Jenny and Steve in India, Netherlands and Greece 2024

We've just boarded the second flight of the journey - Mumbai to London Heathrow. With a three hour transfer time we made it with no time to spare, mostly due to staggeringly inefficient security we had to pass through, then immigration wasn't good. This morning Jenny had a pedicure while I had my hair cut - first time I've paid for a cut in decades!  We had a lift to Kolkata Airport which took longer than in the past due to rush hour. It's 2.00am here; I suspect we'll be pretty tired by the time we reach Heathrow.  Time to shut down, and change sim card before reaching the UK. 

Cyrus and Gulnar's apartment provided us with a comfortable night following on from the long evening social. I was first to rise but Cyrus joined me when the door bell rang - a good thing as I couldn't work out all the door locks. The following 30 minutes included several deliveries (fruit, cakes, green coconuts, newspapers) and the maid arrived to clear up from the night before. Two breakfasts included samples of all, including a read of the two English language papers.  We had few plans before meeting up with Cyrus' sister at the Tollygunge Club for lunch, but comfortably filled the morning eating, chatting and sorting a few better clothes out from the bag we'd left here while on our travels east. There is a swimming pool on this compound but only filled for five months of the year; Gulnar painted a lovely picture of mums of young children (including her few decades earlier) using the empty pool as a playpen! Cyrus had warned me I'd need to wear trousers in the T...

 The sparrow seemed very upset with me sitting out on his terrace this morning. After five minutes sitting on the lamp above me shrieking he won and I wandered back inside to pack. Our trip this morning was back to Gadkhali Ghat for the trip home. A couple of hours before high water we boarded, thankful that someone had already cleaned the mud off the jetty; every high tide l leaves an inch or two of gloop.  The morning was calm, but gradually breeze picked up to a good force 4. We also had a knot or two of tide against us most of the way.  Jenny caught this very prayerful pose! We breakfasted almost as soon as getting under way, really tasty aloo torkari with far too many puri breads which complemented the potato dish, banana and egg perfectly, but were great just to eat separately.  The first vessel we saw sailing, and definitely downwind. The previous evening we'd noticed a man machine sewing opened plastic sacks together; now we saw why.  The fisherman furth...

We slept well, thanks, perhaps, to a mattress not quite too hard, the ceiling fan keeping us cool, quietness, and simply being weary. Jen's morning coffee was delivered to our bungalow at 7.00; by 7.30 we were back on our boat heading for another island housing a conservation project. Breakfast was served as we chugged along, I received Jen's onion omelette and she took my shandesh (sweet cardamom cake).  The environment is very different at high tide, which peaked about an hour into our passage. Many mangrove and other trees were obviously just showing leaves and branches above the water, and there was no mud.  We passed into the more restricted areas where fishing isn't allowed (the most restricted areas tourist boats are prohibited from) and enjoyed our quiet cruise, punctuated every now and again by sightings; not much new from yesterday so we may have been a little more relaxed.  The tide was about half when...