Meeting host ask Leon Hermann's for permission to record to my device. Yeah, I'll I am now recording the session. Okay, the cloud to my zoom cloud. So yeah. Okay, then I'm going to start. Welcome you everybody to this webinar of our Transparency Plan Project of 15 April two thousand and twenty four. Good to see you all. I also see that we have some new names amongst us, Vina and Vidas.  And today we have our friends from the Brahmaputa River basin note. And in their research, they focus on inland water transport between India and Bangladesh, which is also very much represented as a hallmark of local or regional cooperation between the countries. And well, Anna Mika and her team are doing research on this potential of this inland water transport system to catalyze transformative change within and amongst the basin communities. And by analyzing the social economic dynamics and the environmental sustainability of it. No, I've said by me, thank you everybody for joining us. And then I would like to give the floor to the Brahmaputra note. And thank you for it. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for the introduction. So we have four presenters, but we'll be quick. We thought to keep it inclusive. So we brought everybody on board. So what I'm going to do is quickly share the screen and what we are just, I hope you can see my screen, right? OK, so so as you can see here on the slide and as you all mentioned, the focus of the Brahmaputra note is on inland water transport focusing on two countries that is Bangladesh and India. And on a river basin, which is called the Brahmaputra River Basin, I'm going to talk more about what this river basin is like. And what we are trying to see is, of course, whether this intervention on the river basin between these two important South Asian countries, is it leading to a transformative change? What you see here on the picture is a picture from Marjuli, which we took when we went for the fieldwork. And so this is also the place where we plan to bring you for the fieldwork when you come here in December. And the river is the Brahmaputra River from the India side. OK, so before I go into the presentation, I thought it was important to introduce everyone to the Brahmaputra note team. And as you can see, IIT Gohati is taking the lead in this project. And with me, Mizo, Gittima and Jaya are working on this project. We have two regional partners. We have Joy Deep as a media partner and Sumit as knowledge partner. Then we also have partners in India and Bangladesh, who are a part of the Brahmaputra note. Dr. Patha is heading an organization called Aranya in India, which is which focuses mostly on the environment and climate change issues. And in Bangladesh, we have Zakir from JJS and we have Malik Fida from CEGIS. They are both going to help us at the fieldwork and also in the policy assessment part. We have Dr. Vina, who is from Cuts International, and she is basically going to work across the India and the Bangladesh part. So for us, Vina is the regional partner within the Brahmaputra note. So just one thing that I wanted to add is that today what we are presenting is in contribution from the entire team. OK, now moving on the river basin that I was talking about, which we are calling it as Brahmaputra River Basin, but the name is very long. It is called Yalong Sangpo in China. It is called Brahmaputra in India and it is called Yamuna in actually Bangladesh. It also falls, the Brahmaputra also falls in the catchment of Brahmaputra River Basin and there are two tributaries which joins the river. And that is why we call it that the river is shared by China, India, Bhutan and Bangladesh. It's an interesting river basin because, you know, that most of these South Asian countries has a huge population and the river when it flows through this different communities, the community is lively, who depends a lot on this river, particularly agriculture plays a very, very important role. And there are also pockets of community which are still not very well off in terms of economic, you know, conditions. So poverty seems to be and continues to be a major challenge for the community residing on this river basin. The river is also interestingly known as River of Sorrow and Opportunity Sorrow because there are yearly devastating floods, which takes away lives and livelihood. It's earlier, it used to be only a yearly flood, but now with climate change, it has moved, it has become much more recurrent. And every time this flood comes in, there is a lot of economic, law, social, and psychological impact to people. And Opportunity because the river also provides a lot of opportunity, which are not entirely explored, but it has a lot of hydropower potential. It has a lot of navigation potential, which is also a case that we are going to study. So we call it, therefore, the river, the water or this river actually has an enormous potential as well to bring a lot of prosperity to the community who depends on this river. However, every country sharing this river basin has diverse interests. So that has been a big challenge to bring countries together into one platform and identify how we can jointly invest on this river basin. And this has been made even more difficult because there are several bilateral MOUs that exist between, for example, China, India, Bangladesh, China, India, Bhutan, India, Bangladesh, but we don't have anything which brings all the four countries together. And also this river basin continues to be kind of an under-research river basin compared to other South Asian river basins such as Ganges and Indus. But yes, we do see that in the last decade, there is a lot of interest on the river basin. We are also seeing some investment coming on. And there are interests from the countries and the governments as well. Now, in this context, it is very interesting for us to actually explore this very, you know, and this actually a renewed intervention, I would say, because Ilan Water Transport between India and Bangladesh, there was already a trade agreement which was signed between these two countries in 1972. And the idea was, of course, this whole channel of navigation will help in moving lots of goods and services. But due to several political issues between 2001 and 2015, it stopped. So there was nothing happening for those many years. But in 2016, there was a conversation between the governments of the country, a renewed interest, and they also decided that we should renew this contract and this renewal, the way they did it, that for five successive years it will go on automatically. It will get renewed unless a particular government of any country raise any objection. And during this time, they also decided the country, the governments also decided that there needs to be some addendum to the old protocol. There were several meetings. Two of the meetings one happened in New Delhi in India and another in Dhaka in 2019. What came out of these meetings and what addendum we see is that there has been extension of the protocol routes, their inclusion of new routes and also declaration that new ports would be developed. There was emphasis on what kind of vessels would be allowed to be moving on the international river. And I specifically bring this up because this matters a lot when we will be presenting to you the cases, the case studies. And also a very important thing is that how can we make these, you know, transportation between India and Bangladesh movement of goods between England and Bangladesh less bureaucratic, less difficult. And so how can we improve the customs and immigration procedures? So these were some of the important points that were emphasised and discussed and so that this particular intervention can become much more successful than what we have seen in the past. Now, just to very quickly tell you that why this river, particularly Brahmaputra River is an interesting case is because as you can see in the left side of the diagram that there are several 111 national waterways that India has. But NW2, which is the Brahmaputra River, it actually connects to Bangladesh. So what you see on the other side of the on this diagram from Saudi is the point it actually connects from here. This is the border port between India and Bangladesh. It moves down and here you see India Bangladesh protocol route. This is the this is the route that our study is focusing on. And we plan to focus on four cases, two in India and two in Bangladesh. Two India is Marjuli and Thuburi and two in Bangladesh is Chilmari and Sirajganj. And the reason why we picked these up is that you would see that while Thuburi is a place where a lot of offloading and uploading of goods happen, Marjuli is another interesting case because this protocol agreement also talks about passenger you know cruises, for example, cross border cruises. So how the cross border proof can actually enhance likelihood was the reason why we picked up Marjuli and two case studies in Bangladesh. They are all very, very close to where the border is. Today in our presentation, we are going to talk about Thuburi and Marjuli as the Bangladesh case study. The field visit is going to happen from the month of I think around in the month of May or June, so that when next time we can present to you the Chilmari and Sirajganj case. So this is the background based on which we started this work. I'm now going to hand it over to Sumit, who is going to tell us how we are planning to do this, what's the methodology or what's the research design around this this study. But what overall we are trying to understand is that the larger question that we are actually trying to research around is that can we learn what to transport, bring transformative changes in the basin community across gender, class, religion and environment and at the same time ensuring that it is inclusive, transparent and it takes a participatory approach. So over to you, Sumit. Thanks, Anamika. Very quickly, I'll keep it short today because we have two more speakers coming in. My idea was to tell a bit more about how do we operationalize the the key question that Anamika just raised. So what we are doing right now is like we in the last few months we created an analytical framework on transformation. What we basically did is to not focus so much on what why of the transformation, because Anamika already mentioned that we are looking the whole aspect of inland water transport as a possible transformation in the Brahmaputra basin and how it could change lives or not. That is also one of the key elements that what is not transformative about this whole intervention that is being proposed to bring cooperation between the different countries. But the idea was to also think of how do we bring this transformation and for whom that was a key question that we focused on. I'm not going to go into the detail of the framework that we created. It's called the spirit framework, which I discussed in the Mexico workshop. And also I'm going to talk about a bit more in the in the PhD and postdoc forum this week. So there will be a bit more details on this particular framework and how do we analyze and look at the existing policies, whether they are talking about transformation or not. So we are going to look into that. But in terms of the real field work and to understand what has happened, we had two broad methods to understand this. First one, of course, the policy document analysis, where the policy assessment come and the spirit framework comes in to look at the gaps in the existing policies. A lot of government, quite a few government policy documents, or at least their public outreach has been that the inland water transfer will bring transformation. But in practice, in reality, in the policy documents, we wonder whether there is or not. We don't want to make a judgment simply based on what is said in these political statements. So we are going to go a step back and make this assessment whether they are talking about the scalability of these policies, whether they are power inclusive or not. We are looking into the temporality angle of how long are they talking about when they are proposing interventions around inland water transport. So all those aspects will be looked into in quite detail. The second, which is the core of the work in terms of on the ground realities is the critical living labs, which is more based on action research and kind of capturing what is really needed by the people or the voices that are not yet heard. So you will hear in the coming slides from Jaya as well as Mizo that in the two sites in India, in Marjuli and Dhubri, whose voices are not yet heard and what kind of challenges exist there. So we kind of did a reconnaissance visits in those two places. The details will be shared in the coming slides by the two two researchers, Mizo and Jaya. I will not go into that, but I will quickly mention that. How did we operationalized it in a couple of minutes? So what we did is in the last in in 2023, we made these visits but and try to identify what are the key gaps or challenges that are yet not been addressed by the inland water transport policy domain. They are making these big claims that there will be trade and all sorts of things. But what are the key challenges for the people on the ground? There are these small boat dwellers. There are these people who are working on the on the boats. What kind of challenges exist for them? How can we say that they are transformative in nature? So we look into that. And also this will not be the end of it. The idea is to identify those gaps, which we have identified. You will hear about them in the coming slides. But somehow find these low hanging fruits, which we in the next two years, at least within this project boundaries, we could make those interventions and bring those agendas on board with the state or with other actors that are responsible for this. I will stop here very quickly. I think it will be Jaya next, who will talk about Dhoobri and Jaya. It's over to you now. Thank you, Sumit. Hello, everyone. So as Sumit already mentioned that we have already done our reconnaissance survey in our two studies side. So first, we went to Dhoobri. So in Dhoobri, we visited last year from 12 to 14 December. And there we interacted with IWI officials, some private company representative, Fisher Hopeboat Association members, Indian traders, Bangladeshi traders and Char residents. So Char is a localized term that is used for the river in Iceland. Because of its geographic location, the Char's are prone to erosion and submersion during floods. So the Char communities, they are very essential part of our study because they are the most vulnerable ones. So first visit, we did in Dhoobri. And the second visit we did in Marjuli. We went to Marjuli in February. And there we interacted with the local communities, which includes the village headman, Char community, Fisher folks and government officials. So I will give more emphasis on the Dhoobri. So before going into the detail, I would like to set up a overall overview of Dhoobri. So it's geographic and demographic position. Dhoobri is a key district in Assam because it is a gateway to both interstate and interstate border of Assam. And it's also shared international border with Bangladesh. And because of this, there are many native and migrant community who lives in Dhoobri. Second is its economy. Dhoobri's economy is primarily dependent on agriculture. Although there are people who work as a daily wage labor, some of them also owns very small shop. But overall, in industrial development, Dhoobri is very backward. There is no industrial development because of which Dhoobri is a poor state in Assam. Next is its ecology. Dhoobri has quite rich biodiversity, especially in term of fishes. There are dolphins which are found in the Brahmaputra river. And they are very important species because they are considered as the indicators of the river health. But the most important characteristic of Dhoobri is its inland water navigation. So why it is very important? Because there are two ports in Dhoobri. First is international port and second is domestic ports. So as in this map, you can see the green square box. This is the Dhoobri port. And at the corner, you can see a red triangle, which is the Bangladesh international port, Chilmari. And these red lines, it represents the trade that is happening between India and Bangladesh. Apart from this, you can see there are many thinner lines who are spread all over. So these lines show the domestic port, domestic trade, which is happening within the Assam from Dhoobri. And from Dhoobri, these trade are taking place with Meghalaya as well. Meghalaya is a neighboring state of Assam in the northeast India. So there are two ports in Dhoobri and two types of trade dynamic is happening in Dhoobri. So first, I will like to give an idea about what is happening in the international port. So during our first day visit in the field, we went to the international port, where we interacted with the government officials, private entity and the traders. And we paid our observations as well. So from our study site, we found some interesting aspects. First is the trade commodity. So at present during the time of the study, only two commodities were being transported from that port. That was the coal and the stone. And however, this port is open to trade with other form of other commodities as well. But it is not happening at that time. So there is a less diversification. So while interacting with one of the Bangladeshi trader, he mentioned that maybe there are chances that from the Bangladesh side, the demand is lower. That is why this port is not dealing with other commodities. However, we are not very sure of it because we have not made our visit to the Bangladesh yet. So in future, we are definitely going to look into this aspect. The second important interesting development that has happened in the Dhubri port is its privatization. So in 2023, the government of India has leased out this port to a private company for five years on the basis of operation management. This is a public-private partnership model. And in this model, the private entity holds the 60% of the share and the government owns the 40% of the share. And because of its PPP mode, its governance structure is also quite interesting. The committee has been formed where there are the representatives from private company, IWI officials, custom officials and traders as well. There is a clear cut demarcation between the role and responsibilities of private entity and the government. So the private entity is responsible for taking care of all the activities which is related to the trade that is loading and unloading. Whereas the government's responsibility is to manage the channel which are used for navigation to a depth of 2.5 meters. After privatization, a lot of challenges has arisen in the international port. So I'll discuss each of them one by one. So first one is the tariff hike. So before privatization, the government used to charge a tariff of Rs. 75 per ton for the stones. And after privatization, this tariff has increased to Rs. 335. So there is a huge increase in the tariff price. And because of this, overall the trade in the Dhubri has gone down. So as per the data which we received from the field was that in 2022, the trade, the volume of the trade that took place from the port was 1.5 million ton. However, in 2023, it reduced to 20,000 tons. So when we were in the field, we observed that a kind of a negotiation was going on between the traders and the private company because of the increased tariff. These private traders, they were not happy at all. And a continuous dialogue was going on between both of them. So after this negotiation, the company, they reduced their tariff price. They reduced it to Rs. 225. And they clearly mentioned that this is the lowest tariff that they can provide to the traders. They cannot go beyond that. And although they have reduced the tariff price, but still it is much higher than what the government used to charge. The third challenge is the poor infrastructure. Previously, when IWAI was taking care of the port, so they installed a conveyor belt which used to facilitate the loading and unloading activities quite smoothly at the port. And after privatization, the belt was removed. And since then, the operational efficiency of the port has gone down. So when we were in the field, we saw that there were four or five Bangalore issue vessels were standing there from the past four or five days. Until then, they were not loaded. So when we were having the conversation with the Bangalore issue traders, they mentioned that because of this poor operational efficiency at the port, their overall businesses also suffers. And the last observation which we made in context of the challenge was the relationship with the trader. We observed that this private entity, they are not able to build that interpersonal relationship with the traders. And one of the reason could be is the language because the trader speaks SMEs and all the employees of the private company are not from the SM. So they cannot speak SMEs. So there was this lack of the interpersonal relationship. However, this trader had a good interpersonal relationship with the IWAI officials because they were able to speak in SMEs. So these are our insights from our first day field visit. On the second day of the field visit, we visited to the domestic port. And in the domestic port, we were actually quite surprised to see the kind of the activities that were happening. The port was very busy, unlike the international port. There were passenger boats, there was this trading boat, a lot of loading and unloading of items like potato, beet, spices, all these were happening. So the port was very busy. So we moved ahead and we interacted with the local traders who were involved in this activity. We interacted with them. We wanted to know their perspective on this inland water transport, how they understand it, what are the problems they face. So while interacting with them, we came to know that these local traders, they are very keen to do this trade in international waters. However, they are unable to do it because of the licensing requirement. So in India, we have an Indian vessel act 1917. And as per this act, there are only certain kind of the vessels who are allowed to go to the international port and do the business. And these small boats, which these local trader owns, they do not fall in that category. Hence, they have been refrained from doing the business in the international water. But interestingly, although there is this formal restriction in the trade, informal trading is happening between India and the Bangladesh. So what exactly is happening is all these items, whatever has been transported from the Dhubri port, they are going to the local areas like Mankachar and other local ports. But these Mankachar and these local ports, they are closer to the Bangladesh border. So from there, these items are eventually going to the Bangladesh, but through the informal channel. And because there is no accounting of this trade. So we are not very sure that what exactly is the volume of the trade that is happening because of this informal trade. And then the last observation which we made in the field was there were no female trader, neither in international port, nor in the domestic port. So while we were having the conversation with the local trader, they mentioned that there is a woman who lives in Dhauki, Meghalaya. She is the women trader we came across. And we have planned that in our next field visit, we are definitely going to meet her. And we will try to bring her perspective related to this inland water transport into our study. So apart from these international and local trade dynamics, an interesting infrastructure development is taking place in Dhubri. That is the construction of the bridge. So a bridge is under the construction. As you can see in this picture, this bridge has already been constructed to some extent. So this bridge will connect Dhubri in Assam to Fulbari in Meghalaya. And lots and lots of positive hopes has been attached to this bridge. Like it will improve the connectivity. It will reduce the travel time. It will bring the regional integration because Assam and Meghalaya, these two states, they are quite rich in their own culture. So with this bridge will help to integrate these cultural diversity among each other. But one of the negative aspect that is also associated with this bridge is once the bridge is ready and it's operational, so there are very high chances that the trade, which is happening through the river, might shift into the road-based trade. And if this happens, these local traders' business future is quite high in risk. So after spending the two days in our field, these are the problems we found. And we also identified the two low-hanging fruits in Dhubri. So first one is, as I earlier mentioned, because of the licensing requirement, these traders are unable to operate formally in international order. So we are planning to set up a dialogue with the government so where we would like to advocate with the government to bring some form of flexibility in this Indian vessel lab so that these boat operators who cannot do the international trade can also come under the umbrella of this app and can also operate. So this will improve the inclusivity of the app as well. And to do this, we will, the CUTs International, who is our regional partner, we will take help from them because they have been advocating about it since long back and they have done a good amount of groundwork, which is definitely going to help us. Second is, we observe that there is a communication gap between India and Bangladesh traders. There is no platform where they both can come and meet and discuss. So we are planning to set up an informal platform where the traders from both India and Bangladesh can come. They can discuss the demand from both the side and how they can meet this demand. So this informal platform will not only enhance the trade dynamics, it will also increase the cooperation between these two countries in the BRV region. So we have identified these two fruits and in the future we are going to look into these aspects more deeply. Now from here, I will hand over the presentation to Mizo who will explain our next study site, that is Marjuli. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Jaya. So moving on to our next field site, which is Marjuli. Marjuli is a large island in the Brahmavata River in Gaza. It's one of the economically poor states in Gaza. Gaza means communities along with tribal communities and other marginalized communities as I said there. The local economy basically revolved around the agriculture activities, agriculture and other activities of primarily fishing. Marjuli communities do commercial fishing and most of the households are involved in the substance fishing. And the unique geography of Marjuli is developed with a rich aquatic life and a rich bird population. And it's also subject to animal floods and the related assaults. Marjuli can be saying unique culture, heritage, as a sort of neo-Islamic movement believing in a casteless and egalitarian society worshipping Lord Krishna. Inland water transport is very much tied with the daily lives of the local communities in terms of employment, education, and accessing health services. And the inland water transport is very important for Marjuli, not only because of the dependence of the local community. It's also because like Marjuli has an important industry budding as a tourism industry, local tourism industry. As you can see in the map, the cross-border river cruise operates from a city called Varnasi in Amutha, India states, Kothabadesh, and it crosses India, and then enters Bangladesh, and finally carries an increasing number of domestic and international tourists to Marjuli. So moving on to the insights from the fieldwork. Our fieldwork pointed towards the livelihood prices of local communities. So first I will discuss the case of Peshawok. Peshawok mostly belongs to Marjuli's caste, and because of the dealing, fishing population, and disappearing water bodies, the fishing is no more as a viable livelihood option. As a result, youth are migrating out of Marjuli, and the elders are moving to other casual jobs and precarious nature of Viji labor. And the second case is about the missing tribal community. The missing tribal community, historically this chair, the livelihood is tied with the riverine ecology, and the riverine ecology, so increasing the nature of the annual floods and riverbank erosion, force them to move away from their riverbanks. So as a result, they are disconnected from the, their historical culture. So when we talk about the other communities, other Marjuli's communities stay at the chariots, they are also forced to move away from the riverside to other individual parts of Marjuli. Then we will discuss the case of women across the Marjuli's communities. They are said, responds to the livelihood. They mostly engage in small-scale, high-level weaving, hydro-smaking, and the southern groups play an important role there. And then we can see all the Marjuli's highly related to their vulnerability to floods also, like the geographical location of the riverside community, make them vulnerable to annual floods and related hazards, while Assamese communities settle in the core of the, core areas of Marjuli, and they are kind of less impacted by the floods. So given this scenario, the question arises, what inland water transport can do to provide a sustainable livelihood to the local communities? So moving on, one of the recent infrastructure development happening at Marjuli is construction of a bridge, which ended into the local development in Marjuli Nation in multiple ways. First case, increasing connectivity. It promises a connectivity to outside wealth, a 24-hour connectivity, because now the very piles till 3.30 p.m. So the local communities are facing problems, especially during medical emergencies, et cetera. And the bridge promises an increasing accessibility, accessibility in terms of environmental opportunities and educational opportunities, which mostly they are finding outside of Marjuli. The disciplines of new wise movements, particularly raise the concern about the integration of Marjuli's culture with other parts of Assam. For example, the unique culture of Marjuli will dilute with other cultures, and the increasing number of population may bring more industry pollution and waste damage, et cetera. So the women, local women aware of the construction of bridge, and they are kind of anxious about what will happen to their small-scale business, will it bring more competition or will it increase access to market opportunities? Because the ferry service, they are kind of afraid, especially during the monsoon season, because of the increasing number of accidents, et cetera. But the question to Ponder is about the last minute and activity. For example, the Char, the communities resided in Char areas, this way around 20 kilometers away from the construction site of bridge. So a company ship away from the ferry service to bridge, will it reproduce the existing inequality in Marjuli? So based on the field insights, some long-time thoughts how MAS, because this need to have a multi-mortar transportation, like a persistence of transport to the bridge and a ferry service, which can cater to the multiple needs of local communities. Second is a potential for developing sustainable livelihood around tourism. As we discussed earlier, tourism is a budding industry in Marjuli. So we can provide a sustainable livelihood around tourism and to overcome the livelihood crisis of local communities. Then TEDA aspect is river and aquatic biodiversity through community-based conservation. One of our peer-to-peer scholar, Gideel Mandas, particularly working on this aspect. So I'll hand it over to Anand Meghana. Yeah, so thank you. So these were the two cases that we have, we just made preliminary visit to these study sites. Of course, a lot needs to be explored. And so the next step that we have is a similar kind of requisite would be conducted in Bangladesh with the help of JJS and the CUTs. We are also planning for policy assessment and we plan to collaborate with CEGIS for the policy assessment part. We also are planning to do traders meet in collaboration with ECMOD in Nepal with support from CUTs.  Maybe he can come in later. So Svita already is working very closely with the Bangladesh government. So the idea is to know where are the gaps and how at the policy level, where are the gaps and how can we bring all that nuances we found in Majuli and Hiburi case to the policy level so that these gaps can be bridged. So overall, what we really found is that there's a lot of hype going on, a lot of discussion going on at the bureaucracy level, both in India and Bangladesh. But when we went to the ground, really nothing much was happening. So it was very disappointing for us as well. We are also planning to explore the possibility of setting up living labs in Majuli. And of course, all of these we would like to discuss with you when you all come for the annual workshop in India in between 4th and the 7th December. So I'm going to stop here. And this is the picture that Sumit took when we were in Majuli. And I think it's a very beautiful picture. So if you have not yet signed up, you should now open your Excel sheet and put your name and sign up because this is where we will be bringing you for the fieldwork. So thank you very much. Thank you very much, Anamika and all other speakers as well, also for your promotional talk here at the end. So I invite everybody to this beautiful scenery. In the meantime, several people have submitted some questions in the chat. And maybe we can just first start addressing some of those questions. And potentially the persons who wrote these questions could give some further explanation. So the first question that was entered into the chat box to my awareness was the remark from Emanuele who is interested on the idea of the critical lab. Emanuele, would you give some additional words to our written comments? Yeah, no, my thanks for all the presentations. I think after listening to Sumit, I was first of all interested by this idea of critical living labs because usually living labs, according to my limited knowledge are not so critical. But I think one of the reasons is that, because as you said, once you open up the Pandora Box of power relations, like real conflict might arise. So I was wondering also as a researcher, which role will you take in facilitating mediating and how will you do that if those conflicts arise? And there was also a reference to action research. So I was wondering, are you combined it to methods? Yes. For approach. Thanks Emanuele. Very interesting question. And you rightly said it's not limited knowledge that living labs are not very power sensitive. So it is correct. And that's the reason we particularly during thinking about it during our preparation of the research design, I thought maybe it's a good idea to take a step forward. And there were a couple of elements that we wanted to borrow from stakeholder platforms because stakeholder platforms, the way they are designed are specifically for conflict resolution. However, living labs are not necessarily thought about it. They are more technologically driven, at least in the European context, the way they are designed. They are about to implement things or more cooperation is at the forefront of it, but not necessarily conflict resolution. So what we've thought about is because and that's where the role of action research comes. We wanted to test few things before creating living labs to really visit places to talk to people and see what kind of dynamics does exist on the ground. And we could clearly see that there is very strong dynamics between these traders, which Anamika was mentioning about and the state who wants to promote inland water transport for these big items like the coals and the boulders, which are usually not done by small and marginal traders. These are done mostly by big traders. What happens to these small boat builders then? That's the question arises. And if the bridge comes into picture and all sorts of infrastructure develop, what happens to these local small traders and how are they going to connect? Because in the policy, there is no clear categorization that you can trade this or you cannot trade that. So why there is a clear preference or action plan towards big traders? So why are these small traders who are still doing their trade domestically could not trade with Bangladesh, for example. And what happens to them when these large traders come into picture? Some of them don't even get access to the main ports. They are still working on these smaller, without any infrastructure on these ports. To get that knowledge, we did these visits and it will kind of set a path to get that feedback into it, which is the action research part. And then we are going to set up these living labs where there will be questions of these clear power interplay. Of course, there is an aspect of it in the setting there. There is a process of learning, collaborative learning that will be aimed at, but also the design elements who are invited to these meetings, what are they informed about, who is inviting them? All these aspects will be considered before we set up these living labs. So they will make them a bit more sensitive. I would not say completely take away the power interplay because that's impossible. But at least there is a possibility to reduce these power struggles when they come forward in these settings. So that's a bit longer answer to your question because it needs a bit more elaboration, but that wasn't. I hope it answered, but we can have more discussion about it later. Thanks, Emmanuel, for the question. Yes, and thank you for your explanation, Sumit. I think quite clear and indeed nice stuff to further talk about later. Then, Jordi Gupta has very specific questions that are also addressed already in the chat box. Yet, at the same time, I think it's also interesting to think about these very specific questions in relations to what is then also the transformations going on in this landscape. He asked about the clearance of the bridge and so that gives us an idea on what kind of transportation, of course, is still able to pass underneath without problems and have with the kind of shipping or is it just then small ships or large ships? So apparently it gives a clearance of 10 meters, which I don't know the vessels that are traveling, but maybe on the Mikei. So is this considered that then still large ships are being able to pass through? I saw a very big cruise ship, also in one of the pictures. Would that still be able to go through or is 10 meters too low? Yeah, I think so if you saw, so it comes from very up in Varanasi, which is another part, but yes, it is happening, although what Joy Deepak was the frequency, but we really don't know. I don't really know. I don't know. Maybe Vina would like to respond to that if she's aware of the frequency of these cross-border cruises. So maybe Vina, you can come. Just one thing before I go to that, I could see Leon's question on something similar to what you also spoke about, yeah, and whether these low-hanging foods in both the places are something that we are connecting with the transformative changes. For now, I would say yes, because we have not yet connected the links, but how or what we felt when we were in the field, particularly in the case of Dhupuri, was that, for example, those small traders who were engaged in trading between Assam, the state of India, to another state of India, which is Meghalaya, they are the locals of those areas. They are engaged in such trade. But if you really look at the conditions and the economy conditions, the living standards, they are really, really not good. I mean, every time when flood comes, they have to move. And so there is no really good capital as such with them that they can take it ahead or they've become better every year. So the lens that we are putting up here is that if, suppose, we can advocate for these small traders to also participate in the international river and get engaged in international trade, particularly with this bridge coming in, which might actually reduce their trade even within the country, so will it actually help their living conditions, give them an uplift in terms of economic well-being as well? That is one thing. The other thing is we also feel that that can boost the local economy, because a lot of things are produced locally as well in Thuburi. It's one of the states where rise cultivation is very high. And that is also exported to Bangladesh. So will such trade also boost the economy, local economy, and also bring many more people on board? So that's the lens we are taking. But of course, we have to see how it moves. And I do understand that we have to explore more and connect the better. This is going to really bring transformative change, not now, maybe 10 years down the line or five years down the line, maybe not, of course, during the project period, similarly for Marjuli as well. Yeah, so I can see, Sumit has raised, maybe Sumit, you would like to add something to this? Yeah, no, I think it's a very fair question of what is transformative. And I think that's where I started with Leon, that we also have to see what is not transformative, particularly when we are dealing with these communities in Dhubri, specifically not even Marjuli, because Marjuli, I still feel the standard of living is quite all right. But in Dhubri, the standard of small changes, small changes can be considered transformative. And so the question comes, transformative for whom and how do they understand that change, right? For someone, a small change can be transformative for someone, a big change can be considered a very minor thing. So I think it's very relative. And I think within the scope of the project, we have three years now or two and a half, I think we should be also optimizing our efforts in the understanding of what it could bring as a change for them. And then of course we can connect it with the larger literature and the future of things, of how they have evolved. I think one of the things, this particular aspect, we have clarified in our research note now. It's a bit longer than I thought of, which has now come out to almost 12 pages of document. I would really like to share with everyone and see. And we have discussed about the concept of transformation there, but also how we are connecting and trying to achieve this through low-hanging fruits. So I think those kind of answers would be there. The second question that I really wanted to answer was for Joydeep. Joydeep was asking about the frequency of dredging. I don't know particularly in Dhubri, but it's very often now that I'm 100% sure because when we met the IWA officials there, they were saying that in the upstream of Brahmaputra, from Dhubri, I mean to say, there is a channel which particularly needs regular dredging so that the trawlers can come down and then further move to Bangladesh in case they are doing that. So that's one thing they do very frequently, they're dredging in a bit upstream of Dhubri, very often so that the channel is clear for them. And they also showed us in the map and everything where they particularly do that. We might have a picture on that. So that's that. Regularly, yeah, that's what they do it regularly. Veena, yeah, please. Yeah, so on the question on cruise movement through protocol route, I think the MB Gangavila's cruise was, you know, was the one which went marginally right from Varanasi to, you know, Deeprugad. But I think the bookings are done annually for that cruise. So next time it usually coincides with the flight season when the water level is convenient for the big vessel movement and all. So it will happen probably in August, September, this year. Other than that, there are some other cruise operators also in Bangladesh. So they also, I mean, it's not very frequent, hardly one or two voyages happen, like cross-border voyages happen in the year. That's the case now. And yeah, as Anamika already has already said. So right now, so the upcoming bridge is going to, you know, displace the small boat owners and those who are engaged in that movement of trade within the state or between Assam and Meghalaya and with the opening of the new trade route or if they can participate in the international trade. So that would be an additional opportunity for them. And this can bring, you know, some change in their livelihood. And so this is not easy as it is said and there are several regulations involved in it, including vessel registration and also the traders who are interested should have the import, export license and all. So they are not aware of the procedures and all but are also not clear about the picture on the other side of the border. And that's why we thought like, you know, meeting where we can bring in the traders together because trade is happening, but it is through land route now and how much of it can be taken to the river route and how profitable it would be is something which they need to understand and discuss. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, one of the things which was very interesting for us, which we couldn't find an answer particularly in Thaburi was that why, apart from these restrictions, why is the small traders not really getting access to the international port? I mean, what I'm saying is that, well, if they see that there is potential, they will be able to, you know, put pressure on the government, at least to the local government that, you know, we also want to be a part of it. That was the time we realized that trade is already happening, but it's more informal. So they don't really bother because their work somehow is happening, but what is not happening now is not formalized. It's very informal, which they don't like to talk. They're not supposed to do this trade ideally. So we also couldn't really document it as such. But yeah, informal trade between India and Bangladesh is happening through one point from where it goes by road transport, not through water. So yeah, we have to explore more on that as well. Yeah, thank you. Many questions also come in my mind, but I would like to give the floor also to other people if there are still other questions from Warden here with us. There are some questions from Joydeep, which I think I have responded to each of these. Let me see. Yeah. Yeah, yes, please, Joydeep, if you want to add something. Yeah, I know Anamika has responded to almost all of them. There's one, I think I didn't make myself clear in the question. So it was basically, it's coal and stone that's being moved. So where is the coal being mined or whatever and who's buying it?  You mean to say between countries who is buying? Yeah, so is Bangladesh buying the coal from India or from Bhutan? Yeah, and what about the stone, same thing? Stone is coming from Bhutan. So it's Bhutan to Bangladesh via India. No, no, Bhutan to India to Bangladesh. Right, yeah, okay, so the querying. So is there any, are there any goods in the other direction? What does, what's Bangladesh, what are the Bangladesh boards bringing into it? No, nothing, empty. That's the most interesting. They come empty, they collect and then they go. That's very interesting. But Joydeep, there's one more thing Anamika, you remember when we went, they are saying that the stones are coming from Bhutan, but actually they are not coming from Bhutan. They're coming from the lower ridges, which are called Bhutan, but they're India. Now, the reason they do that is that they lower their taxes. So there is a lot of informality there. Yeah, because the stones that would come from Bhutan are cheaper, but they are actually Indians, Indian stones. Yeah, I can see a lot of resistance to formalizing on this. Yes, yeah, please go ahead. Yeah, no, it's actually both ways. Stone is coming from Bhutan and stone is also collected from parts of North Bengal. And sometimes it is also labeled as it is coming from Bhutan to avoid tax. And a lot of informalities are there in the trade happening between India and Nepal. And on the question on vessels coming from Bangladesh, so right now the entire, you know, all the vessels are Bangladeshi vessels and they are coming empty. So once an effort was taken to bring cotton waste, you know, while they are coming to India. So there are a lot of cotton wastes of high demand in Assam site and it comes from Bangladesh. But since it was done for the first time and there were some custom compliance and other issues, so it was stuck for almost one month. And hence the traders were, you know, very upset about it. And they're very skeptical to go again. But this is one thing which is very promising and which can come through waterways, cotton waste from Bangladesh site. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then I'm going to still pose one of the questions that popped in my mind because in your presentations, you also mentioned that this bridge is presented as something to contribute to cultural integration between these different parts. Therefore, I was thinking, is this part of a national narrative of, well, maybe as an India national kind of thing and cultural integration or is this also more prevention? So what is the, maybe that higher level transformative idea of one united India? Or I, well, I see hats going. So I think you understand what my question is. But whatever came to your mind as a bulb is the right thing to ask. So I may go ahead. I hope I don't say anything offensive on this channel. But current populist government in India is based on two things. Their agenda sets on two things. One is to create infrastructure to show that there is tangible development. And second is polarization. And they both work wonderfully in both the places. Dubai is a place where there are traditionally people from Bangladesh who have moved to India, not anymore. So there is always a narrative around it that people are still coming. It's absolutely not correct. But in the past that has happened. And that's one of the reasons they have been kind of secluded and kept in that part of it. So you will see the kind of indicators, the development indicators are very, very, I would say they're not doing great in that part of the country. Second, the bridge in Majuli has a different story. There have been several accidents that have happened in River Brahmaputra where people have lost their lives. And there have been several efforts to build this bridge because it's a river island and it keeps moving. We don't know how technically it is feasible to build such a bridge. I'm sure there is technological advancements and everything. But the impact assessments of such projects have been completely kept classified. We have had no access to it. Even the DPRs for such projects are not accessible for public information. So you can imagine what is going on behind the scenes to showcase that how development is happening in India, the infrastructure development is happening. But along on the lines of polarization, whenever there is an opportunity, and our sum is particularly a prime example of polarization between the Hindus and the Muslims. And one of the sites we have chosen to agree is categorically representative of that. Yeah, can I just... It fits very well in the narrative of what the government is trying to do. Just one line to what Sumit is saying that, but there was a demand from people of Majuli for a bridge that has always been there because that was before even this government came because they have faced a lot of problems because of very lack of connectivity. So the question that we want to understand is that given the fact that there is already a bridge going to be there, how is then inland water navigation going to enhance their livelihood? Or why are you then focusing so much on the inland water navigation when somebody can reach the place much easier than traveling for so many hours? So that's something we thought that would be interesting to explore. And so we are looking at it more from a multi-modal form of transportation. Yeah, there's one more thing about the bridge. It's of course there's a demand, but it is contested and it is yet still contested. Yeah, so let me just go because what I find interesting how I also realize in this story that you tell, so a bridge often is of course presented as something that is connected, bridging a gap and bridging community, all that kind of. But it reminded me maybe of a picture that you also know in some of workshops that you see a deer crossing a road. And then people ask you, what do you see on this picture? And then people will say, well, most of the people will say, I see a deer crossing a road. And then the facilitator will tell you, no, you see a road that crosses the home of a deer. And so with the bridge, maybe also the barrier that crosses the river rather than it has. So I like that the bridge, well, of course it has an alley key, but it also pushes us now in this transformation to maybe look differently. When we look at the inland water transport on what is maybe the barrier created here across this river and who is then winning, losing and what is transformation then going on. So that was the idea that sparked in my... No, you're right. I would resonate it. No, you're absolutely right. Just one thing to add. We only talked about one river island, which is Majuli. And Dupri is of course a bigger region, but there are maybe hundreds of river islands there. And how many bridges are you going to construct to connect these river islands? That's the question that comes at the end. So I think there is a lot to think about when we talk about these bridges and they are absolutely contested, but let's see what the future unfolds for the people after decades and decades of protest of having the bridge or not having the bridge. Thank you. With that being said, I also look at the time. It's 10 past our ending time. Local differences included. To be very frank, I do not have the schedule in front of me for our next meeting, for our next time. So I'm unable to tell that by heart. So therefore I leave it with that for this moment to thank you everybody for participating in this webinar soon. Next week we will have some webinar sessions around the learning in this project. So on Monday 22nd there will be two webinars based on the time zone. So for me in the Netherlands it will be in the morning and the late afternoon and in the Thursday as well for the Dutch and Kenya partners around midday. So thank you everybody for that. Maybe Leon or Anamika on behalf of the Project Lead do you want to say something? Otherwise we go to thank you everybody for your participation and thank you for your very interesting and inspiring presentations. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.


it's pretty epic all right so this is effectively the official start line for this 25 and a half kilometer trail half marathon and there's nothing left to do but to do it got some music got my supplies i'm gonna start my watch all right let's do this what have i got myself in for hey guys it's me it's been a minute since i put a channel on this video yeah it's been a minute since i made a video um on this channel as proven by my uh inability to um introduce a video but this video is going to be interesting it's going to be uh fun well it's fun to think about not so fun to do when you're in the thick of it but today i am indeed going to do my very best to qualify for next year's west max monster ultramarathon this year came and went the race that is uh we've still got pretty much half of the year to go the first half has gone relatively quickly but that's only because i've been busy um and uh yeah that's what happens that's what happens guys either way i don't want to say too much i've got to get out there i've got to get to the start line what we have here folks is my itinerary no not my itinerary my inventory jesus christ i need some work um my inventory for my rung this morning it is 25 kilometers from simpson's gap all the way along the larrapin to trail to the telegraph station here in ellispring so it's 25.5 k's i think and it's a specific 25.5 k's because last time i did this i actually went from ellisprings to simpson's gap which is the wrong way um i knew that that was the case but what i didn't know is that there's a reason why you go from simpson's gap into ellisprings and that's because the the um the overall uh elevation or the overall sort of um what's the word it's easier going from simpson's gap to ellisprings because overall it's a it's more of a descent into ellisprings than it is going the other way i didn't know that um i was able to get just under four hours going the other way uh this time i will be going the right way i'm hoping for at least under four hours because four hours is the qualifying time this 25 kilometer stretch qualifies you for the 65 kilometer ultra marathon um and if you want to qualify for the 128 k uh then you go and and complete the 65 k um section and i think the cutoff might be 12 hours or something like that i'm certainly not at that level uh as far as training's concerned very very intermittent i am 10 i'm 11 days sober from alcohol at the moment alcohol has been unfortunately it's been um it's been my undoing the last couple of years you know what i mean i just liked it too much and i prioritized it over a hell of a lot of other things spent too much money on it my physical health suffered mental health suffered everything suffered you know and that's what happens when you drink that much alcohol for that long every single day but today i am 11 days sober and that is half the reason why i actually feel capable enough to do this if i can complete this four this uh 25 and a half kilometer half marathon effectively along the trail along the larrapinter trail if i can complete that in anything like three and a half hours today with fuck all training relying on mindset pretty much only and a base level of fitness then i will be extremely happy and um i will have indeed qualified for the for next year's 65 kilometer um west backs monster ultra marathon so let me with the power of youtube uh click my fingers and well i'll see you when we're about to leave the house all right guys we're almost ready to go um what i've got here is my camelback some of you may recognize that um i thought yes i i assumed it would get a hell of a lot more use uh than it has but i've kept it for a reason i've got two bottles of powerade in the back of it i've got two bladders of water either side i've got my gopro to take videos whilst i'm running and that's pretty much it so uh the next thing i want to show you is my new set of wheels have a look at this beauty what do you reckon uh it's officially my very first motorbike i've had plenty of scooters in the past 50 cc 100 cc 125 cc but i've never actually had an actual motorbike and i bought that yesterday uh it was about time i got some wheels for myself here in ellisprings i am taking a trip back to new zealand next month which i'm really looking forward to but i thought i'd get some wheels sorted so that my transition back to ellisprings uh will be will be that much easier that much smoother i've got my inventory and uh i've got my sobriety and guys just on a serious note if i didn't have that right now this would not be possible push came to shove something had to give and i had to give up the alcohol i'm trying to do it for 90 days i did it for 30 days back at the start of the year that was really really rewarding i brought that experience to youtube on my second channel called it's okay to talk and i'm doing the exact same thing um with this 90 day challenge so if any of you guys out there are interested in my sobriety journey in uh you know my day-to-day life at the moment i'm pretty much vlogging it every single day over on that channel and i urge you to go and check it out it's called it's okay to talk you can find the link down in the um on my my home page under the channels at the bottom of the uh of the page so that's enough time for talk it's time to do the walk or run or or both let's see all right we have arrived we're in the right spot but first i've got to go to the toilet get that sorted it's actually a good thing because that means that the water that i've had this morning the coffee that i've had this morning has already started to process through my body um and it means that i am hydrated enough to begin this this run because it's no it's no joke it is no joke um uh i under i severely underestimated this run last time i did it uh i did it in like february i think it was about 36 degrees that day which is you know it's not as high as it gets around here but it's um you know it's beautiful it's perfect running weather today so the weather is on my side we've got a little bit of cloud at the moment which is not normal around here so that's also on my side um but i won't i won't say we haven't gone through any adversity yet because we have in fact i didn't realize how fucking cold it was going to be on that bike so i should have i should have had some long sleeves on um but i didn't want to bring anything extra because there's no room to store anything underneath the bike and i really wanted to just have my my backpack on and yeah look uh i'm rambling now it's 8 56 i want to start this at about nine o'clock and uh yeah if we can get on the road by nine i'll be stoked have a look at this now this is simpson's gap this is the the classic photo the classic view that people capture but uh unfortunately this sand bed uh dry river bed i suppose you could say is uh is the start of the actual uh 25 k course so one mistake that i made last time was um not only going the wrong way but also not finishing it all the way down here by the water so uh i'm lead to believe i need to be pretty much on the water's edge i'll start my watch and then we come all the way up here until we see an opening on the left hand side uh some some sort of a trail and we carry on there and then that's pretty much uh the way that we we go until we reach alice springs so oh i'm ready for this man perfect weather honestly can't say that enough fucking perfect weather for a good run and uh look if i can get it done in anything under three and a half hours with the minimal training that i've been doing i'll be really proud of myself and that will indeed be my qualifying run uh for next year's westmax monster it's pretty epic right so this is effectively the official start line for this 25 and a half kilometer trail half marathon and uh there's nothing left to do but to do it i've got some music got my supplies i'm gonna start my watch all right let's do this what have i got myself in for running along the sand jesus christ okay i'll tell you what i was lucky to even find the entry to the trail but this is what i'm working with i'm a kilometer through okay so very very early days but it would be in my best interest to stick to a game plan and uh my game plan is to be very disciplined with where i walk and where i run so it's pretty simple walk the uphills run the downhills and jog the flat parts and if i can do that this entire way i will be on track to qualify okay 2.99 kilometers 24 and a half minutes now that is certainly nothing special uh but the majority of it has been uphill so when you think about that it's actually not too bad so couldn't say exactly how high we are but apparently and this is out by bit it says 21 k's to go so 21 k's might be to the edge of the telegraph station but it's not uh that's not the finish line so three k's in feeling really really uh yeah just excited man just so happy to be to be out in nature doing what i love exercising feeling free free as a bird the only concern at the moment is my left calf uh is you know it's i can feel it put it that way so i've just got to be mindful of that and i've also got to be mindful of uh not doing what i just did whoa and uh running you know even if it is just the slightest incline i really need to tell myself to slow down and think about think about the overall picture the big picture anyway it looks like we are going to go down uh for the next little bit at least so i'm going to enjoy this one thing i do have on my side is music now i could be doing this without music and i'd probably feel yes yes okay to all you woke mofos out there yes i would feel more grounded it would be a more spiritual experience but i mean i am sailing uncharted waters right now haven't been on the trail for six months needed as much motivation as i could possibly muster and for me at the moment music having music having my favorite songs when and where i need them to really just give me that boost uh that was a non-negotiable so either way i just want to send my blessings out to every single one of you guys who have not only clicked on this video stuck with me over the years but also have watched long enough to actually get to this part and if you have i'm going to do what i've never done before and say look if you are at this point go down to the comment section hashtag west max monster hashtag west max monster and then i'll know that you're a fucking true og an absolute legend of the channel and with that in mind we've done three and a half k's boom let's keep going okay all right so it's been mixed terrain i'm pretty much down on the flat now it's been relatively flat for the last like k i'm just coming up on six k's about 40 44 minutes six k's 44 minutes that is what it is this kind of stuff feels like a real blessing at the moment but like i mentioned before i've got to be real careful like you know i'll i'll head down you know somewhat downwards like that get a bit of get a bit of speed up but then on the other side inevitably it's going to go back up so i've really gotta really gotta discipline myself and just walk up as steep as little as the gradient may seem um that's where i'm at now cramp cramp is a factor it's definitely a risk factor i've had cramp before on long runs and the only reason that's really happened is because i've failed to introduce salt back into my system after uh after sweating i'm starting to sweat now i will say that the cloud cover is a another blessing um and this is a portion that i should run so uh next time i get the camera out i'm going to get my gator uh my my power radar and have a few steps and probably carry that in my hand just for a little bit um we'll see how it goes so i'll see you again at about kilometer nine we'll see where we're at but for now come to think of it that pain in my in my left carp has actually gone away so it must have just been a teething issue uh music helps making these videos help but it's not going to help me get through those final five k's and i know they're going to be fucking hard so i'll see you at nine okay we are just coming up on nine k's just ticked over an hour and four minutes you know i vividly remember going the other way about six months ago and i thought holy shit yes you know it's going to be like this the whole way back the whole way to to simpsons gap and unfortunately as we've seen today it's just not the case so i know that i have you know completed quite a bit of elevation already but i do know but i also know that the uh the highest point the steepest elevation is yet to come it's called euro ridge the next stop or the next sort of like little camping area is called wallaby gap i'm going to sit down i'm going to refill my little water bladders uh because there is drinkable water there which i missed the time before which was a real bad mistake and also speaking of mistakes uh last time i got a really bad blister a really big blister um on my foot and i'm getting another one now so that tells me that my shoes aren't ideal i've thought for a long time that i need a specific you know running slash trail running shoe whether that be you know asex or hawker or whatever the other brands are but uh i think after this run definitely after this run the time will have come to to get a new pair of shoes but as far as my blisters concerned you know the last time i did this run i just finished the only reason i got motivation to do it is because i just finished 30 days of running every day and uh you can find all of those videos on my other channel it's okay to talk uh but uh fatal mistake is getting home and popping it uh but not only popping it ripping off the skin ripping off the entire blister and just letting it heal without that cover of skin you know what i mean and that fluid and what that meant for me is that i couldn't comfortably run doesn't matter what shoe i was using doesn't matter how many socks i was wearing i could not comfortably run for like three weeks okay because that's how long it took with the friction of wearing shoes and shit that's how long it took to heal maybe even four weeks so i can feel a blister coming on and so aftercare is going to be extremely important because i don't want to be fucking hobbling around for the next four weeks fuck that i've learnt from my mistakes but we do have quite a hefty blister uh forming at the moment either way i'll see you guys at wallaby gap i'll see you guys at wallaby gap sounds like a plan all right there we have it wallaby gap 150 meters this way oh yeah the legs are the legs are feeling it at the moment but i said to myself i would stop here and uh get myself sorted for the rest of the trip so that is exactly what i'm gonna do rest the loins rest the legs just a little bit oh man only a crazy person would do this shit all right so the plan is to fill up these little things because uh yeah it might only be like fuck i don't know 25 degrees but i'm certainly feeling it and the sun when it comes out from behind the clouds uh it's pretty intense so i'm gonna fill these up be back in a sec next minute okay all right so we're not quite halfway uh we're about 11 k's through and this will be the only pit stop i make we're about to head up to uh what's called euro ridge and that will be the that'll be the toughest climb so i'm just gonna take it easy i just want to get up there in one piece and i i i also want this to be gone by the time i get up there so i'm gonna hold it my hand and sip on it and i can't see too much i can't see uh too much jogging over the next fucking uh few k's but we'll see you never know cap in the pocket you don't want to contribute to any um any littering all right and that's it one minute sorry an hour and 20 an hour and 20 on the dot through make of that what you will i'm trying not to look at the time as much as possible but it's kind of hard when you do have a time constraint but yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna try and enjoy this as much as possible that's where we're at guys plenty of good music in the years and plenty of incredible scenery to keep my mind off things so let's keep going here it is guys you're a motherfucking rich and we're right up the top of it talk about brutal okay talk about i'm gonna try and block the wind talk about brutal guys that was farped but i'm led to believe we are indeed at the top the top of the ridge and at the highest point on this track i've been going currently i've been going for an hour and 38 minutes and i've done 12 and a half k's so basically halfway through i hope we've gotten through the worst of it i couldn't be completely sure but this is uh whoa you don't want to get too fucking close damn have a look at that all right guys so it's time to knuckle down get down this ridge as fast as possible and uh crack on all the way to Alice Springs let's do it shit did i talk too soon i may have talked a little bit too soon i've got a habit of doing that seems the brutality is not over yet okay three hours and 30 minutes that is the goal we're on track but i said that last time i tried this all right guys if i said i wasn't struggling right now i'd be lying this is becoming a real struggle i'm 16 k's through two hours and 10 minutes oh shit i've done over 2200 feet of elevation and climbing this oh fuck i can't stop or else i won't get up all right guys checking in coming up on 19 kilometers coming up on two minutes 30 sorry two hours 37 basically this is some tough shit all right guys oh man we are officially in damage control mode i vividly remember coming under this bridge that i'm under right now on my first attempt to do this i was going the other way and i'd run about five and a half k's or five k's and i think i did it in about 36 minutes and i thought fuck yeah this is going well little did i know the trials and tribulations that would that would face me um i told myself if i ran all the way down towards this this bridge that i'd give myself a good couple of minutes just to sit reset put my rubbish in my bag i was so tempted to drop that but i didn't so that's good uh and get out my final bladder of water uh that's all i've got severely under hydrated severely under uh sodiumated if that's a word severely undercarbed i thought that i got a liter of of power aid two liters unfortunately i grabbed the 600 ml i don't know what was going on in my head it looked bigger but that only gives me like 36 grams of carbs per bottle so that's like 72 grams of carbs this entire way which is way too little uh as far as straight water this will if i drink this this will be a total of two liters of water which is far too little once again but uh you know it's a learning experience and um i'm also battling through some pretty fucking hefty cramp right now too so i just want to get back in one piece whether i have to walk or run or a mixture of the two time will tell i've been here for a couple of minutes 20 k's in two minutes 48 that's sorry two 20 k's in two hours 48 okay including this rest so i i believe right to the finish line we had to start right at the start line we have to finish at the finish line i believe it's five and a half k's so effectively i've got to get in in a time under three three and a half hours i've got 40 41 minutes right now so i think i'll do i think i'll do really well to get it done um i think it's an achievable goal but like i just said uh i am battling through some fucking pretty bad cramps man my quad i thought it would be my carbs but it's my quad and then i went to go and stretch it and instantly my hamstring fucking cramped up locked up i was like fuck so it's both the quad and the hamstring on my left leg for anyone wondering either way five and a half k's guys uh i've actually i turned off my music the last few k's because i just had to concentrate it was just getting a little bit too intense but uh yeah the clock's on the clock is indeed on right now so let's do this 40 minutes to get five five point three k's done all right my mind is telling me no but my body my body's telling me yes probably shouldn't do that i might faint like the other guy fucking hell this is a test of character i'll tell you that much we're almost there my hamstrings have locked up multiple times it's three hours 26 minutes and 16 seconds and i've officially done 24.72 k's the finish line is in sight if i can bro if i can do this i'll be so proud of myself this is this is super super hard i've got two minutes to go apparently i've got to get across a lawn and touch a lamp touch a fence post literally got a minute and 10 seconds to go i am fucking dying and if the carrot wasn't dangling so close i would have given up there it is fuck oh that's the track let's go 45 seconds holy fuck i gotta i gotta make it onto a bike track i feel like it's just here about 30 seconds 30 oh my god ah i feel like it was back there oh i'm dying oh fuck i feel like it was back there they see something brown no i'm done guys if i don't think it is that but if it is if it is that thing behind me i finished in just under three hours 30 minutes it's either that or somewhere down there somewhere down there i don't care anymore i just finished oh let's save it 25.36 kilometers along the Larapinta trail in three hours 30 minutes and 15 seconds i pushed myself further than i ever thought i could absolutely incredible feeling Lee shit hey worth a youtube video nonetheless i'm just waiting for my ride i'll have to wait until about 4 30 to go and get my motorbike but that's okay it's pretty it's pretty i mean oh i say it's a trustworthy place but depends on where you are where you are i suppose out at simpson's gap i can't imagine with all the tourists that go through there i can't imagine anyone stealing my helmet that's all i'm worried about not worried about the bike that's all locked up it's just my helmet and we've still got honestly man i fucking Jesus Christ i pushed myself so hard so much further than i than i thought i could you know three hours and 30 minutes we cleared the qualifying time by half an hour and we've still got the most fun part left for someone who loves stats loves analytics you know it's it's one thing looking at stats and analytics and wowing over them with professional athletes but as far as your own statistics your own athletic statistics nothing beats it so i'm gonna have a quick look now on my phone but as far as running through them and looking at splits and trying to think back certain times during that 25 k's i'll do it when i get home i pushed through literally probably six or seven k's worth of cramps that is not safe but there was only one way i was going to get back and that's you know by myself i was never i wasn't going to be able to get chop it out although you know if i had a broken my leg maybe um actually no a couple of rangers would have come along the trail and carried me out through stretcher which would have been really interesting looks like we've got a little mate here hey you're friendly aren't you all right move too quickly either way guys oh my god jesus oh i am done oh well we all right guys i didn't actually know i had that in me i did not know i mean i did i had little anklings that i could pull something out of my ass like that but when you're in the thick of it when you're 20 k's through of a 25.3 k run and you're feeling like your your legs well like i said during the video my mind was telling me no but my body my body my body was telling me yes thank god so all right you know what an experience very grounding you know what i mean very random i'm not going to lie i i have been getting into getting back into a bit of training certainly not you know anything like that certainly no half marathons in fact i feel like uh the last the last time i did a half marathon was six months on the exact same track just going the other way prior to that fuck who knows i've only run five kilometers at any one time over the last six months and you know i'm not happy about that i feel like i can definitely push myself further and but you know when you're in those runs at certain times when it gets to four and a half five k's you honestly think like depending on how hard you've gone you know i sometimes think look look i i can't push myself any further but doing but going out and doing something like i did today you know embeds a new sense of confidence around my physical capability and you know when it comes to going out for my next jog when it comes to five k's through i'm going to think back i mean it's going to be inevitable i'll think back to this run and think uh come on mate get real you can keep going so we've got some stats we have some interesting stats what i used to actually measure the run was my garmin um smartwatch i'm not actually sure what the the name is but actually no i can tell you i can tell you through the garmin app it is called an instinct garmin instinct that's what i can see here now interesting stats all right three hours 30 minutes and 15 seconds 25.36 total kilometers 2,380 total calories burnt and we did a casual you know 861 meters of elevation 861 meters now that in feet is oh near on like 3000 feet you know probably 2800 feet or something like that um we've actually got uh in Strava we actually have like a graphic showing where the elevation was and how steep it was and uh yeah there's certain parts on that graphic that really you know show just just um yeah just how steep overall uh certain areas certain parts of it were and there's i mean i'll throw the elevation graphic up on the screen you know we started off with a fair bit of elevation came down uh came down the other side and then i had probably five or six k's from about four and a half k's all the way through to about 11 k's where it was relatively flat and being that it was the first half of the the race i was feeling good feeling pretty confident i didn't push it too hard but i was able to maintain a pace of around about six minutes to six minutes 30 throughout that five and a half kilometer stretch and you know thinking back the fact that i was able to just finish in three hours 30 minutes you know in times like that where i was feeling good and i i did run uh for the most part and i didn't stop you know it's those little moments that really contribute to the result at the end right so i mean i'm i'm extremely proud i'm extremely proud about doing that i said that along the way i said if i can get anything near three three hours and 30 minutes i'll be extremely proud and i am i am proud we had an average heart rate of 153 beats per minute what i found is that on the the declines that would give my body and my heart rate uh some relief and you know even whilst jogging if it was downhill my heart rate would come down from something like 160 165 beats per minute slowly but surely come down to something like 140 um it and i felt it i felt it you know if i did have a 500 meter decline or whatever i jog the whole entire way um and then i get to the bottom and i'll be like shit i'm actually feeling i'm feeling a little recovered and i'd look at my heart rate and i it would have dropped you know 20 beats per minute so um heart rate is another really interesting measurable something i am really interested in especially resting heart rate uh i'm all about trying to get my resting heart rate as low as possible and as consistent as possible and the only way that you're going to get your resting heart rate lower than what it is now is to do cardio or do exercise that forces it to get higher um regularly so the higher it goes during cardio the lower it's going to be during rest because your heart is a muscle and it gets fitter it gets more capable okay let's look at the splits so we started off with a fair bit of elevation we started off in the sand actually jeep is creepers i don't know how that would go got through you know that that first bit of elevation at around about eight minutes per k got down to the bottom of that and it was kilometers five six seven eight and nine that were around about six minutes 20 per k and looking back you know i i i mean i i can't really remember how i was feeling at that point um but obviously it was it was pretty pretty easy going really compared to like what i had to go through at the end then we had our second piece of of really serious elevation and uh during those two kilometers trying to get up to the top the first k was at 11 minutes 54 the second was at 10 minutes 13 um and that took us to the top of euro ridge at kilometer 12 and a half or 13 heading down the other side of euro ridge uh it was yeah it was overall uh downhill but there was certainly some uphills as well 833 810 858 and then at around about k 17 through 18 19 i really started feeling it i started thinking holy shit i start i kept on looking at the clock as much as i didn't want to and i was sort of trying to do the you know the figures in my head and work out exactly how you know i was going to have to get to this k by this time to really give myself a chance to get under three uh three hours and 30 minutes and yeah it was a struggle it was a struggle 858 1006 916 916 and then there must have been uh well there was there was negative 46 uh meters worth of elevation and uh during that kilometer it was you know it would have been for the most part downhill and it came down to seven minutes 19 so that you know i sped it up a wee bit gave me an opportunity to to recover somewhat and then uh and then it was 803 805 730 823 and pretty much what felt like a sprint to the finish the 25th kilometer was six minutes 50 and then for the final 300 meters i was just doing all i could to get to this mystery marker that i i don't even know if i reached it or not but either way the final 300 meters was done at a five minute 44 pace so uh i will have put all those graphics up on the screen for you guys to see uh it's uh yeah and that is indeed my qualification for next year's 2024 west max monster ultramarathon which is going to be made up of that section of the larrapin to trail that i just did but also a 40 kilometer section prior to that so you start from a place called stanley chasm it's a 65 kilometer ultramarathon and you could only qualify for it if you've done a previous ultramarathon last 12 months or something or for local ellisprings residents do exactly what i just did log through strava your 25 kilometer simpsons gap to ellisprings run and it's got to be under four hours so the last thing i'll leave you with is an interesting well this is the competitor in me coming out i actually found this year's results for that particular section so the ultramarathon is it's got various lengths from five k's all the way up to 231 k's which is the actual west max monster so it goes 231 down to 128 then there's 65 25 and five k's so the 25 kilometer section that i just did is actually its own race on race day but i want to do something more than that either way what i was able to find is some results from the 25 k race that was run just a short two months ago so let's have a look i mean i'll yeah obviously doesn't doesn't really mean much but uh with a bit of training i feel like i could probably get it down to three hours 20 i i assume i mean maybe even three hours 15 but we'll take three hours 30 minutes and 15 seconds as today's finishing time and if we look at last year's results the winner petra millis walsh did it in two hours 33 minutes 37 seconds which is absolutely flying that is ridiculous that's pretty that's that's that's running the entire way okay that's fucked either way um for example 10th place came in at two hours 51 minutes and 47 seconds 20th place came in at three hours three minutes and two seconds 30th place three hours 11 minutes and 27 seconds 40th place three hours 21 minutes and 27 seconds and 50th place three hours 33 and 46 seconds so i must have come well i would have come between 46th and 47th position three hours 30 minutes and 12 seconds for 46 three hours 30 minutes and 25 seconds for 47 so i'm gonna say that if i mean i probably would have been a bit more motivated on the day and there's aid stations as well right you can you know get food and and drink and what have you so i would have been 47th out of a total of 169 so that's not bad man that's not bad for fucking no training all right no i'm gonna pat myself in the back here no training living like a fucking alcoholic eating like shit and you know being pretty much overall really quite depressed recently for me to go out there and fucking do that and prove to myself that i you know i've got a base level of fitness you know it's it's it's really really rewarding and i'm sitting here feeling really accomplished but i'm not gonna rest on my laurels i'm gonna you know hopefully try and continue to to exercise and and and do more long distance running because that is i actually really enjoy it i do in the good times the cruisey times i really enjoy it like i said it feel grounded it's very spiritual music was amazing for the first like 20 k's and then i got real sick of it i got real sick of it i had to take my music out because all i wanted to do was get to the end so it's funny it's a funny old thing long distance running but um i enjoyed it i hope you guys enjoyed the video and that is indeed my qualification for next year's race so thanks for watching guys thanks for tuning in if you're still here you're a fucking legend and uh look i'm gonna present this to you i'm gonna present this idea to you guys why don't you have a look on google maps and have a look you know what what what trail what trails there are around where you live you know whether you're by i mean i'm in a desert i'm in a desert guys i'm in a fucking desert and i can still find one so you know there's trails and mountains and lakes and waterfront tracks and you know everywhere in the world so i recommend that you guys do something similar because it's really really raised my uh myself esteem you know what i mean and can't go wrong with that either way guys thank you for watching and i will see you for some NFL top 100 players of 2023 reactions sounds good to me


An old wooden mansion that turns on its inhabitants. A dissection class with a most unusual subject. A funeral where the dead are definitely not laid to rest. Ranging from the terrifying to the comedic from the erotic to the loathsome. These stories showcase Junji Ito's long-awaited return to the world of horror. Hey everybody, welcome to another exciting episode, another edition of a week in Geekdom here on YouTube. If you have noticed, I like my horror comic books and manga and I love Junji Ito. So I am reviewing every single thing that the man has done, or at least stories that have been collected in hardcover or softcover, whatever, that's been collected so far. So yeah, I did Uzumaki, Tomie, Gio, all that stuff. I had to continue the trend and I went back and picked up fragments of horror. I'll say it right now, it's not the best work from Ito, but it's probably my favorite after Uzumaki. I friggin love this book. When I first got it the other day, I read a few pages and I was so hooked on it that I just said, you know what, just screw it, I'm gonna read the whole thing right now. It was that fun, it was that awesome. This one is more satirical and more comedic compared to other stories where like Tomie really took itself seriously, especially Gio with its silly premise and Uzumaki was just a masterpiece in my opinion. This is more lighthearted and it ranges instead of like full on horror creepy freaky moments. This goes into more like oh that's really messed up and then it goes on into other stories. Some are funny, others are quite scary and others are more kind of gross. So yeah, this is a more lighthearted read. It's still got that shock body horror that people have come to love from Ito, but I gotta say it is fantastic. There are a bunch of stories in here that I really recommend stuff from, and I kid you not, from people having sensual experiences with houses to horrifying monsters chasing after people, freaks that like being dissected. You've got ghostly apparitions living with residents in houses. You've got stories that range from the bizarre into like the Saw movie territory, but not so gory. Yeah, it's got a little bit of everything and that's why it's called Fragments of Horror and I know that he took a break and came back with these stories and they're not like the best stuff out there and you're gonna be a little bit disappointed because if you've read the previous works like Uzumaki, those were just sensational. This is more lighthearted, like I've mentioned a couple times now, so you might be put off a little bit by it, but stick with it because I promise you it's totally different than what you're used to. Plus there's this, I love the idea that it's short horror stories. With Gio and Tomie, some of the things I didn't like about those books were the fact that they were so long because they kept focusing on these characters and their adventures on this singular topic and I think the forte when it comes to Ito is when he does short stories and I love short stories. I'm a huge fan of that format and this book is just the right thing for me. Some of the characters actually intersect in other stories which I appreciated because they were fun and they are interconnect. I wasn't paying attention. I'm like wait this guy is from that other story at the beginning with the futon mattress. Yes, but that gets resolved and we move on to something completely different and I just want to show you guys something really cool. Of course there's the usual there's the usual art when it comes to Ito and I just want to freak you out for a little bit with this panel right there. I don't know if you can see it but oh my god this was terrifying for me because I have silly ideas that one day I will wake up and I'll see the shadow thing and I'm gonna beat my pants. It's that kind of thing where you the more you think about it the more you're creeped out instead of like being like whoa what is that you know it's that type of horror element. I don't know I just uh I really dug it. As you can see fantastic detail with the facial expressions and really really trippy visuals like that. You're gonna have to read on to find out why the house has eyes and they're not shotting guns. I'll tell you that much. One of the cool things about this book is that if you shine a light let's see you see all of that you see all those drawings and etchings and all that stuff it goes to the back as well as you can see it's pretty it's a pretty freaky book. You take the dust jacket off and you get this radical image right there like of all these crazy monsters and demons and stuff that's really freaky and that is from a panel at the beginning of the book and I'm gonna I'm gonna spoil you but don't worry about it but really you should be checking it out. This is like this image right there from the book is this thing right here just fantastic overall. I really enjoyed this book. There's not much I can say because I don't want to spoil the individual stories but Ito to me is a special treat. I love this weird type of mystery and terror that he brings to his stories with human characters like yeah they're humans but they're real like you feel their anguish and their pain and he writes them in a very unique way when stuff hits the fan you kind of feel for the characters because he takes a moment to set up these guys and girls and then when stuff happens you're like oh my god like how is this happening or how will they escape or stuff like that so he makes you care about certain characters whether it be like a short story or not actually the last two stories the one with the shadowy figure that I showed is probably one of my favorites overall it is so twisted and demented and the implications of that one alone crossing from horror to monster territory to time hijinks it has everything and I really recommend it just on that story alone so yeah if you're an Ito fan this is a must-own for your collection fragments of horror awesome stuff guys thank you so much as always for liking commenting and subscribing here that we can geek them we're on our way to a thousand subscribers and I am so thankful because of people like you that allow me to make videos where I can entertain you with my take on books and movies and all that stuff and if you're worried if you're asking yourself hey he constantly says that he's doing movie stuff I was but during you know this whole situation I'm where I'm at at the moment I don't feel comfortable talking about movies in its entirety but I will do so in uh in the near future so stay tuned for that as always you can follow me on your favorite social media platform I'm just going to impact some uh fragments of horror just type a week and geek them on your favorite social media platform and I'm probably there uh guys that's it I gotta go thank you so much I'll catch all of you on our next video to the world of horror