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| early morning mist |
This is the last full day on the boat as we need to sail down to Guwahati to get our flight to Kolkata tomorrow, and the flight home on Friday.
We made about four hours of our fourteen hour sailing yesterday, but the mainstay of the journey is to take place today. Miles of sand banks and meandering river stretch out before us as we pass remote settlements where temporary homes are. Made of bamboo, these shacks are used until the monsoons come and then rebuilt wherever the new sandbanks are formed. They are mainly used by people cutting and selling reeds, and by fishermen who dry the fish over open fires and then save them for times when food is scare when the floods come.
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| Living on a Sandbank |
There is a huge Bangladeshi immigrant population who eke out a living with a few goats, some cows, occasionally sheep, and then a small allotment or a few banana trees. Although living in rough bamboo and mud huts they all look amazingly smart and colourful in their traditional dress.
Birds are not making much of a showing today with a few Ruddy Shelduck, Bar-headed Geese, Greylag, Gadwall, Mallard, Barn Swallows (but not in the high numbers of yesterday - as at 3 pm).
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| Ruddy Shelduck |
The boat stopped around 12.00 noon when we appeared to hit a sandbank which ground along the hull. We were in the downstairs lounge having a lecture on photograph composition at the time! After that there was a naan bread making demonstration which most enjoyed - the rest of us contented ourselves with relaxing on deck. As we dined, and then relaxed again - this bird watching is so stressful - the boat had still not moved and word went round that the men had paid the captain to delay the boat just long enough to prevent us getting not our destination in the to go to the market for clothes shopping. The next rumour was that there was a leak and the chef was preparing more naan bread to use as a patch. The reality remained unknown for some time.
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| Our local Welcome |
The unfortunate story is that two of the propeller shafts had been bent making it impossible to steer the boat. Try as they might the crew couldn't rectify the matter so dropped the anchor and we sat mid-river all night.
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| The moth of the trip! |
