shanti, our guide for the day, whose name means peace. He was such a good guide when we visited the Sunderbans before that he was booked again. He is great at spotting tigers and all sorts of other wildlife. As we wend our way through the jungle he pointed out to us various fauna and flora.
The significant sightings of the day were a huge crocodile, maybe as much as 10ft long, a couple of monitor lizards, and a couple of kingfishers. I glanced over the water at one point and saw a pale greyish pinkish something that dipped under the surface reminiscent of a great crested grebe from the Norfolk Broads. Pointed it out to Ange, blinked and she said it's a dolphin - so I can say I saw a Ganges River dolphin even if I hadn't identified it. At another point I was watching the waters edge and I saw a large dark brown bird with a beak like a hawk. This time I managed to get a photograph which I showed to Shanti - his first response was that it was a large hen, for which I was suitably embarrassed and disappointed, but on second inspection concluded it was a Serpent Eagle.
Dan thinks he caught the behind of a tiger as it stood up and slinked off, no photographs so no-one can deny his claim, therefore we can collectively say that we spotted a Royal Bengali Tiger.
Lunch was as to be expected, delicious curry and lots of it, freshly cooked. Shanti had suggested that we didn't get off the boat for the short walks in the jungle, like we had done on our previous trip to the Sunderbans because there were lots more tour boats around and we would see more from the boats than the hide. Most of the group got off at the one stop we did try. I stayed on the boat with the couple of students who weren't up for the walk. We dropped the group off the our boat pulled away from the mooring and joined a little party of moored up boats in the middle of the river. The crews were all chatting, getting food and taking the chance to have a quick bucket shower on the deck. In typical Bengali style as the groups began to reach the quay ready for collection all 10 boats headed in at the same time in some kind of mad boat crush. Our captain had relinquished the steering to his young apprentice who managed to take out a few branches from the overhanging tree in his attempt to cut in on the inside. Lots of shouting ensued (rather like what happens when buses and lorries try to get past each other on narrow roads). The group were crowded in behind gates, to keep them safe from the wildlife but it reminded me of the crush in the Titanic film when all the lower class passengers are locked behind the gate.
Apparently Dan dropped his sunglasses over the edge of the viewing platform, whereupon a very enthusiastic and somewhat foolhardy tourist from another group hopped down to retrieve them for him - and they wonder why 50 people a year get killed by tigers?
Once everyone was safely back on the boat we gently chugged our way out into Tiger Bay and watched the sunset over the river with a huge number of photos to remember the moment.
We did the last part of our trip in the dark and disembarked around 7pm ready for a long and bumpy bus ride home. The drivers approach to speed bumps was interesting - fast fast fast, emergency stop for speed bump, fast fast fast emergency stop for speed bump etc etc etc.
We finally got back to Satyen Park at around 10.30pm
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