There’s no need to rush to breakfast, as our boat-trip on the Chambal River is not due to start until ten and the drive should take less than two hours, even allowing for morning traffic on the way out of Agra.

The traffic is indeed very heavy, but Sunil does an excellent job of navigating us through the worst of it and out long the highway to the west. At last, we come to a huge concrete bridge over the gently flowing river. When the monsoon comes, this tranquil-looking stretch of water will turn into a vast muddy lake, twenty metres or more deeper than in winter. All the grassy banks we can see on either side will be inundated. Indeed, the bridge we crossed to get to our destination is a new one, built because of genuine fears that the old one, apart from nearing end-of-life, wasn’t going to be tall enough in the future.

As the hour of ten arrives, we are ushered to our boat and introduced to the driver and our local guide. With two spotters, the birds come thick and fast. greater thick-knees, river lapwings, bar-headed geese, cormorants, vultures, eagles, crakes and several ducks. There are dozens of Indian skimmers, but none are seen actually skimming. Still, I get closer and take better pictures than I have ever managed with the African ones.

As the day begins to warm, mugger crocodiles and gharial haul themselves out onto the sandbanks to bask, allowing us to take some spectacular photographs. muggers are ugly – there’s no way to sugar-coat the truth – but gharial have a certain elegance to their long, narrow snouts and seemingly endless teeth.

Neither species grow as big as some of the Nile crocodiles I have seen in Africa, but they are at least as deadly. Many people are attacked by mugger crocodiles in India each year and, like all of their kin, they can move very quickly when the need arises. Our sightings seemed to be a bit of a mixed bag – some were quite happy to just lie in the warm sun on the sand and chill out, but others were much less keen on human interaction, disappearing quickly into the river as we approached.

Our couple of hours on the water pass quickly and, as is usually the case, I have to admit to really enjoying myself out in a boat. As seems to be the norm, the birds all let you get really close, even if a below-their-level perspective is a less than ideal one.

As it is still only noon, our local guide directs us for a few miles back towards Agra where he leads us to a small roadside pond that is again teeming with birdlife. We quickly add even more ducks and waders to our growing list. He leaves us on the main road and we head back into the city at a steady pace, stopping on the highway for the Indian equivalent of fast food. Actually, my toasted sandwich filled with spicy Bombay potato is really delicious. Chris persuades us to try a lime soda – a local staple made with much more than lime and water – with decidedly worse results. It’s not a flavour I think I will ever get to like.

Fortunately, there’s a Kingfisher lager to go with dinner back at the home-stay and that, along with another excellent meal, wipes away the taste of the soda and the tiredness from the day on the road.