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Published: March 5th 2009
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8th December 2008
This morning we’re up a 5:30am and walk down to back end of Anjuna around all the wetlands and small lakes. This is the real India, fires being lit inside basic huts made from whatever can be put to hand, mud, cardboard or a piece of fencing. Always the roof is a sun bleached weave of banana leaves. Even with such hardship for these people we are always greeted with a wave and good morning. I wonder how many of us would be so happy scraping an existence in the dirt like these souls have to. The Indian people surround themselves with animals of all shapes and sizes. Dogs, water buffalo, elephants, cockerel and goats. All seem to just go about their business paying little attention to each other. All the beasts seem happy and well fed, we have seen no obvious cruelty as of yet.
The most depressing thing for us is the rubbish and filth, waste of all kinds is just dumped wherever. It’s amazing that the wildlife or people survive at all. It could all be cleaned up of course, just needs a little initiative and some government funding, unfortunately that isn’t going
to happen. The division between the rich and the poor is huge and the population seems to just accept it.
On our walk back through Baga we decided to take a quick taxi trip to the local lowland jungle/scrub in Arpora. I’d been told that this area attracts lots of birdwatchers. It was almost midday and the sun was scorching, not a good time to be looking for birds, but never the less for a couple hundred rupees I would gain some local knowledge and then would be able to find the areas myself. We were taken to an old orchard in the foothills and walked for about half an hour. We saw a few sunbirds, and bulbuls but that was it. I could see this was an excellent area though and vowed to be back in the morning.
On the way back to the apartment we stopped off for coffee at ‘Coffee Days’, it was well needed as we were shattered after the walk and the intense heat. The rest off the day was again spent at the beach, as usual.
For the next three mornings I was out at dawn and in the woods again.
Pili came along on the first morning and we saw some great birds including a pair of Great Hornbills which are quite a rarity now around this part of India, a real treat for us. We also met another English birdwatcher called Joan, she was a little eccentric but very nice and she new her birds.
In the evening we were tipped off by a guy I’d met that the Olive Green Turtles were about to hatch on Mojim Beach, that was the evening of the 11th planned, I could hardly sleep I was that excited.
10th December 2008
Today I spent exploring again and taken more photos of the wonderful local flora and fauna. In the evening I treated myself to a proper cut throat shave. It was a pleasant enough experience evening when the guy brought out an electronic face massager
Pili was most amused, I won’t be repeating this again in a hurry, by the end of the shave, facial and bloody massage I felt slightly abused, it’s all a bit to intimate for my taste, maybe just a shave next time and I’ll give the mauling a miss!
11th December 2008
Again I’m up and walking before dawn but this time on my own, Pili’s had enough early mornings looking for birds which I totally understand. I was out for about six hours and saw loads of stuff, I can’t wait to really start to get into the big jungles.
More Baga beach and then at 5pm we headed off to Mojim Beach for the turtles. On arriving I went to see the scientists involved with the project. At first the reception was very cold because they though I was just another rich tourist who wanted holiday photos. I sat and explained that I was serious about the conversation of these endangered reptiles and I knew all about their natural history, this soon change the attitude towards me and I was told of the problem they were having. Apparently in 2001 thirty one nests were along the beach, this year there are just two! A hotel chain has bought the beach and the conservationists have stopped the building of the complex because of the protection of the turtles. The bastard Taj Hotel chain have been sabotaging the nest and paying the locals to do this. These animals have been
using these beaches for millions of years and the world has enough bloody hotels. The sad thing is from the nest that we helped release only 51 babies survived and the survival rate is only 2 out every 1000 that survive until adulthood. This means that next year there is a very good chance that no turtles will come to nest on these ancient beaches. This kind of short sightedness makes me want to scream. The poor scientists were very frustrated with the attitude of the tourist that were waiting to see the release. The eggs naturally hatch after 54 days in the nest but for whatever reason the hatchlings were 2 days late, this is why we were assisting them, I think someone had trodden down the sand over the eggs to prevent the babies digging their way to the surface. This is just one of the problems. If the hatchlings do get out they then have to find the way down to the beach and to the sea. They follow the moonlight but with all the light pollution they often get confused and then are easy picking for the beach dogs and gulls. The head scientist asked me
to have a word with the tourist and tell them not to use flash of the cameras, they all agreed but as soon as the turtles were on the surface the flashes started, Pili lost her temper with one girl but it made no difference, people are just stupid!!!! Pilar and I both found this evening very emotional, I may have photographed the last Olive Green Turtles to be seen along this coastline!
Vinny dropped us back at Bobbies Bar where we met up with our new friends, Ranjeet, Sam and Neil, great people the drinks flowed including the local brew Fenny, I have to admit I got quite hammered, though I wasn’t alone.
For the next week we just hung out on the beach with our growing collection of new friends, we’ve met some truly wonderful people and many of them seem to be called John.
We are trying to tighten our belts as our finances are getting a little stretched. We’ve started eating the local dish ‘Tahli’ which is either vegetable or meat curry, rice, a couple of popodoms and nan bread, a dahl dish (lentil based dish) and tandoori vegetables. All for between 40
and 70RS which is about £1.30 for the two of us. This is one of the best meals we’ve had here.
We now spent at least an hour every morning talking with an Indian guy who runs a small book stall called Nisar - everybody calls him Nicky which is actually his wife’s name. This man is a true gent and very well read, it’s always a pleasure to just sit and converse with him, we’ve become good friends.
All the people we’ve met are very individual. We have a soft spot for all of them, French cut John (French cut because his beard) Ranjeet who lives in Jersey and has a room just down the hall from us, he makes me laugh a lot with his stories and were spending a lot of time together. His friend Jordie John and Jersey John are hilarious, all are regulars here and all are true gentleman, of course they all worship Pili. As I’ve briefly mentioned previously another couple Sam and Neil - Neil is an ex rugby player who retired early because of injury, we usually have a few drinks with them most evening and have a lot of
fun. They are immigrating to Australia so this is their last time in Goa after 15 years coming here. It seems everyone we meet come back year after year; it’s very easy to see why.
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