The nature reserve is a really special place. We expected it to be jungle but it is mostly fairly flat mangrove swamps and scrubby areas. We saw a baby croc quite close up, lots of spotted deer (like bambi), wild boar, Kingfisher birds, monkeys (of course), and some other tourists but alas no tigers. Frankly we were getting around in a motor-driven boat with 16 tourists chatting and drinking chai, with the pilots on their mobile phones so no self-respecting tiger would be anywhere nearby, but it was exciting fantasising that we might see one.
Tiger tracks made early that morning - you could see fishermen's footprints under the tiger prints i.e. the fishermen were there earlier in the morning, hopefully they were not eaten!!
In the the evenings we sat around a camp fire before eating delicious food. The people we met were all lovely: Maninder, Samhita & Nick, Tom & Nick, Peter, and all the others made the trip a really good laugh.
On the second day we went for a walk around the local village and what promised to be a bit of a bore ended up being the most interesting part of the whole trip. We strolled around mud houses with lots of traditional living going on - fuel being made from cow shit, separating the wheat from the chaff, tending paddy fields. I walked around with Samhita who, speaking Bengali, gave me lots of insights as to what was happening and asking the locals questions for me (to which I am eternally grateful). It is because of her that one man humbly invited us into his home and showed us around his tiny mud courtyard complete with cooking holes and, of course, a satellite dish on the roof!!!
All in all the escape to the country provided a much-needed relief from city life and a wonderful insight into traditional life in India (plus there was absolutely NO RUBBISH ANYWHERE IN SIGHT!!!!).
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