Thursday, Dec 20th, 2012: It happens to all of us. It doesn't matter if you've studied for years, you will certainly spend the last night cramming the contents into your brain for the final exam the next day. You can plan an event for months, and everything has to come together a few hours before. The last night is the night of condensed chaos so that tomorrow can be perfect. It is a bridge between clutter and organization.
My trip was no exception, and less than three hours to go before my airport pick-up, my entire gear lay unpacked and scattered on the table, sofa and the floor. And I just had an hour to put them all away in different bags. Luckily, over the last few days, I'd kept checking things off my list and dumping them on the table, so I knew nothing was missing. The other thing was that the way you pack for air travel is very different from how one does it for a Kayak expedition. This meant that I would have to reorganize everything from scratch as soon as I reached my starting point on the coast, and that couldn't be helped. After a frenzied session of packing, I was ready to catch around two hours of sleep.
I reached Mumbai around 10.30 am, and went to the baggage claim to collect my packages. While checking in, I had asked the airlines to tag the bag containing my paddles as fragile, but when I saw my paddle bag coming through at the Mumbai baggage claim, all I saw on the bag were bump marks, a small tear and no signs of the fragile stickers. Jet airways is pathetic. I do fly a lot on work, and I have seen that airline deteriorate from a premium one to a cost cutting, careless cattle shuttle with rude employees. I do feel bad about Kingfisher; they had a nice airline going till they ran out of money. I hope Air Asia comes in soon and kicks Jet Airways (konnect/lite/fite) hard in the backside - with a leather boot.
I hired a Meru from the airport, and asked the driver to step on the gas to the Gateway of India. I'd planned to catch the 12.45 Catamaran to Mandhva Jetty, from where I planned to begin my trip. The cab driver obliged, and I was there by 12 noon. I soon found myself unceremoniously dumped on the sidewalk with 50 kilos of luggage, distributed in an assortment of very inconveniently shaped bags. I decided to use the kayak trolley bag to drag the heavy kayak around,and then sling the other bags around my body somehow to the ticket counter. After getting my ticket, getting down to the docked boat was another challenge. Stone steps lead down to the boat, with no guardrails. So anything which fell meant it was lost in the murky waters of the harbor forever. I made a couple of trips with careful steps down to the Catamaran, and soon I was on the upper deck, ready for the boat to pull away.
I had booked myself the AC room, since all that dragging and pushing had me uncomfortably hot. Mumbai can be warm and humid even in December. Soon, the diesel engines of the Apollo Catamaran clattered into life, the towing lines tossed aboard as we slowly moved away from the jetty.
As the Mumbai skyline receded into picture postcard size, I knew that I was about to begin an incredible journey. I had not begun my kayak trip yet, but I felt that this was it. No big city traffic jams. No frequent flyer miles. No late evenings of rich artery busting business dinners. It was just me and my kayak for the next two weeks of the unknown. I suddenly had goosebumps all over, a feeling which I now remember as feverish excitement mixed with a bit of fear.
After spending 45 minutes on the ferry, the hills of Konkan loomed in the distance. The boat docked at Mandhva jetty around 1.30 pm, and moving the luggage overboard was a little tricky - again. The ferry pulls up against the sides of a stationary boat, separated only by a barrier of tyres dangling down the hull. A flat plank is thrown between the two boats and passengers must walk across the narrow path like trapeze artists, with some hop and jump thrown in for good measure. Once that Super Mario-esque move was complete, the passengers would be required to jump from the second boat onto the lower steps of the jetty. And as soon as one hit dry land, a few flights of stairs awaited. Someone should make an Iphone or an android game inspired by the jetty landing and throw in a few more levels for fun.
So it was with much struggle that I moved all the luggage on the jetty, and I spent the next twenty minutes trying to drag my heavy luggage towards the end of the jetty. I placed the foldable cart below the heavy kayak bag, and I adjusted the rest of the bags around my shoulder, arm and back, looking not unlike the street toy hawkers who manage to carry their shiny made-in-China wares in a similar fashion.
My original plan was to start from Mandhva Jetty as soon as I reached there, and paddle till Kihim and stay the night. But something happened because of which I decided to postpone my trip to the next day. Actually something extremely nice happened, and I was glad I stayed back. I owe it to you to explain the background, so allow me to digress a bit.
During my trip planning, I was trying to find out if anyone else had done this route on a kayak, or had plans to do so. I found that just all of 3 people had done this coast by kayak so far. The first person to Kayak the Konkan coastline was Oskar Speck, a German who kayaked from Germany to Australia (50,000 kms) just before the World War two. In the process, he kayaked the entire Indian Peninsula (a feat unmatched to this day) before heading eastwards towards Australia. By the time he reached Australia, Germany was at war with the allies, and Oscar Speck was promptly taken into custody and into the POW camp. But the story had a happy ending as Oskar built a successful business after the WW II, and stayed in Australia for the rest of his life till his death in 1995. And what's even mindboggling is that Oskar Speck DID NOT KNOW HOW TO SWIM.
The other two guys were from South India - I don't know their names, but I think they are part of the Adreno team
www.adreno.org and they kayaked the entire western coast in 2006. Good timing too, a couple of year before the Mumbai incident. They would not have run into trouble the way I did.
When I was googling around in August 2012, I saw a post on the Lonely planet forum from a person named Sandy Robson. She was asking how the coast of India was for Kayaking, and whether someone could help with that information. I replied on that forum, and when I did not get a reply, I decided to look her up on google. What I discovered was amazing. Sandy Robson was a professional Kayaker, a 45 year Australian woman who had set out to retrace Oskar Speck's journey, starting from Germany and paddle the entire coastline(barring countries like Iran etc) till Australia. As she had limited funds at her disposal, she would first finish a stretch in a few months, and then fly back to Australia or Fiji (where she works) and then come back to where she left off. If you want to know more about her and her journey so far, she has a website -
www.sandy-robson.com. I thought I was adventurous, but Sandy Robson's expedition made my trip look like a mild workout on a stationary cycle. Her commitment and dedication is simply superhuman. Oh, and did I mention that she started this after she had a hip replacement surgery?
I got in touch with Sandy through her facebook page, and gave her whatever information I could. We promised to stay in touch, and try to meet each other at some point during her trip.
Her India leg of the trip began in early December, and she started kayaking from Jamnagar (Gujarat) after getting permissions from the marine park authorities and the coastguard. She made it till Diu, but not without some adventure. A good part of her supplies and gear got stolen, and then she was detained by the local police at least three times, some of them who thought she was paddling in from Pakistan. Even when she showed her immigration stamp, which clearly mentioned that she had flown in to Kochi, they would not believe her. It is only when some of her contacts in Gujarat and the coastguard translated and backed her story up, she was let go. By the time she reached Diu, she realized that similar roadblocks lay ahead which threatened to add lengthy delays. Add to that, the water from Diu to Mumbai was not exactly paddle friendly due to a lot of factories discharging unmentionables into the ocean. So she decided to pack her Feathercraft Kayak, and drive down to Mumbai, and get to Mandhva jetty, the same place where I planned to launch from.
So guess what - it seemed Sandy could make it to Mandhva from Gujarat by evening of day zero, and she wanted to meet me to make sure I was properly equipped and geared for the journey. I was also very excited to be able to meet an hard core expedition kayaker, and looked forward to learning a lot from her. I thought it was mighty nice and humble of Sandy Robson to rough it out (more than 12 hours of driving) just to meet me and give me some guidance for my expedition.
Jehan Driver from Mandhva Watersports (
www.adventuremandwa.com) was one of the people helping Sandy Robson in her trip. He and his friends took care of her expenses wherever they could, and also lent her a cellphone with GPS so her location could be tracked wherever there was network. Jehan got in touch with me and offered help if I needed it, as he and his partner Praful had connections with all the watersports centers on the Konkan coast. On day zero, Jehan was kind of enough to arrange and sponsor two rooms at the guesthouse Mandhva Jetty for me and Sandy. Nice little place behind a provisions store near Mandhva Jetty. Clean rooms and the beach was a 5 minute walk. So it was to this guesthouse I dragged my bags to, helped by one of the boys from Mandhva watersports once I reached the end of the jetty.
I was ravenous, and after a quick shower I wanted lunch. But most of the shops around seemed shut, so I decided to make do with one of the MTR pongals from my ration. I asked one of the guys at the guesthouse to fill my kettle with hot water, and I poured that into the silicon mold which doubled up as my serving plate. Why silicon? Well, it folds well in tight spaces, and it does not corrode. All my gear was meant for saltwater use - plastic spoon forks, rubber coated bungee cord ends - you get the idea.
After that jugaad lunch, I went to the beach to survey the launch spot. The whole Mandhva beach is very rocky, and barnacles stick to many rocks - these shells encrusted on the surface are razor sharp, and can slice through the hull of an inflatable kayak in no time. Equally dangerous for the human skin if one is not careful.
Jehan kept me updated about Sandy's schedule on that day, and finally I got to know that she would be on the last ferry from Mumbai. At dusk, I went to the jetty to receive her along with someone from Jehan's team, and helped transport her luggage to the small hotel, where Jehan had booked another room for her.
Sandy and I got together later that evening over some delicious home cooked food. While the dinner was getting ready, we went each other's gear, and Sandy nodded as she saw my gear, happy that I was sufficiently geared up for an expedition. I also had a chance to look at what she was carrying for 3 month India trip - very similar choice of gear (mentally pat myself on the back, good boy) though she had many small, practical things which I did not have. Experience, man, experience.
Both of us had a long day, so we thought it wise to go back to our rooms for a good night's rest. I soon drifted into a dreamless sleep, unaware of the drama that was about to unfold tomorrow.
Next Episode: Day 1 of paddling. Boy. Oh boy. And then some.