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Message: <blockquote data-quote="richard jb" data-source="post: 1741277" data-attributes="member: 72753">14/12 - 16/12 Chilka Lake (Satapada)We arrived in Puri and marched straight to the bus station. I was not keen on hanging around in another temple orientated tourist town! We quickly found a bus bound for Satapada on the shores of Chilka Lake. Although it's only a short journey (50km) the trip took over 3 hours and was very uncomfortable thanks to the heat and excessive (even by Indian standards) overcrowding. The bus stopped every 50-100m to pick people up which is incredibly frustrating, and prevents any real air flow through the bus. Plenty of taxis and rickshaws ply this route, but it would cost a lot more than 5Rs...Satapada itself is home to a visitor centre, a few food and drink stalls, one restaurant and a hotel run by Orissa Tourism. The hotel is not good value at 400Rs a night but there is no alternative. The hotel restaurant is expensive and nowhere near as good as the very cheap and friendly place in the village. The visitor center is surprisingly good and only costs 10Rs. They also sell a range of literature on Chilka Lake.Most of our birding around Satapada was done on foot, walking east from the village out along the lake shore paths. These are well used by locals who will be very interested in you. We quickly became well known, and after a while the constant requests for a look through my telescope died down. The birding here is quite good, and Irawaddy Dolphin can sometimes be seen.On our second day here we decided to treat ourselves to a boat trip. It was very expensive (700Rs for 2 hours) but I really wanted to see Irawaddy Dolphins and more of the lake. Our driver spoke no English whatsoever so looking for birds was off the agenda. We stopped after 20 minutes and were boarded by fishermen trying to sell us prawns and pearls. Another 30 minutes (we had steamed past 1000's of Pintail) took us to the beach where we landed and were instantly set upon by restaurant owners telling us we had to eat fried fish and feed our boat driver. I'd had enough by now so stormed off to dip my toe in the Bay of Bengal. We found 3 dead (Olive Ridley?) Turtles here, Sanderling, Kentish Plover and Lesser Sand Plover.On the way back our driver seemed in a hurry, and was rubbing his stomach a lot making out that he wanted to get home and eat. I spotted a couple of Irawaddy Dolphins close by and managed to get him to stop for all of a minute or so to look at them. Then, after demands for money (?!) he decided it was time to leave. There were then demands for a tip when we got back! It is worth mentioning that this trip was done through 'Dolphin Motor Boat Association' which is a co-op of fishermen. There is no alternative for a short trip. Some birds seen around Satapada and from the boats:GadwallTufted DuckPintailLesser Whistling DuckWhite Bellied Sea EagleBooted EagleOspreyBrahminy KitePaddyfield PipitBuff Breasted PipitRichards PipitCitrine WagtailYellow WagtailPacific Golden PloverLittle Ringed PloverKentish PloverLesser Sand PloverSanderlingWood, Marsh, Common SandpipersTemmincks StintLittle StintSnipeCurlewWhimbrelBlack Tailed GodwitBar Tailed GodwitOriental SkylarkBaya WeaverBlue Tailed Bee-eaterPheasant Tailed JacanaWhiskered TernCaspian TernWhite Winged Black Tern River TernHerons and Egrets The next day we took the small ferry to Balugaon, 3 hours away. This only cost us 30Rs. From the ferry we saw hundreds of Irawaddy Dolphins and had great views of Ospreys hunting and Caspian Terns. The highlight though was the huge rafts of wildfowl composed of hundreds of thousands of Pochard, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Wigeon and Coots. There may have been something scarce in there but the ferry wasn't about to stop for us... Regardless, if you want to see Chilka Lake by boat this ferry is probably the best way to do it.</blockquote>

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