We’ll start this day at Sundarbans ready to spend the most of
the
day exploring the area marked as Sajnekhali Wildlife Sancturay (the
green one at map).
On this tour we’ll enjoy this huge mangrove, whether on boat or foot,
looking for sightings of its peculiar fauna. We’ll go to the top of
three watch towers:
- Sajnekhali
- Sudhanyakhali
- Dobanki
We’ll be taken to Kolkata airport sometime in the
afternoon with enough time to board our flight to Delhi scheduled at
8:25 PM.
Once in the capital city, we’ll be picked up to take us to Silver Ferns
Hotel, where part of our baggage will be waiting for us.
After
Day starts early: at 6:30 AM we already are in
front of our bungalow with the baggage ready to leave. Yesterday we
were to bed early too, so no pain for the time.
At 7 AM we’re taking our seats in the boat deck
and wait seeing how the people of the village is taking mud which they
must use for multiple things. We know we’re going to lunch chicken
today as the staff is bringing one alive to the boat.
When we arrive to Sajnekhali it is still closed,
so we must wait for some minutes to the small boat with the guides to
appear. We’re taking one with us to the Reserve.
Since this point we sail, first attending the explanation
from the guide, and then exploring the shores at both sides of the
river looking for a peep of local fauna. We see a Monitor Lizard and
some birds.
One hour later we do our first visit out of the boat to the
Sudhanyakhali Camp. In the mud at the entrance we see our first red
fiddler crab. We will see hundreds of them during the day.
A path protected by a tall wire fence at both sides takes to
the watch towers where we can have a glimpse of the big tongues of mud
which bright let us guess they get full of water on high tide.
The protection fences have really a point here;
we’ve already detected yesterday a net over all the Northern part of
the Reserve. The guide explains tigers are very difficult to be seen
here, but they are, and in a place like this there is a lack of food,
just one lizard or monkey for the most of their days, so they’re always
hungry here. This makes tigers, as unbelievable as it can seem, have
swum the 200 or 300 meters of river from the reserve to the islands
with villages to eat some person. The net is there to avoid this
happens again.
We sail two and a half hours more through the
narrower parts of this endless mangrove to Dobanki Camp. In all this
way we’ve been watching a bunch of water birds, like the Marabou, which
we already know from Kenya.
Here the watch tower is in a closed square circuit
in a level above the ground, all wire fenced, which allows exploring
securely a big area with a lot of crabs and cone shells. We have the
proof tigers get close to here in the form of footprints in the mud
along the fence.
In the mud of the camp entrance we can see, a part
of the mentioned red fiddler crabs and cone shells, some other yellow
ones with blue parts.
We’ve spent the morning exploring the mangrove and
now is time to lunch while the boat is taking the way back through the
wide part. This part goes directly to the sea, so we can see some big
ship’s cargo on their way to leave the continent.
We still are two more hours on boat enjoying this
unique landscape and some of the birds here, as the Kingfisher.
It’s around 4 PM when the boat stops in the quay we know from
yesterday is taking to the road. The Boss promises we’ll get Kolkata
airport on time for our flight, which is also the
destination for other couple of the group. We go with him on his car
and the other couple goes in front of us with the driver who took us to
here yesterday. Here we go for a three hours ride through rural India
until meeting the night and the city.
We’re
delivered at airport with time enough for the procedures and to find
out our flight is the only in the list which is delayed. Fortunately it
is only 30 minutes, so we’re in Delhi’s airport by 11:30 PM.
This time we follow the same steps than in Kolkata: join the line on
police desk and prepay a taxi to our hotel in Salek: the Silver Ferns.
There we take back the bag we left four days ago and rest in our room
our last night in India.
destination for other couple of the group. We go with him on his car
and the other couple goes in front of us with the driver who took us to
here yesterday. Here we go for a three hours ride through rural India
until meeting the night and the city.
