I began the odyssey to have a glimpse of the Royal Bengal Tiger, in the wild, at around 7:45 am. That's when I arrived at Rajesh's office. He invited me in and then I waited for the departure time. Shortly thereafter the other five people on the same trip arrived. They were a family from Israel, a mother and father and their three daughters. Introductions were made all around and soon we headed through Rajesh's house to the van that would take us to the reserve area. We got all our gear in and headed out. Almost immediately there was a minor problem. We stopped on a street in town and the driver explained that the horn wasn't working, so we couldn't go anywhere. The cynic in me thought that we could probably proceed with any other problem, from a flat tire to even a seized engine, but the horn, the blessed horn that all Indians (and Chinese, and Thais, and Vietnamese) love to use sooooo much, was much too vital to go on without. I also fully realize that in India, the roads can be so narrow and twisting that the horn has to be in working order to let people know something is coming. But they use it in far too many other unnecessary instances as well, so it gets really noisy.
Now, where I just thought these thoughts to myself, Matty (the Israeli father) gave voice to those same sorts of thoughts. That's when I began to suspect that this family could be a bit difficult to deal with, at least by the guides and people taking care of the tour. I didn't think I was going to have any difficulty with them, but I suspected they might come to be regarded poorly as guests by Rajesh and company.
Anyway, somewhere nearby Om and the driver found someone who could fix the horn and they set about doing just that. In fairly short order we were on our way once again. We headed out of the city along much the same route that I had taken with Om on the city tour the previous day. We passed the cemetery, and one of the mission churches founded by Mother Teresa. We passed the garbage mountain as well. But then we were on the open road and among the rural fields and canals. I think it was probably much of what I had seen from the air as the plane approached Kolkata. I had seen a lot of rivers and water filled fields. At the time, I had wondered if I could find a way to go out and see them and experience them. I didn't think it was going to be possible, but I guess I was wrong.
At length, Matty again exposed a rather demanding side. We had been driving for a while and were a bit road weary. He made the strong suggestion that we should stop for some chai and breakfast. As part of the trip, from the time we started to the breakfast of the last day, Rajesh had stated that we would not have to shell out any further money. This included breakfast on the first day. None of us had taken the breakfast offered at the very beginning, and it was packed along for when we might get hungry. Matty decided the time had come and made that known. Now, there is a lot to be said for just making requests. I personally have a tendency to just wait until something is offered and, of course, that often means that I don't get anything. You don't often get what you don't ask for. But I did find Matty's requests were rather abrupt and bordered on demands. Again, not my problem, but I figured it could get old after a while.
Om and the driver chose a spot to stop a few minutes later. There was a little roadside stand and we got out and had some tea (chai) and our breakfast. We were also in a rather nice setting, so I took the opportunity to take some photos.
Across the road from us there was a fishing hole, and a man was throwing his net out to catch something. I got a rather nice action shot.
Then we continued on to the ferry station we caught our boat out to the Sundarban area. We were to be staying in a village near the reserve and had to take a boat to get there. From the ferry dock it was a one and half hour drive to get to our accommodation in the village. Along the way we saw lots of rural scenes. The river we were riding on is in a delta and so at times has lots of water. There must be some fairly severe flooding at times because all along the river there were high levees. These also served as roads or walkways for the local villages.
At length we arrived at the little village on a little island. It was located right across from the tiger reserve. The view from the balcony at the top of the guest house gave a nice view over the surrounding village.
Once we were ensconced in our rooms, we headed out with Om and another guide, Ajay. We took a walk along the edge of the village before boarding a small rowboat to go out to the mangroves and go birdwatching.
Not many birds were actually spotted, but we did see a few, like this owl.
Our boatman, though, cut a rather striking figure. And the setting sun over the mangroves. It was the end of the first day of the trip to the Sundarban Tiger Reserve, and it had been a very nice one.
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