Surviving Cyclone Kyarr in Goa….

Well, you know those nice sunny picture of Agonda beach we posted a few days ago? It turned out the good weather didn’t last long. The Goan coast has been hit by the edge of Cyclone Kyarr which has brought some pretty extreme weather. About 5 days ago it started to cloud over and we had heavy rain showers, then the wind whipped up to over 60 mph and the heavens opened. The angry grey waves rolled right up to the front of our resort, debris started to fly everywhere and we were awoken by the crash of coconuts falling onto our beach hut from the palm trees nearby. Halfway through the night, the rain found a way in through the roof and started dripping onto our bed. By the morning everything was chaos, no electricity, water everywhere inside and out; and the storm had scared half of the other guests so much they’d checked out already!

As the days have gone by, we’ve realised these events will have a huge impact on the livelihoods of those who rely on tourism right up the east coast of India. Final building work and preparations for the new tourist season were being made this week, but the storm has taken roofs off and walls, or in some cases whole buildings have collapsed right along the beach. The beach bar at our resort was partially wrecked and out of action, so the first couple of nights we had to have dinner in our damp and drippy hut by candle light as the power cut out off and on all day.

In the following days we had to get used to eating by candlelight as it took 3 days to get the power back on and 4 to get phones and internet on line.

When we came to India on our adventure, surviving a major weather event was not exactly what we had in mind! 

P.S. On a more cheerful note, Starling Bank have refunded the fraudulent withdrawals that were taken from the account – hurrah!

Writing on Monday morning 28th October: Wouldn’t you know, yesterday the rain stopped and slowly the sun came out. We’re sitting in the beach bar having breakfast in the sunshine now but grinding our teeth as we have to leave for our flight to Delhi later this morning – grrrrrrr!!