#seakayakersandy

Have you ever tried couchsurfing? The first time I ever came to India I flew in to Kochi and was hosted by Prasanth and Bindhu through the couchsurfing network. They gave me my first insights into the culture, showed me the sights & made sure I was ok.  Later as I travelled along the coast in Kerala they helped me as needed with translating & advice.  It was so lovely to have breakfast with them when I was back in Kochi in January, and to catch up with the lives of these lovely people who touched my journey.  If you have never tried couchsurfing, give it a go once this world returns to a travel ok state of being.  Or host a couchsurfer in your home and share with the global community the best of your home & culture.  www.couchsurfing.com

In the end: Kayak transport India Style! We thought they could have fitted a few more on.

On the second day of the Muziris paddle we had a long break for lunch, a chance to socialise or siesta before the final stretch of paddling to Bolgatti Palace.  We all stopped at a house on the waterfront.  It’s so nice to reflect back on these communal times with so many people all enthusiastic about kayaking in India, adventure, challenge and supporting each other.  We are all looking forward to doing this again post-corona.

All I need is a cup of wonderful Chai & I’ll be soooo happy! This is how I like to experience the ‘real’ India, Drinking Chai and meeting the locals! There were plenty of chai stops on the Muziris paddle. When in March I found out that my work had ended due to COVID19 impact, my friend Shreeram told me to just stop and relax instead of all the stressing I was doing, Just stop for a minute. He makes chai and that makes everyone face their problems with a better outlook on the world.

It was fantastic to meet our youngest paddler at the Muziris event this year.  GO MAHI!  Hats off to Asha for paddling the 2 days with her daughter - that’s quality parenting in my opinion!  I hope more kids will get involved in the coming years of this event.  This is a pretty interesting kayak that they paddled as it comes apart into 2 pieces, great for transporting and storage at home in a small space.

Plastic Free Event in action!  So IMPRESSIVE...All of the catering on the Muziris paddle was plastic free.  We were served meals on real plates, the ones in these photos you see with a banana leaf on top to make washing up easy and banana leaf with food waste on it can be discarded for cows to eat or composted in the garden.  It was wonderful to see this stop with the food served to people on the kayaks so we could get the meal stop done efficiently... we always took a huge amount of time at stops where everyone disembarked the kayaks, so eating this way and passing plates out was great to keep things moving.  Glasses of chai were also served. Water bottles filled. And these ladies doing the catering were AMAZING.

Muziris Paddle Day 2, Finishing in Kochi - My job as I paddles was to try and keep the group together.  Kaushiq was on his SUP at the back and if I could see him I was happy.  It was hard to keep everyone together because the front paddlers always wanted to speed off and it was easy to get spread out.  As a team we tried to group everyone up before going under the bridges where there were some dangerous strainers made from obstacles under some of the bridge sections.  We got everyone through safely and were excited to reach the finish at Bolgatty Palace in Kochi.  Kaushiq had to make final speeches and then rush off to go back to Singapore.  We all were given a souvenir photograph and certificate at the end.