7-01-2023
Cruising on the rivers in the midst of the mangrove forests I felt that the journey was more important than the destination. The launch kept moving slowly to give us a better feel of the place. We sat above deck and for quite some time in front of the boat. It was a wonderful experience. Many people sat below deck; some were playing cards and others talking to each other. Although they could look out of the small windows and watch the passing scenery. I wondered why they were ok with missing the charm of the journey😊.
We sailed from morning to after sunset. At certain moments sun light on the waves looked like shining stars. They looked beautiful. We stopped at Sajhnekhali, Sujornokhali and Dobanki. At Dobanki there was a causeway through the forest. Till then we were looking at trees from the boat, but there it was a different experience to see them from above. We could touch the leaves and they were quite thick.
At about 1.30 we were served lunch. We talked to our co-passengers. I will write about them later. One of the dishes they were eating was fish baked in banana leaf. They said it was tasty. We too use banana leaves in our place to steam rice idli. We also make a type of idli with jackfruit or bottle gourd.
At about 3 o’clock we reached a spot where five rivers meet. We would not have known that the confluence was of different rivers if our guide had not told us the names. The waters were so vast!: Matla, Herbhanga, Bidya, Gomdi and Ghazikali. We grew up drawing the map of India in school. We had to draw the courses of different rivers. The Ganges delta always looked special because it was like drawing many fingers. I was thinking of this when Ajit told us the Bay of Bengal was only 65 kms away.
At one place we saw another launch boat not far from the shore. People on board were staring at the forest. Our crew came to know that they had sighted the Royal Bengal Tiger. Our launch too edged slowly towards the shore. All of us started staring intently towards the land. We saw nothing. But two passengers said that they had caught sight of the tiger walking far away among the trees. We will never know if they really saw it or only imagined the beast 😊. My husband laughingly remarked to me that they may have dreamt it because they were longing to see it. In the course of the day we did see monitor lizards, crocodiles, deer, monkeys and beautiful birds.
On our way back we saw a launch boat lying quite still not far from the shore. We were told that it was grounded in the sticky mud of the Sunderbans and would have to wait for the high tide to help them get unstuck. There is high tide for six hours followed by six hours of low tide. This was around 3 o’clock. High tide was almost two hours away. It would be dark by then.
From the place where the five rivers meet, we turned back. That day we had gone to the north and then to the south, quite a distance. It was windy and cold, but we sat on the deck, changing seats to wherever we saw a little sun. We watched the mangrove forests with their different types of roots. At some places, the colour of the leaves seemed as if they were bleached. Ajit said this was due to the water during high tide. The leaves are submerged for a long time. We saw the clayey beaches which had been under water in the morning. The steps of a jetty seemed so different with no water under it. By 4.30 it was getting dark and by 5 the sun was setting. We reached the resort at 5.30. It was a very satisfying day. I am glad we spent the whole day on the rivers, in the midst of the jungle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges_Delta
Mukhamani 
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