At the Bastar Jungle Resort, in Chhattisgarh, central plains of India, we had great fun playing garden cricket after our touring on a couple of evenings; especially 5 February.
Our album of pictures from Kanker, more than 80 of them, can be seen through the following link:
We both slept well and rose quite early, but still only more or less made our appointed breakfast time and even then the dining room was locked!
We ended up setting off a little late but no matter.
First stop was a walk to the rock paintings at Udkuda, where we saw the painted stones. Then on to a friends bidi factory.
Then we drove to Girhola (HRH’s hunting lodge village) where we saw a nursery school/medical nutritional advice centre, houses, schools And acquired a large pack of kids.
Took lunch of rice bread, daal, beans/peas and aubergine.
Rested a while, then set off for boat trip with Ravind (who had been our village guide) in tow. One hour boat trip through the Mahanandi river rushes (felt like three hours to Ged).
Then Ged spotted a cricket match on the river bank…
…so we docked early and took over the youngsters game for a while…
Ged’s batting was a bit better than his bowling – although he did get Jolly out with a top edged moon ball.
First slip was holding a fish for some time, but sadly Daisy failed to capture that slippery aspect.
– then we walked back to the vehicle (no distance).
We return home for a craft shop (bamboo) opening at which we were the photo opportunity.
Then spent some time chatting with Jai and the new arrival John – followed by review of photos and then ready for dinner and then pre-dinner drinks around the fire with John, his partner Michael and the elusive German misanthropic “we’re all doomed” photographer Robert Huber, who chose to eat “later”.
In addition to the Kanker album, linked above, there is a collection of over 200 photos from that part of the adventure that didn’t make the album, which can be seen at the link below:
…and then we both take breakfast in the club lounge.
Mr Pasha takes us to the airport – Basquar is nowhere to be seen at first and pretty scarce even when he shows up. Still, our own “winning ways” get our enormous load on board for no surcharge.
Two scares – one when “Harris” from our flight is called because there is a problem with baggage – turns out that “Susan Harris” is a pasty-faced cultist or something on a weird looking American group.
Second scare – delay announced and then unannounced!
Met by Jolly and Abhishek at other end – circa 2 1/2 hour drive to Kanker.
We stopped briefly in Dhamtari where Jolly bought fruit and his friend the Brigadier gave us the benefit of his knowledge of London.
Introductions to the family and quick tour of the estate with Jai.
Drinks before supper around the campfire .
Simple supper of chicken, daal, “gherkin”, veg, cauliflower, rice. Washed down with some beer.
All our pictures from Hyderabad can be seen in the following Flickr album:
Rose early but still managed to faff around over ablutions and breakfast.
Set off just before 9 to Golconda Fort (30 minutes drive outside town). Our guide is called Jonny Wilson (really!)
Daisy & Jonny
We do the fort (all 360 steps up and surely fewer steep ones down)with several parties of Indian school kids. Daisy dances with one of the school teachers on the way down.
Daisy Dancing
Then on to the Qutb Shahi Tombs nearby. We explore one properly but Johnny denies this the other six or seven.
Qutb Shahi TombsCharminar
Next stop, the Charminar palace complex. Then on to the nearby Makkah Masjid – a vast mosque.
Makkah MasjidGed Ladd In Laad Bazaar
Then around the Laad Bazaar area – bought some citrus squeezer is And bangles from Michael and John’s girls.
Next stop, the Salar Jung museum which didn’t do all that much for us, although I liked the music o’clock at 3 pm.
Next a bit of a wild goose chase for the cricket stadium but eventually got in to the poor old ruin (Lal Bahadur Stadium).
Final stop, a craft shop that did little/nothing for us. So, home to rest/change for dinner at the Falaknuma Palace.
Before dinner we have cocktails in the Gol Bungalow.
Gol Bungalow…and Falaknuma you too!
We tried a lamb (ghost) starter with thin medallions of amazing tenderised lamb. Plus a trio of haleems, veg, chicken and lamb. Main course a different chicken murgh with coconut served with bread and some rice. Absolutely delicious.
Driver Pasha takes us home – excitedly discussing cricket.
The following is a diary extract, perhaps with one or more illustrative pictures.
Arrive in Hyderabad 4:45 India time.
Met by Basquar – arrange/bargain our way into early check-in at Taj Krishna.
Restful day sleeping, sorting, checking out hotel etc. Arrange to eat in Indian restaurant.
Take massage before dinner.
Club Room at the Taj Krishna. Hyderabad
Try wonderful Hyderabadi dishes – Haleem with Sheermal (wonderful slow-cooked lamb) and Dum Ka Murgh (creamy chicken dish) plus some lamb biryani hyderabadi style
This time Daisy is with me and I am pretty sure that she took on the picnic duties for this visit as we would have been in “the country residence” (Sandall Close) the night before.
We got to see two really good matches, as well as enjoy a good picnic:
Ireland v Sri Lanka – one of those matches where you always felt that the giant-killer/underdog (Ireland) was still in the hunt, yet sensed that Sri Lanka would eventually overcome them, which they did – click here for the scorecard;
England v India – a very exciting match, which England somehow managed to win, despite the sense that India would eventually overcome England’s seemingly below par score – click here for the scorecard.
We watched from the dizzy heights of debenture seats in the Grandstand, my “prize” for ticking a box requesting a shot at a ballot for a pair of debenture returns. These seats were not too far away from the Warner Stand seats I’d sat in earlier that tournament – that Warner side of the Grandstand and a lot higher of course.
My favourite memory from this day was Ravi Bopara’s six, which was caught in a beer skiff by one of the pair of gentlemen sitting next to Daisy in the Grandstand, splashing (mercifully little) beer all around us.
I have just looked up the BBC on-line commentary for that six – click here – which reports that the ball went into the Grandstand (last ball of the fifth over) and then simply says for the start of the next over “Umpire de Silva calls for a new ball”. What actually happened was that, after our neighbour returned the beer-sodden ball, both umpires had a poke at the ball and then a sniff at it, before deciding that the ball was no longer of the requisite quality. Our little section of the crowd, which knew exactly what had happened, took great pleasure in all that.
That England win kept England’s hopes alive for more than 24 further hours, until a rain-affected night match against the West Indies at the Oval proved a bridge too far for England.
But that Sunday, concluding with an unexpected England win, was a very happy day at the cricket.
This visit, on the Friday, was with Ian Theodoreson. I first met Ian when he was at Save The Children and I was on my first assignment for Binder Hamlyn. We’ve kept in touch, on and off, ever since. In June 2009, he was about to join or had just joined the National Church Institutions from Barnardos.
This was a very enjoyable day at Lord’s. Our tickets were on the Warner Stand, near the Grandstand (as were the seats a few days before with Mark). I remember Ian and I spotting Sachin Tendulkar being entertained in one of the Grandstand boxes, very close to our seat.
The cricket was good without being exceptional, as is often the way with T20 cricket. Little did we know that we were watching a pre-match between the two tournament finalists first up:
