I know some of you simply don’t have the time or the energy to read all our stories, so as a special birthday treat I’ve pulled out all the stops and created an exclusive animated version of Liz’s tale, ‘Murder on the Kolkata Express’. Some of you may have read this brilliant short story already but wait till you get a load of this, this is quite unique. It’s a lot of fun too.
Happy birthday, Liz!
You have a cold? Try a pinch of tiger, or a smattering of red panda. A Chinese medicine maker’s pantry is spread over the hills of Darjeeling, but this zoo is doing all it can to protect the animals.
Got a tablet or a smartphone? Prefer accessing the wonderful world of t’internet through an app rather than your clunky laptop? You may be interested to learn that Liz and I have today successfully launched our new followtheboat app! What’s more, it’s free. Free of charge, free of adverts, free of clutter. Just free!
It was a real treat to go out and sail a carbon-fibre racing boat, even if there was no wind! For me, having not sailed for almost 2 years, it was refreshing to get back out on the water. Here’s a little video clip of that day, when we still managed to hit 9 knots with bugger-all wind! John is your skipper, Neil is the fisherman and Gladwin checks exactly how salty the water is.
It’s a bit early but the storms have started brewing over Cochin. I remember two years ago sailing from Goa to Cochin having to motor straight through some nasty weather and seeing lightning like you see in this video clip.
Around the one minute mark you’ll see it’s just like someone turning the kitchen light on and off. It feels like monsoon is just around the corner.
It’s been an exciting week here at Followtheboat Control Centre, what with two prizes being picked up by both Jamie and Liz. The most exciting news, however, is that we have just completed building our first app. This app notifies the user when a new podcast comes out and allows them to either download or stream the podcast from the comfort of their phone or computer. This is the ideal solution for people commuting to work or traveling by car who are looking for some pure escapism!
The sound of the hissing steam and shrill horn transported me to Britain in the 50s, The Railway Children, Murder on the Orient Express, Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, the railways that built America, George Stevenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Sometimes we were so close to the shops hewn out of the rock along Hill Cart Road I could have easily removed a speck of dust from the eye of a passing housewife, or handed a letter to a family of children.
It’s been a while since I had a rant but today I’m ill, very tired and have a wet bum, so if you spit tobacco or talk incessantly on your phone on a night-train I’m going to get wound up. And should you stare at me, god-forbid, well…
As I heave myself on to the local ferry, camera slung over my shoulder, a group of kids lean over and shout ‘Which country? Which country?’.
‘England’, I reply, ‘but I live here now. I’ve been in Cochin for two years’. The children look puzzled until I add ‘I’m now Indian, India is my home. Look!’. I hold up my wrist next to theirs and joke ‘Same colour!’. The children burst into fits of giggles and I half smile, hoping I can convince them that India is indeed my home, at least for the moment.
“If you’re talking about a great place to live, I’d say Kolkata. It’s got everything: great restaurants, historic buildings, the Maidan, an excellent transport service and friendly people.” Upon this great bit of advice from a seasoned visitor to India we spent a few days in Kolkata and in this post we visit the untouristic Kalighat to view a few burning bodies.
For all their jingoism and arrogance, I felt humbled by their intrepidness. We call ourselves travellers today, but catching a flight over to the other side of the world for a quick jaunt up to Machu Picchu, or a guided tour round a wildlife park, doesn’t compare to the terrifying adventure into the unknown these individuals must have endured for the sake of commerce.
As the sun began its rapid descent, the sky began to fill with black kites, some of them tiny specks a mile high. At first we took them to be of the raptor variety, but as we emerged from the undergrowth into wide grassland we saw a hundred boys and men wrestling with long twine stretching into the distance.
One of the problems with not winterising your self-steering gear properly is that 18 months down the line you pay for it. When we started recommissioning Esper at the beginning of the year we were horrified to discover that our Pacific Plus self-steering gear would not budge. Worse still, I had turned the auxiliary rudder round so that it was pointing inwards and therefore made the brass gears inaccessible. Here is a video to the solution.
Judging by the positive response from the last video clip we thought we’d post up another one for your titillation. It seems you lot like instant gratification so for those of you who can’t be bothered to read our more exciting written and photographic blog entries, here’s another clip for you to download and savour. It’s a clip of the Lovely Liz stripping! Better watch it quick before she finds out…
