Day 25.. All good things..

 

Today was going to be a long day. The idea was that we did a long trek out to a village, stayed there the night and then trek back. My guides seemed to think that there was a possibility of finding a snake of some kind near the lakes that were out that way.

So we set off early, cross the river and then following the jeep track. The track was very stony and not particularly comfortable to walk on. My feet felt like they were already in shreds after the last 2 days of walking.

We strode long with a good pace. It started to warm up and all was good with the world. Then  jeep came up behind us and stopped. My guide spoke to the guide on the jeep and then asked me to get on the jeep. 

I was confused and a bit pissed off. I particularly hadn't wanted to do a jeep tour. They were noisy and I didn't really agree with their use in the national park personally. I had wanted to walk and was perfectly capable of doing so. 

We bumped along and then the jeep stopped when we saw deer, people took pictures and the jeep moved on. I hated every second of it... not fun at all. In fact even when we saw a troupe of monkeys with babies, I resolutely kept my camera in my pocket. This was not how I wanted to do this. I asked if we could walk at this point and the guide just said, when we get past the grassland. No other explanation at this point. There were also other people in the jeep, whom I didn't know so it was difficult to have a discussion. So I sat there, cold and annoyed. 

I hadn't had much sleep the night before either so that prob didn't help my mood. When eventually we got off the jeep, having done around 5 miles, I questioned the guide as to why we had taken the jeep. He explained that he wanted to get to the lakes before all the jeeps got there and scared away any animals.... well... ok.... 

why didn't you tell me that earlier..

So we walked on and shortly after that he pointed out a beautiful skink basking in the sunshine on a tree trunk...  all is forgiven!.

There were no pink alpine elephant searches today... it was stick to the jeep path and get to where we were going. The jeep path was stony and hard on my already knackered feet... my shoes already pretty much destroyed but we hot footed it along the track...

not much further along we found fresh tiger poo and some that was older. The older pile of poop basically consisted of hair and bones... I also have for some reason started singing when we find poo of an animal... if anyone remembers spider pig, I think from the simpsons... instead of spider pig, it became rhino poo, rhino poo... don't know why, but it just kinda stuck.... the song... not the poo. Anyway... not much filurther down from the latest pile of poo, my guides stopped and listened... and then took up the slow careful walk that indicated something might be near. We walked up to a jeep that had stopped in front of us and my guide whispered that one of the monkeys was making an alarm call, signifying that a tiger had been spotted.

The monkeys are good friends with the deer because of this early warning system. Anyway... we got a bit closer to the jeep and stood listening... and then we all heard it... 

a chuff... 

a sound tigers make... 

We all peered into the dense undergrowth to see if we could by any chance spot this elusive creature... standing all very still and quiet... but nothing emerged from the jungle and the monkeys alarm call stopped.

Pusan, my guide says that he has never had a problem with tigers, that they tend to just walk away, but I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about meeting a tiger whilst on foot and when my guides defence is a stick... I'd rather meet a king cobra personally!

We could have stayed longer to see if the tiger emerged but it seemed to me that he was long gone so we set off again, down the track. 

It really was a beautiful day, with the sun shining through the trees, the forest such a peaceful place (until the jeeps came past). Even if we didn't really see anything it was still a lovely calming place to be.

The next part of the forest had bigger trees and before long we heard the tell tale crashing through the trees that indicates monkeys wherever you are in the world. I looked up and saw a beautiful grey langur monkey sitting in a high perch watching us as we passed below. I love watching monkeys, I could do it all day, though you often end up pelted with half eaten fruit or if you are really unlucky poo or wee!! The langur in this case was too chilled out for that and he just sat eating. 

Onwards... we were trying to get to the lakes before the second round of jeeps came along and disturbed everything. Lascar and Pusan felt the lakes were our best chance of finding a snake.

The first lake we reached was a bit of a bust. We spent an hour trudging through the lakeside undergrowth, using our sticks to probe and push aside the vegetation... no luck. We went to one of the observation towers and sat down for lunch and trying to avoid the now sweltering heat of midday. I did feel slightly disappointed that our searching hadn't yielded any results but that is often the way in snake hunting especially out of season... hours of looking for maybe a brief sighting or nothing at all.

Onwards to the next lake a couple of miles away... by now my feet were seriously hurting. Despite my 1000 mile socks, blisters were forming. I was on about mile 30 in the course of 2 and a half days and my feet knew it. The second lake was slightly bigger and again we went through the snake hunting motions... a few steps forward looking carefully at all the vegetation for a glimpse of something that didn't quite fit the pattern or catching movement amidst the plants. 

We had just come across a pile of branches. Pusan had gone down towards the lake edge, I was slightly further forward on the track and Lascar was just ahead of me... suddenly he said come here... and then added quickly. I moved forward with haste and looked to where his stick was pointing... 

It took a few seconds to adjust my vision and pick out what he had seen... there, periscoping, was the large head and long body... unmistakeably from its patterning, a Burmese Python... a wild Burmese!!

I was soooo excited. I placed my stick on the grass and moved my hand to my pocket to get my phone out to grab a picture... but he saw the movement, turned his head and slithered away under the branches. Gone in seconds.

I didn't mind that I hadn't got a picture but I wish I had been able to see a bit more of him. Pusan immediately started crashing through the branches to try and find him but I figured that he was long gone and with all the noise Pusan was making, he was unlikely to reappear. It didn't matter... I had seen a wild Burmese Python! I was over the moon...

We moved on... Lascar a bit further up the road and then he exclaimed again.... look there! 

Heading towards us on the side of the track in the grass was another Burmese Python. This time I got my phone out quicker. He was about 5 or 6 ft long, so maybe a juvenile.. beautiful brown and gold markings. He looked in good condition, fat, no stuck shed. I started filming him as he moved. He then stopped and put his head up a bit as his tongue flicked in and out, smelling the air. He had smelt us... knew we were there. A minute went by and then he decided to head into the undergrowth. But as he turned, I could get closer and in doing so got an excellent video of him smoothly slding through the grass into better cover. What a beautiful snake. I felt so privileged to have been able to see him in his natural habitat.

Lascar and Pusan were also over the moon at this sighting... I'm not sure they had thought they would find a snake and now we had found 2. All good things come to those who persevere!! 

We moved on leaving the Burmese Python in his hiding place and went and sat at another observation tower for a bit... apparently this is a good place to see tigers too. 

Not today though, our luck had been used up on the snakes which was fine by me. We then started down the track towards the village where we would be spending the night. On the way I could stop at the Garial Croc breeding and conservation centre if I wanted. I had been unsure about this but Lascar reassured me they were all about conservation so I relented.

On the way there, we were walking through the forest when Pusan spotted a rhino in the distance. We skirted around a bit and got to where we could see him really well. In the distance on the other side of the rhino were a few stopped jeeps.. but we were distinctly closer than they were. We stopped to watch him as he came out of the dip in the ground and then he stopped and turned, ears bent towards us. He looked straight at us and then started moving in our direction. I heard Lascar call me towards him, where he was standing near a tree... come behind the tree. He is not happy. 

So I moved away and stood behind a large tree watching the rhino. He was clearly spooked and backed up a bit before lifting his head and snorting a bit. That was our cue to leave quickly... it was a bit of a warning snort. We hastily moved back and then walked away from him. Fair enough, he had had lots of people on different sides of him. and he told us he wasn't happy. There is no messing with a rhino... they are big strong animals.... it would certainly ruin your day. 

Not far ahead was the garial croc breeding centre and I paid my 100 roubles to walk around. In different pens, with basically some water and sand were all different stages of Garial crocs... newborn, yearlings, several years old and adults. They looked in reasonable condition even if there were a lot in each pen. One of the pens made me laugh as it had basically a bolt across the door, with no lock or anything stopping me from opening the door and going in the pen.... I was tempted, for a few seconds at least!,

It didn't take long to go around and I met back up with my guides for the final few miles to the village. By the time we got to the river crossing, we had walked 15 miles... but every one of those miles had been worth what we had seen today.

We walked up to the hotel on the riverside and were greeted with tea and offers of food. More importantly... there was a cute cat... very thin. It looked really hungry and when I asked I was told that it was fed rice as well as some meat. I bought it a bowl of chicken and to some dismay realised that it was chicken curry in a bowl that they gave me to feed it. That can't be good for a cat. It wolfed it down however and then jumped up on my lap, purring away. I don't think it had ever received any affection because it didn't fully settle but sat there in a posture that was ready to leap off if necessary. I felt so bad for it. Compared to my very pampered cats this poor thing had received the harder end of the scale... although compared to many animals I had seen here, at least it belonged to someone who was feeding it. Many of the guides also fed it some chicken from their plates so maybe it didn't do too badly. It had almost been put in my rucksack and taken back home with me!

We sat and ate and then once darkness had fully fallen, someone took a torch and began sweeping the river bank. Picked out by the torchbwere hundreds of bright eyes on the far shore... deer coming down to the waters edge to drink... and a rhino on our side of the bank, ambling along grazing as it went. It was a fitting end to a great day. Hopefully tomorrow would bring more of the same!