Barging up the Zuari river - the loading site

In spite of our somewhat slow progress upriver, the loading site is not really crowded when "Nitya Sushil" arrives in the early afternoon.


As soon as the first mate has finished the slow, but elegant "elephant-dance manoeuvre" of turning the old lady around, our main activities for the next few hours consist of waiting, drinking tea and watching newcomers arrive. The turning operation is based on three important steps: (1) Run her up against the riverside, (2) Tie her up to a convenient palm tree and (3) Let the wind do the hard work.


The site is basically a riverbend with a couple of ramps where trucks can dump the ore directly on-board the barges. And once the loading starts, and the iron dust starts drifting around, the whole thing is unexpectedly fast. Two trucks dumping alongside each other and a seemingly endless line of more trucks waiting. In not much more than an hour, the first barge is loaded and the next one can move in.


Darkness comes fast on these latitudes, and the foreign "stowaway" is not wanted on the pitch dark return trip downriver during the night. A taxi is organised out of the blue, and, at a somewhat elevated price due to a total lack of alternatives, the foreigner is returned to the comfort of a hot shower and a cold beer back in Vasco. A farewell to the crew, and the captain who, relaxing on the bridge, utters his second word of the day to me: "Goodbye"!



(And thanks to Prakash, my shipowning friend! I know you had to bend a few rules for me, but what have we got friends for? And, after all, this is India ...)