The Sunderbans

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Blogger Dougo

We have just returned from a trip to the Sundarbans National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of mangrove forest, jungle, tidal rivers and grasslands.

It was with great anticipation that we left Dhaka at around 9:30pm on Thursday, with our tour company, The Guide Tours. After viewing a pride of 20 odd lions in Africa, I was so hoping to get a glimpse on the reclusive Bengal tiger on this trip. On a 20 seater bus with Bec and I were a bunch of other teachers from ISD including our French teacher Francois' mum. Having heard horror stories about the travel time from Dhaka to the boat, we were having bets about what time we would actually arrive at the river. I volunteered 8:30am (11 hours). Fortunately for us, at around 6am we got to the river and we all carried our belongings to a long flat barge-like boat and we were transferred to our boat.

The next 10 hours were spent making our way down to the Sundarbans. I slept for most of the day since I don't sleep upright on buses, trains or planes. The rest of the crew read, chatted, played cards, Scrabble or slept as well. The boat was pretty well kitted out with small cabins of two bunks each above the waterline and a kitchen/lounge area on the top deck. There was plenty of comfy seating on the bow and stern to view the world as it went by. It reminded me very much like our safari in Africa in that you just travel and look out for wildlife as you move from place to place. Kites, kingfishers, eagles, pythons and crocs were all spotted on our first day. We anchored at around 6pm.

The next morning we woke at dawn and took a boat ride down one of the narrow rivers. Surrounded by trees lining the banks, the morning mist lifting as the sun rose into the sky, it was quite amazing. There was no motor only a crewman on the back paddling a single oar. You didn't want to make a sound to disturb the peace. A macaque (monkey) watched with interest as we drifted slowly under his tree. Mudskippers (basically evolution in action: a cross between a fish and a frog) plopped into the water. So many bird calls.

After lunch we headed out on walking trek that took us from the river, through a grassland, to the Bay of Bengal. Two of our crew changed into brown safari outfits and carried old school guns and umbrellas to guard us against the tigers (presumably). Although, seeing as no one we have talked to has ever seen a tiger in the Sundarbans, the guns were pretty redundant. Thousands of butterflies flew from flower to flower as we walked by. Brilliant oranges, reds and blues. A squirrel scampered up a nearby tree as we ended the forest (much to the disgust of our North American friends who see squirrels in the same light as we Aussies see possums). When we reached the beaches, we came across some tiger tracks. We later found out that everyone ALWAYS sees tiger tracks leading to the rumour that the guides have a paw print maker! I didn't swim in the Bay. There was something about the turbid brown waves that were very unappealing. I was happy to stand up to my knees to cool down though. Further down the beach we spotted a wild boar with the binoculars. That night we played cards whilst a billion bugs flew in through the open windows attracted to the magnets that were our cabin lights.

The next morning we awoke to a dozen spotted deer grazing along the muddy banks of the low tide. A 3.5 to 4m croc cruised back and forth along the river banks waiting for an unsuspecting meal. We came close to seeing the spectacle of a croc kill, but the little deer was smart enough to not step into the water. Another boat ride followed, was less eventful than the previous one, but still gave you a sense of awe at the beauty of this natural environment, and a day of cards and chilling out. It reminded me of camping - only on a boat.

That night we sat and viewed a spectacular thunderstorm on the horizon. Fork and sheet lightning that lit up the night sky. It was quite surreal sitting out in the open, drinking a beer whilst watching nature's fury hundreds of kilometres away. Travelling back to Kulna the heavens finally opened and we were lucky to spot some Irrawaddy dolphins in between the torrents of rain.

Our trip back to Dhaka was an eventful one. The bus broke down every 30 - 45 minutes. Overheating I think. Instead of taking 8 hours, it took over 12. You couldn't sleep coz the bus kept stopping and it wasn't until we crossed the Ganges River and transferred to a new bus that I felt like we were getting anywhere.

Bus debacle aside, it was a wonderful trip. Fantastic wildlife and surroundings. The only thing missing was the tiger.

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Photos

The first morning
Becca admiring the beautiful morning serenity.

Brahminey Kite
These birds of prey are quite common in the Sundabans. Seen in pairs, this little guy trailed our boat looking for scraps for ages.

Sunrise
I was blown away by my camera's love of colour, especially in this difficult light.

Our boat
The sun just happened to be positioned directly behind our charter boat as we were paddled out to a nearby creek.

Rhesus Macaque
We only saw a couple of these cheeky primates jumping through the jungle canopy.

Ah, the serenity
The water was endlessly flat, broken only by the occasional fish or mud skipper.

Green, green, green
What constantly amazed me was how green the jungle along the waterline was.

Beautiful butterflies
We went for a walk through the grasslands to a beach on the Bay of Bengal. The grass was teeming with butterflies of amazing colour. I nabbed this one as it was taking a breather.

Macro
Very impressed with my camera thus far, I decided to give the macro setting a crack on these caterpillars.

The 'guards'
On our walk through the grasslands, two crew from our boat donned brown safari suits, SKS rifles.....and an umbrella. Presumably the suits were for camoflauge so they could creep up to the tigers and scare them with their relic weapons from the 1940s.

The fallen
This poor little blighter had reached the end of his days just moments before we walked by. Such bright, vivid blues!

Thunderhead
Upon returning from our creek cruise, we were confronted by a mammoth thunderhead that reared its head mile up into the sky. All around was blue and cloudless. As the sun set, lightning and a red hue kept our eyes glued for more.

Friendly fisherman
Fisherman here are given permission to fish within the reserve on the condition that they feed the Forestry Department staff. This silhouette was taken as we emerged from a narrow creek.

Night lightning
After many night watching some amazing storms and trying to capture them using Bec's tripod, I managed to snap this pic. Funny thing was that we didn't see any forks, just a large flash across the horizon.

Framebacked Woodpecker
Becca snapped this brilliant shot ducking and weaving under banana palms. The red crest is awesome.

White-collared Kingfisher
We saw at least 3 different varieties of Kingfisher. This one got nabbed by Becca's 300mm lens. A great shot.