Day 24...Pink Alpine Elephant search

 

2nd day in the park and hopes were high after yesterdays sightings. Today the plan was to take a canoe down the river a bit and then walk from there. This would give a good chance of more croc sightings.

We set off early and the dugout canoe sped down the river, carried mainly by the current but with some skillful poleing by the boatman balancing on the end.

We saw quite a few mugger crocs... big... about 7 to 10ft in length. They sat on the sand banks basking in the early morning sunshine. There were many birds that we startled, they rose up from the river banks screeching. We also saw a maribu stork, a massive bird, sitting majestically on the bank.

Soon however we reached our destination and disembarked to begin our walk. The aim.. find a snake... preferably a cobra of some kind, but any snake would do. 

As we trod carefully along the path, there were some clear signs that tigers were around... first a couple of paw prints... huge prints, then some places where the tiger had scratched the mud. It was quite exciting to see these signs of recent passage. 

We walked to a waterhole and started bushwacking round the edge. Now anyone who has gone on walks with me knows about the search for the pink alpine elephant... where you leave the path and find a 'path', maybe get slightly lost, follow a goat track for a bit and then discover that you were fairly close to the path all along... well my two guides took that search to the extreme.... 

We followed rhino paths and waded through head high grass, forging our own path when necessary... we searched high and low for both the pink alpine elephant and a snake.... 

... and found neither! 

It was a lot of searching for very little reward. At the waterhole, in a tree with a hole, with binoculars, you could just see  a lizard poking its head out of the hole... a golden monitor lizard!! It was very cute and very high up and not easy to see! 

Our search along the watering hole was also fruitless although we did find an entire snakeskin... not that old. This at least proved to me that although it was not the best season for snake hunting... they were out there. 

So we kept on beating our own path or following the rhino ones. I found a good stick... you should always have a good stick... it's not wise to put your hand into holes or undergrowth when looking for venemous snakes. A good stick can be used to lift up logs and brush aside plants... just in case you hit it lucky and find a cobra or viper.

After at least 4 hours of hunting, we pitched up for lunch at one of the best viewpoints for the garial crocs. They are very distinctive with very long snouts. They are also very endangered and there are very few places left in the wild where you can see them.

From the vantage point we had, I counted 9. It was very cool watching them, still in the river or with their mouths open, basking in the sun. There was also another mugger croc further down the bank of the river. It was a good place to see the crocs and we sat and had lunch there. It was a nice shady spot and a good place to get out of the sun for a bit but as usual I began to get a bit restless. My time here was limited and I wanted to keep moving.

The rest of the day was spent in a pretty fruitless search. We saw a sloth bear hole... but no bear and some of the beautiful spotted deer in the woods... but by now, I'd seen so many deer, it was becoming a bit commonplace 😂🦌

All in all, we had searched about 10 miles of jungle and come up short... which is how it is sometimes. I'd rather that than just be transported by jeep until the next animal... searching is deffo part of the fun and it is a beautiful location for a stroll.

We eventually made our way back to the river but this time , instead of a boat, there was a suspension bridge. I thought I'd left those behind in the mountain villages. This one actually turned out to be waaay worse because soooo many people were on it, and it seemed like some kids thought it was funny to rock it, so that and the amount of people on it, made for a very uncomfortable 5 minutes as I did my best to stay in the middle and not feel sick with the swaying. I told my guide I'd rather swim the river with crocs in than cross another suspension bridge like that again. He laughed.... but I was serious.

We hopped in a tuk tuk back to the hotel, where I was greeted by another guy, not the manager I had dealt with. He immediately wanted to know whether I wanted to go out with the same guides for the next 2 days. He was pretty insistant on knowing but I was hesitant to say yes for sure as I hadn't paid for the last 2 days yet, their card machine wasn't working and the cash machine wasn't either so I had a bit of a cash flow issue temporarily. I didn't want to confirm another 2 days without solving this but he got a bit shirty with me. Finally I said I would discuss with the manager that I had sorted things out with before, when he got back later. And I went out to dinner!

When I got back, I sorted out with the manager about going back out for the next few days. He seemed to think either the card machine or the cash machine would be working by the time I got back and didn't seem that worried.... so I confirmed for my final 2 days to be spent in the jungle with the same 2 guides. They seemed to have taken to heart this snake hunting thing and were as invested as myself. So back to pack up a bag for a night away from the hotel tomorrow... 

fingers crossed the snakes want to come out and say hi!