On Tour Around Kanker, 2 February 2011

Our album of pictures from Kanker, more than 80 of them, can be seen through the following link:

001 1 Feb 2011 Evening Drinks On Arrival At Kanker Palace P1010030

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:

P1010158