Mainsa Fishing Village, Lake Chilika

 The island in Chilika Lake.

 Will, our new guide, who will take us to Bhutan.

 Local fishing boat.

 A very small catch of small fish.

 Kids will be kids.

 He wanted his photo taken.

 Fishermen chilling in the afternoon heat.

 Our lunch at Pulak's place...

 with his staff.

 Taking the boat back to the mainland.

The local ferry.

Sunday, April 8^th.

Pulak picked us up early in the morning in his company car and we set off for Chilika Lake. The ‘lake’ is actually an inlet from the sea where a couple of rivers empty. Therefore, the water is brackish, a mix of salt and fresh. The lake is shallow at the best of times, but very shallow now at the end of the dry season. The lake is large and there are fishing villages all around it. We took a small boat to an island to visit the fishing village of Mainsa. Pulak led us on a tour of the island and the small village. We saw some of the catch, which again seemed very small with only little fish, prawns and crabs. Pulak has come here for 25 years and knows the locals well, so we had a chance to interact with them. 

We walked to a nice piece of land with beach front and palm trees that Pulak owns. He bought it off a local man a few years ago and uses it for his tourist business. He brings people here to camp under the stars on the island. He has equipped it with a little cooking hut and two biodegradable toilets, one for pee and one for poop. He has posted notes that explain the purpose of dividing the two which says ‘just like our bodies we divide the waste into liquid waste and solid waste which over time can we used for fertilizer’. Dragoman and Intrepid used to bring people here for one night, but that has stopped for now. His team made us an excellent lunch of fresh fish curry, skewered prawns, mango and date chutney, stewed vegetables and rice.

Then we took the boat back. Because we had walked across the island, the boat ride back was longer. We watched as fishermen repaired or set their traps and nets, and the variety of boats that were plying the water. Because the water is shallow, the boats here use a long-shafted motor so that the propeller is about ten feet behind the boat and the driver stands at the back to steer it.

Back at the hotel we had a couple of hours to relax before dinner. We made use of the pool and wi-fi. We didn’t have a group dinner tonight, so I ate at the hotel. Thankfully the evenings provide a little heat relief.