Boats and backwaters
The ship was berthed in Cochin overnight and yet as other mind-bogglingly early start took us off on a long trip to the water lands of Allaphuzza. This was an hour and a half in the coach each way and we each struggled a little with the concept of our normally fiercely independent travel choices being reduced to the sort of ‘coach party’ which we so often mocked. On the other hand, it was easy travel and a great chance to see the countryside and towns rolling by in all of their wonderful colour and chaos. Our guide today was not the greatest english speaker and had a lot of time to fill. Therefore he indulged a little in the Indian tradition of ‘up-selling’; which means dramatically over-inflating the backstory of whatever it is you have to sell or tell. Hence;
“Cochin was the first place in India visited by the great Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama. He built the cathedral in the city. On his second visit, sadly he died and was buried in the cathedral with a wonderful tomb. Fourteen years later, his som took his remains back to Lisbon. However the place where he was once buried in Cochin but isn’t any more is a great tourist attraction…”
Nice try, but..
The waterways of Allaphuzza are a bit like a massive tropical version of the Norfolk broads, with everyone living by or on the water and tending the adjoining paddy fields. Our boats were extraordinary, dating back to when such craft were used both as houseboats and as barges for transporting the rice crop. Only fairly recently did road-haulage overtake the barges as transport choice and they’ve swiftly and enterprisingly re-equipped the huge number of barges as a tourist attraction.
The rivers and waterways, looking anything other than enticing, were being used for washing bodies, clothes and the cooking dishes. Whether anything came out cleaner than it went in was a very moot point. The standout feature was that all of the land was below the level of the rivers, protected by a vast but flimsy-looking network of dykes.
We asked if this ever flooded. We were told that it did so somewhat catastrophically last year, for the first time in eighty years. The government have stepped in to repair houses, the dykes and the paddy fields but given the current climate issues, this whole way of life looked highly precarious.
It was a gloriously lazy day and after leaving the boats, we had a late lunch stopover at a wonderful beachside ‘lodge resort’ hotel, giving the chance to catch up with casual gossip amongst other passengers.
Apparently, the few dolphins that caused S to disrupt bridge class the previous day were noting compared to a much larger pod that we hadn’t seen but which had followed the ship for a while. We had also missed a whale!
The really ‘interesting’ news was that during our visit to Hambantota in Sri Lanka, mishap had befallen a group who had gone to a different national park, which was famous as an elephant sanctuary. Apparently, a bull elephant had ‘surprised’ one of the jeeps by appearing out of a bush directly alongside the track and sticking its head in through the open side! The somewhat disconcerted lady in the immediately adjacent seat thought it best to whack it on the head to make it go away. Unsurprisingly, the elephant took exception to this and turned the jeep over!! Everyone was shaken up and there were bruises all round, but no serious injuries.
“However”, said S, “it makes you think about going on these trips”.
“Partly”, I replied, “but it makes you think more about which idiots you go on these trips with!”
With the day wrapped up, we were all back on the top deck of the boat to watch the sun slowly set over Cochin harbour. As the ship gently backed down the river estuary to the sea, eagles and hawks wheeled around close to the ship, causing yet another gigabite of photocard memory to get used up!
It was absolutely magical – the tranquility a great contrast to the lightening display that nature provided later that evening as the sky was constantly lit up on all sides by a tropical storm.
As I’ve said many times, of many places, to my old work colleague; it was better than Slough!