Moving away from weekend outings, this time I thought I’ll take you to the wilderness of Sundarbans. A five-day off can take you to amazing greenery, with lovely blue water, and the vast open sky. It is a vast area covering 4264 sq km in India alone, out of which 2585 sq km forms the largest Tiger Reserve and National Park in India.
One trivia about visiting the place: there is a constant anticipation of catching a glance of an animal, wild and free, for any tourist, but all you can see might be some poor monkey in search of food or a skinny croc lazing on the coast. In fact when I went there, the first animal we came across was a monkey and we were so excited to see it, it was almost like we have never seen them in the cities! The colourful birds, on the other hand, will be a treat to the eyes.
To go back to the five-day take-off, I did include the weekends. Two days and three nights are enough for the visit but if you are flying down to Kolkata, you might as well visit Murshidabad, which is famous for its historical ruins.
A 3&1/2 hours’ drive from the City of Joy will take you to Basanti, Shonakhali, from where you will have to book a personal steamer (sufficient for 10-12 people) across the water. There are a few other convenient points of entry in to the Sunderbans, like Canning port (Diamond Harbour to Kakdwip and Namkhana) which also offers similar facilities of booking steamers/launches. If you leave around 7am, you will reach the coast around 10.30am. There is parking near the coast for 50 bucks per day, because steamers will be the only mode of transport thereafter.
You can choose to stay in one of the small hotels on the shore or if you are adventurous enough, you can stay in your steamers also. It will be better if you book hotel rooms beforehand during peak season (i.e. in winters). The boats are self sufficient, with cooking area below, a make-shift washroom and the open sitting area on the deck of the boat, where the driver’s cabin is also situated. The only scare of staying on water overnight is the possibility of robbery by pirates, since the Bangladesh border is also very near to the place.
Sounds exciting? Well, I’ll leave the post here now and conclude the extravaganza of Sundarbans in my next article. Till then, start planning!
