Photographic Memories #19
As every traveller knows, when you look back through old travel photos, many of them trigger wonderful memories. With lockdown incomplete and travel still on hold for a while, we currently have no new adventures to blog; we do though have many such memories…
Photo #19: The Sundarbans
This photograph is special to us because of the moment it represents, possibly one of the most exciting travel moments of all our experiences to date, capturing an auspicious point in one of our most adventurous journeys. At this stage of our first trip to India, we had now left behind the amazing cities of Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and Kolkata, and were heading out into the Sundarbans, the world’s largest area of mangrove swamp, to stay for a few days in a mud hut amongst the wildlife.
At the point captured in this photo, we had reached the end of the roads: from here onwards the only transport is by water, mostly in these ramshackle and precarious looking wooden craft, packed to the brim with passengers. Most of our fellow passengers had just been to market and were heading home across the water, the presence of these two western backpacked travellers created no little interest. When Michaela produced her camera, she met with these beautiful smiles.
7 Comments
Annie Berger
Thanks, Phil, for putting Michaela’s shot in such vivid context. I’ve never heard of the Sundarbans region of India although we’ve been there twice and hoping to return next year. Will have to check it out!
Phil & Michaela
Thanks Annie, it was an interesting place. Whilst there we went in a canoe type boat, after dark when the tide was high we were paddled silently amongst the Mangrove tree tops, was magical. If you ever want any more info about the Sundarbans let us know
CompassAndCamera
I love India — so many smiles! Beautiful photo, and I just looked up the location of the Sundarbans. It must have been a wonderful place to explore? Seems similar to the Mekong Delta maybe…
Phil & Michaela
Its a fabulous Country, we definitely want to explore more.
Toonsarah
Beautiful photo and sums up India for me, where the people are so welcoming and interested to engage – and also so willing to be photographed!
Phil & Michaela
Yes, and they like to take photos too, I felt like a film star😆
Toonsarah
Yes, me too! A driver we had in Rajasthan said that we would soon be more famous than Bollywood stars 😀