Our story

Friday’s Place is owned by Mark Reynolds, engineer, builder, keen motorcyclist and pilot.

Over the last twenty-five years I have had a great passion for the Indian subcontinent. On a trusty old BMW motorcycle I have toured the bulk of India from Kanyakumari to Khardung La and biked back to the UK via Pakistan, the Afghan border and Iran. Chaos and serenity, poverty and splendour, have contrasted to create an amazing yet levelling experience. India has that unique ability to shatter your senses to the core but at the same time create a new and mindful perception, an altered perspective… life re-engineering courtesy of a continent.

With these new sentiments a dream evolved. Could I at least escape the English winter and while away the time in some tropical idyll, duly supporting myself through some novel enterprise? What if I were to further my private pilot’s licence to commercial status and get a seaplane rating to boot?

I could search for an ideal base in Kerala, my favourite state, and operate the only seaplane in India, running tourists to backwater resort hotels or to the lakes high up in the tea gardens. That would definitely be OK!

Working on the site - all completed now!

I located a suitable waterside plot on which I would create a base and mooring. Prior to purchase I had never considered the river levels or its moods and on arrival I found my chosen plot of idyllic waterside palm garden under water. I had effectively bought a large and rather expensive pond. Thoroughly deflated but with a Kipling resolve, I had no option but to raise the land level. With no road access for half a mile, over four hundred tons of clay had to be ferried down river by country punt and head carried to its final resting place. Language was certainly a major problem with local labour and although well experienced in India from a survival and travellers perspective, I had never had to deal with people in matters of building and the procurement of materials. In tandem with this of course, was the flying application which I eventually had to abandon for reasons of bureaucratic constraint.

Thus the concept of ‘Friday’s Place’ came about. Even if the flying project could never happen something far more green and carbon footprint friendly came out of it and now others can enjoy the wonders of this small and quiet part of Kerala.