Thread Starter
#1
The following is an attempt to capture the experience of a trip to the Sunderbans we made a couple of years ago.
Because, lurking somewhere inside is the hope that others, who may have a better record of their own travel experience to the place (but have not yet started a thread) maybe encouraged to start a thread of their own.
Though we have been touring by road for the better part of the past couple of decades, our trips have mostly been confined to specific cities/places – Mumbai>Goa, Mumbai>Lucknow, Mumbai>Madikeri, Lucknow > Naukuchiatal, Lucknow>Kolkata - and sadly we did not think of keeping good visual or written records of these trips. One reason was that during many of these trips (before 2001) digital photography had not yet become the rage that it is today.
The one region to which we have devoted time and leisure is Uttaranchal, and specifically, the region around Naukuchiatal in Kumaon (my travelogue thread “Naukuchiatal – Far from the madding crowd” has been submitted earlier). Sunderbans as a destination was always there at the back of our minds, but lack of information (& laziness too) about touring in Bengal was a subconscious deterrent. I became a part of the TBHP family only in Jan. 2014.
Around this time (early 2013) we attended our daughter’s wedding in Florida, USA, where she married one of her colleagues (both doctoral candidates) at the Univ. of Central Florida. The subsequent plan was that they would come to India during the coming winter and spend sometime here. And this is where the Sunderbans came into the picture.
Apart from our daughter Tisha & the two of us (my wife & I) there would be 5 newly added family members – our daughter's husband Christopher, her parents-in-law Lynne and Mike, her brother-in-law Brian and her sprightly 89 year old maternal grandmother-in-law, Mrs. Rhode! So we opted for safety - a package tour of 1 night and 2 days on a houseboat which would take us on a pre-determined itinerary around the Sunderbans estuary, with one night anchored in mid-stream - and also, hopefully, we would see something of this famed and protected animal habitat.
We booked the houseboat “Whispering Winds” for our group (for the 18th and 19th of Nov. 2013); a reasonably well appointed vessel, with cabin accommodation that had air-con and attached WC and bath. One major consideration for doing this was the well-known mosquito menace in the Sunderbans and our deep reluctance to having any of our guests succumbing to a mosquito-borne illness.
The trip commenced with us leaving, after an early breakfast, by the transport provided by the tour operators (SUNDARBAN HOUSEBOAT.com) - a Maruti Dezire and a Toyota Innova - both in passable condition, already waiting for us. These would be taking us to Godkhali jetty, where we would board the houseboat and start on our tour proper.
I won’t waste time on the drive to Godkhali Ferry Ghat via N.S.C. Bose Road, through Narendrapur to Baruipur and from there via SH3 to Canning and on to Godkhali. The journey was uneventful apart from the usual traffic holdups and delays that one comes to accept as normal on our roads. We arrived at the Godkhali Ferry Ghat around 12 noon and headed straight for “Whispering Winds” waiting for us.
What follows is a photologue of the tour and as is my normal habit I have tried to provide captions for each photograph so that a narrative is not seriously missed, though I have added my comments now and then - some, admittedly a bit off-topic, for which I request your indulgence! To be honest, our minds at the time were also pre-occupied with other more mundane matters, being the parents of the bride!
Well then, for better or for worse - bouquets or brickbats - here goes!
Because, lurking somewhere inside is the hope that others, who may have a better record of their own travel experience to the place (but have not yet started a thread) maybe encouraged to start a thread of their own.
Though we have been touring by road for the better part of the past couple of decades, our trips have mostly been confined to specific cities/places – Mumbai>Goa, Mumbai>Lucknow, Mumbai>Madikeri, Lucknow > Naukuchiatal, Lucknow>Kolkata - and sadly we did not think of keeping good visual or written records of these trips. One reason was that during many of these trips (before 2001) digital photography had not yet become the rage that it is today.
The one region to which we have devoted time and leisure is Uttaranchal, and specifically, the region around Naukuchiatal in Kumaon (my travelogue thread “Naukuchiatal – Far from the madding crowd” has been submitted earlier). Sunderbans as a destination was always there at the back of our minds, but lack of information (& laziness too) about touring in Bengal was a subconscious deterrent. I became a part of the TBHP family only in Jan. 2014.
Around this time (early 2013) we attended our daughter’s wedding in Florida, USA, where she married one of her colleagues (both doctoral candidates) at the Univ. of Central Florida. The subsequent plan was that they would come to India during the coming winter and spend sometime here. And this is where the Sunderbans came into the picture.
Apart from our daughter Tisha & the two of us (my wife & I) there would be 5 newly added family members – our daughter's husband Christopher, her parents-in-law Lynne and Mike, her brother-in-law Brian and her sprightly 89 year old maternal grandmother-in-law, Mrs. Rhode! So we opted for safety - a package tour of 1 night and 2 days on a houseboat which would take us on a pre-determined itinerary around the Sunderbans estuary, with one night anchored in mid-stream - and also, hopefully, we would see something of this famed and protected animal habitat.
We booked the houseboat “Whispering Winds” for our group (for the 18th and 19th of Nov. 2013); a reasonably well appointed vessel, with cabin accommodation that had air-con and attached WC and bath. One major consideration for doing this was the well-known mosquito menace in the Sunderbans and our deep reluctance to having any of our guests succumbing to a mosquito-borne illness.
The trip commenced with us leaving, after an early breakfast, by the transport provided by the tour operators (SUNDARBAN HOUSEBOAT.com) - a Maruti Dezire and a Toyota Innova - both in passable condition, already waiting for us. These would be taking us to Godkhali jetty, where we would board the houseboat and start on our tour proper.
I won’t waste time on the drive to Godkhali Ferry Ghat via N.S.C. Bose Road, through Narendrapur to Baruipur and from there via SH3 to Canning and on to Godkhali. The journey was uneventful apart from the usual traffic holdups and delays that one comes to accept as normal on our roads. We arrived at the Godkhali Ferry Ghat around 12 noon and headed straight for “Whispering Winds” waiting for us.
What follows is a photologue of the tour and as is my normal habit I have tried to provide captions for each photograph so that a narrative is not seriously missed, though I have added my comments now and then - some, admittedly a bit off-topic, for which I request your indulgence! To be honest, our minds at the time were also pre-occupied with other more mundane matters, being the parents of the bride!
Well then, for better or for worse - bouquets or brickbats - here goes!
