04 Jan 2007 - Team Holiday Sundarbans

4th January 2008: Our thoughts on our trip to the Sundarbans -

Happy New Year!!! 2008!!! So far this year - We woke up on a boat in the Sundarbans, home to the Royal Bengal Tiger. As we ate breakfast (parotas filled with Sundarbans wild honey) we watched River Dolphins dive in and out of the river around our boat.
For the past week or so, we spent 4 days and 4 nights on our team holiday in the Sundarbans, the largest Mangrove forest in the world. We went with a group of friends from AG church in Dhaka, so there were 24 of us in total. It was absolutely beautiful and such an adventure!

Wildlife ~ We saw 3 crocodiles basking on the river banks, dolphins, lots of spotted deer, a couple of wild boar, monkeys, a green snake that flys, a huge lizard, crabs and lots of birds! Grey-headed fish eagles, herons, egrets, kingfishers, woodpeckers, brown kites and thats just mentioning a few. Most of the birds had such vibrant colours and were really interesting to watch. One of the most exciting things to see were tiger paw prints (unfortunately we didn't actually see a tiger, it is estimated that there are around 500 tigers in the Sundarbans) But paw prints were good enough! We found some in the forest on our little walks, the paw prints that we saw in the forest had been made before the cyclone but one morning when we went off in our smaller boat along the little creeks and saw some prints go into the river on one side and come out the other, we were informed these were probably only an hour or so old. So we were pretty close to seeing one.

During our walks through the Mangrove forest in Kotka wildlife sanctuary we walked through some of the damage cyclone Sidr has left behind. It was really sad to see the devastation caused as Sidr passed through the Sundarbans. We learned that any people who were living in the forests when the cyclone struck and passed through were warned of its coming and would have tried to evacuate to the nearest safe place, but few people probably made it. Also, unfortunately there wasn't enough time to tell the fishermen out in the bay of bengal that the cyclone was approaching. After our walk in the Kotka forest area we watched the sun set on the beach, however, we were disrupted by lots of journalists who had come to see the effects of Sidr and obvioulsy wanted to take lots of photos of us tourists.

Another part of the Sundarbans we explored was Kochikhali - we took a walk to a beach in the Bay of Bengal and dipped our feet in, it was so peaceful and relaxing. Also along the beach were tiger paw prints in the sand, some big ones but also cute little cub prints.

On the boat we were able to just relax, enjoy the scenary and sun and play cards (especially up and down the river ~ we thought it was quite appropriate).

The last day of 2007! In the morning we went to a small remote island, Pokhir Char, in the Bay of Bengal and walked along the sea shore ~ I have never really experienced anything like it, it was stunning. A great place for me to reflect over 2007. In the afternoon we carried on in our boat down the beautiful wide rivers for Dhangmari/Chandpai forest station. We spent New Years Eve on our boat sharing memories of 2007 and hopes and desires for 2008, it was a lovely, most memroble way of welcoming in the New Year. When we travelled back to Dhaka we left our lovely boat and enjoyed a 10 hour bus journey home from Mongla through the rural countryside up to Dhaka. We are now all refreshed from our little holiday and looking forward to what lies ahead for us in the next few months. All the best for 2008! Kirsty xxx

Team Holiday - Sundarbans
Between the 28th December-1st January as a team we will be in the Sundarbans.
The Sundarbans is on the border between Bengal and Bangladesh, where the great Ganges meets the Bramaputra and Meghna rivers on their way to the Bay of Bengal, It is one of the last places where the magnificent Royal Bengal Tiger roams freely but despite this, it's a delicate eco-system at risk from the effects of climate change and in desperate need of protection.

Literally translated, "Sundarbans" means "the beautiful forest".
It's a vast and intricate network of mangroves which has been declared as a Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The area is made up of three sanctuaries (Sundarbans West, South and East) with a total area of 140,000 hectares. This is an area of almost surreal natural beauty characterised by mangrove forests, swamps and densely forested islands.

Throughout the Sundarbans is a network of small rivers, filled to the brim with wildlife. In the Sundarbans there are many animals that are very common; there are many crocodiles that can be found lounging on the mud banks, Ridley sea turtles, fiddler crabs and mud skippers, monkeys, spotted deer, jungle fowl, wild boar, giant lizards and much much more.

River dolphins can also be found in the deeper areas of the forest, making the most of the abundance of fish found in the waters of Bangladesh. The Royal Bengal Tiger though is the animal that most westerners want to spot when visiting the area, and so this is one animal that we are hoping to see on our adventure. One of the largest of the 'big cats', the Bengal Tiger has an extremely bold colour and a striking pattern which serves as a very effective camouflage. We're really looking forward to our holiday, and hopefully it should be a good time away for us as a team, where we can reflect on the first three months that we've spent here in Bangladesh and take a break before getting involved in the business of AG Utterrah School again.