Flamingo Sanctuary and No Boat?! No Problem--Take The Bamboo and T-shirt Bridge

 We decided that we wanted to get out of the big city and see more of the nature around. So we searched for a few places nearby and settled on the Thane Flamingo Sanctuary. It was worth it. When we arrived, it was low tide and the boats were full...so sadly we could not take a boat out to see more Flamingos. But! No worries! There is a handy bamboo bridge walk through the Mangrove forest. It a squeaky bridge built of bamboo and held together with old t-shirts...nothing to worry about, right?! It is only about 10-15 feet down into waist deep mud (low tide). haha

Thane Flamingo Sanctuary has all kinds of wildlife. They have over 20,000 flamingos, lots if different kinds of crabs, and Mudskippers--the fish that walks on land. We were able to see all of those on our trip. They also have cobras--I was glad we did not see any of those! 

You can see that it was really LOW tide...but we were able to walk all the way out to the end of the dock and see Flamingos along the shore. I wish that I would have brought my big Canon camera to get some better photos. Maybe if someone comes to visit us in India we can go back and ride the boat with a better camera. Photos just do not do it justice. 

Talking through the Mangrove forest. When it is low tide it just looks like a really muddy swamp. 

They had a small museum that we could go visit. It was the best to go in and feel the air-conditioning after being out in the heat! It was SO hot! Photos do not show the heat and humidity!

Some small Mudskippers!

It was hot, but we loved being in nature for a time. The only sad part of it all was the litter and trash in the water. Hopefully the efforts to clean up the water around India will continue so the natural environment can thrive. 

We had some more chances to ride around in the Rickshaw!

The Japanese Restaurant nearby was so good! We were excited to get some of our favorite Asian dishes!