Friday 28th December

Friday 28^th December

BIG accolades yet again.

This time, so well deserved, the accolades are for Wild Oats XI and my brother Chris Harmsen.  I think this was his fifth time on this amazing boat.  They steamed down from Sydney, getting line honours, and breaking the record which they had set in 2005.

We had moved onto 2XS the night before and the plan was to get up early and go up the river to welcome the winner across the line.  However it seemed all a bit impossible – they were breaking the records by MILES!!  This meant they would be in Constitution Dock at a ghastly dark hour of the night.  Not a family friendly time…  Fortunately they slowed down a bit – not enough to miss breaking the record, let me hasten to add.

Eagle-eyed Leo, nearly 7, was on the job.  He insisted on checking the race tracker again at 5.30 and soon phones were ringing and messages pinging through the ether from South Hobart to Blackmans Bay to Cremorne to Prince of Wales Bay.

By 7.10 am we were away with Nicky, Gavin, Hamish, Angus, Claire, Jemima, Felix, Katy, Jeff, Leo, Eva, Zoe and Rose all VERY happily aboard.

We were just too late to catch speedy Wild Oats XI cross the finish line, but we were there for the cheers and the presentations.  Wee hee and whey hey…

Zoe (2½) had never been on 2XS and she loved every minute.  She sat right up on the bow with her father, in her small life jacket, making sure all was well.  I went up to chat and she said, “Bardy!  Tell Pete we’re going to CRASH!!”  She was pointing very firmly at…the Tasman Bridge.  (Yes Pete had seen it…)

India #54

We didn’t actually love our Varanasi guide (Tout No.#2).  He had attached himself to us more or less against our will, and was slightly lacking in charm.  But he did trudge us up and down steps and took us to see very interesting things.  I loved the Ganges, so peaceful, but so very polluted, and brown.  People were happily dunking themselves in and out of the water, swimming around, brushing their teeth – yucko!  The buildings around the ghats are very old, but they are building new ones all the time further down the river.  Behind the burning ghats there are lots of hospices, full of people waiting to die and be processed in the river, all a bit macabre, really.  Depending on your point of view…        

Vish and Mary declined the offer to go up to a viewing platform in an ancient building to watch bodies being burnt.  I think this was a mistake; we were fascinated, and it wasn’t gruesome at all, it was all wonderful.  The bodies were wrapped, different colours for men and women, and then put on pyres of banyan wood, where it takes five hours for them to burn.  The holy fire which lights the pyres has been burning for over 3,000 years.   There is no smell at all because of the type of wood.  The families perform rituals around the bodies, involving earth, air, fire, water and spirit, all very calm and loving.  They walk five times around the pyre and then throw designated bones into the river – the man’s ribs and the woman’s pelvis.  Certain people can’t be cremated on the pyres; they have to be thrown holus-bolus into the river.  They include:

Lepers

Children

People who have been bitten by cobras

Pregnant women

Sadhus (holy men)

Smallpox victims

So a good many dead bodies are floating around in the already polluted river… Also animals, which just get chucked in.  We didn’t see any dead lepers, thank goodness, but we did see a very yucky dead cow with three legs, floating slowly past.  Oh dear am I making this sound ghastly?  I can assure you it wasn’t, it was all very peaceful.  The man who showed us around on the viewing platform was lovely, and explained everything to us in spiritual, soothing tones.  Pete offered him some money, and he recoiled, NO, no, he wouldn’t take our money, but maybe we would like to make a donation to the old ladies sitting at the doorway – they are about to die and need money for banyan wood.

So…Pete strode through the doorway and gave the old ladies 10 rupees each.  They smiled beatifically but could I get through the door with such a small donation?  No way in the world!  The guide got hold of me, and the lovely, spiritual man from upstairs joined him.  They said, very angrily, that I could NOT walk away without giving them at least 500 rupees, which was only just enough money to burn one poor corpse – had I NO compassion, or sense of spiritual obligation.  Banyan wood is VERY expensive!  So…muggins opened her moneybag… I was actually quite happy about all of this, but just thought I would keep it to myself and not share any of this story with my friends… When Pete said we had given 10 rupees, and how lovely it had all been, I just made humming sounds of assent.  But later that day we had dinner with Tout No. #3, a young bloke, who was loud in his condemnation of Tout No. #2 – the one who had taken us to the burning ghat.  “I hope none of you gave the old ladies money!” he said, “because you know what happens?  Tout No. #2 goes and takes it all away from them and just leaves them with a few rupees!”  I think I still didn’t admit to my folly, not until we met some young French travellers on the train who had given 600 rupees each to the old ladies, and who had later found out how they had been duped.  I could then say, well I only gave them 500…