Day 23... Its all about the poo!

 

Finally in Sauraha and the gateway to the National Park.! 

I had forgotten that I had already organised a couple of day hikes and so when I got here I was confronted with plans of where we would go and what we would try and find. The guides had been well briefed on my love of all things reptile and my dearest wish to see a cobra in the wild! They didn't get it... but they got it and seemed fully on board with my snake hunting mission.

I was introduced to my 2 guides at breakfast.. Lascar and Pusan. Lascar was a tall imposing figure, who spoke good english... Pusan gave off the air of having guided for years, a slight figure, who as I found out could 'haul arse' if required.

We hopped on the short canoe ride literally across the river (croc infested version of) and emerged on the beach the other side. Before we set off, I got a quick briefing of what to do with different types of animals if they charge...

Rhino.... Zig zag and climb a tree if poss, or hide behind one. 

Bear.. stand up tall, make yourself big, make a noise, don't bother climbing a tree, they do that better. 

Croc (added this one myself) run in a straight line until you are past their defensive area, no zig zagging

Tiger, do not look in the eye, back away slowly, do not run, Pray! 

That last bit I added as I read it somewhere on advice of what to do if a tiger attacks. 

But the guides were being serious with this one... I was to follow them, or when indicated go in between them... no wandering off by myself 🤔 Seems like this tiger thing is taken pretty seriously.

So we set off, Pusan in the lead, me following and Lascar bringing up the rear. 

Now if I had made things easier on myself by liking birds for instance, then I would have been gratified fairly instantaneously as there are birds everywhere. Bloody herons, storks, egrets, more bloody herons!! 

Unfortunately I chose an elusive and not often seen animal to try and find. Not to mention that it is the wrong season to find snakes here anyway... too cold apparently (though I am now sweltering in the heat).

Snakes are not only elusive but generally pretty silent too. Most are nocturnal or at least crepuscular... you get the picture... hard to find even in the best of times! It is often for nothing that I have spent many hours in various jungles around the world, searching for snakes. 3 days in the Amazon specifically hunting for the Anaconda springs to mind. Will my cobra search beat that??

Anyway we set off, today we would be staying mainly in the grasslands but started with a small trek through the jungle. We stepped carefully and with purpose, each footstep measured with a look around to see if there were any signs of anything living. The familiar jungle dance one performs when on the lookout at every level... below ground (in holes), ground, mid level, treetop.. all the places which animals can hide.

First stop was a high hide, or platform, overlooking some of the grasslands. It was a very rickety platform that didn't fill me with confidence but we stood atop it and stared over to the grasslands..... 

Over there... 

Where?? 

Eventually I saw movement, an ear flickering, which enabled me to pick out the rest of the animal... a rhino, chillin in the grass. We sat and watched him for a bit... he lazily got to his feet, staggered a few steps and then plopped back down in the grass again. The little birds that sat on his back, cleaning the ticks off, flew up and down. 

We crept a bit closer... I could see him really well now. Given he was a full size rhino, he sure hid well!!  We left him to his repose and just as we were about to move off a rhesus maquque monkey made an appearance... sauntering along the ground, in no apparent hurry. This type of monkey is generally solitary so we watched him until he was out of sight and then moved on.

Then onwards through the trails between the high elephant grass. And then our first pile of poo....

Rhino poo... fairly dry and old. 

It seems Rhinos like to poo in certain spots... they don't just poo anywhere as it all seems to be in nice neat piles. And oh my god, there is a lot of Rhino poo about.

Every now again we come across a different type of poo... elephant poo. Apparently you can tell that it is wild elephant poo because it doesn't have rice in... working elephants have rice in their poo.

Further on... tiger poo. Can easily be told because you can see the hair of its last meal in the poo.

Essentuially... the trail is covered with one type of poo or another. The guides can look at this and know how recently an animal came through. We also look at tracks in the dusty trail and can pick out deer tracks and rhino ones in the mud leading to the watering holes. We walk along the waterways looking in the undergrowth by the stream as this is where we might find a cobra.

We walked up and down, looking intently at the undergrowth. The guides were looking one side of the trail and I was looking the other, when out of the corner of my eye I caught movement and then a bit of a splash. I turned my head just in time to catch a very fleeting glimpse of some grey looking coils moving before a final splunk as something fell in the water below. It was such a quick glimpse I couldn't even be 100% sure of the colour but was fairly certain it wasn't a cobra. Googling since it seems more like it could have been a rat snake of some kond but even then I'm not certain.

And that is the reward snake hunters get for hours of looking... a glimpse!! 

We carried on walking the trails until lunchtime when we found another rickety watchtower and climbed up to sit and eat there. The view was lovely, stretching over the grassland of the park. Nothing obvious in sight though so soon we set off again. 

More rhino poo... tiger poo, elelphant poo... 

I'm now getting pretty good at distinguishing between different types of poo. The rhino poo in particular if fresh has a really distinct smell.  We were walkong. slowly along when we all suddenly stopped and turned our heads to where we had heard a noise coming from the grassland on the other side of the stream. You could see the grass bending as a large animal pushed its way through and you could hear munching!! Rhinos do not eat quietly that's for sure..

We followed the rhino with our ears and stepped quietly forwards until gradually he came into sight... not a good view but definatively a rhino! I would much rather a bad view of a rhino in the wild than scare the animal. by trying to get closer for a better view. I am just as happy with a glimpse as a good view, because I reason that if I want a good view, I can just go to a zoo.

Part of the fun out in the wild is the searching, the not being sure whether you will find anything and whilst it can be frustrating, I enjoy the searching as well.

As we quietly moved on from that rhino, we heard more noises and not far away from the first was a second... loudly munching and creating destruction as it pushed forward through the grasses. I felt truly privileged to be able to see this creature in the wild.

We went on, following more little streams in the hope of finding a snake. It was very hot and the sun was beating down so we had to have some water breaks for the guides who did not have a water bladder to drink on the go with.

With still no snake sightings we started to wander back towards the river. Throughout the day we had seen hardly any people but now as we got closer we began to see some jeep tours of people and a few more walking tours. We were walking one of the main paths when all 3 of us turned towards a sound in the grass... even I knew now that it was a rhino munching on the other side of the stream. We followed it with our ears and we could hear it getting closer.... and then suddenly. it burst out onto the path in front of us... not too close. As he did so, some other hikers came down the path and rushed forwards a bit to get closer. I remember thinking that it was not necessary as we could see the rhino very well anyway.

The rhino ambled towards us and then stopped to sniff the air... he seemed unsure and then he turned and ran away down the path. Almost immediately the other group followed him. I think they should have given him time to. get away as we had had a really good view and it felt a bit like they were chasing him down the path. Anyway, we turned and walked in the opposite direction towards the river as it was getting late.

Although we hadn't seen any snakes really, 4 rhino in a day was apparently pretty good. To me it seemed like they were everywhere but the guides told me. that often they would go for days without seeing one.

It had been a good day.. 

4 rhino, 1 snake glimpse, some snake shed, lots of different types of poo, many birds including maribu stork and a serpent eagle... possibly the odd bloody heron too.

I knew finding a cobra wouldn't be easy but I still had a few more days to try. Roll on tomorrow.! 

That evening... very randomly... I went to meet a friend from work. Prema's family lived 'nearby' and so we had arranged to meet. I hadn't quite realised how far away it was but after about 2 hours the taxi dropped me at her parents house. It was quite funny to meet in Nepal and Prema has now joined a list of people I know that I meet in random places around the globe.

We had a lovely evening but it was quite late when I got back to the hotel. So hence why I'm behind on the blogs... trying to catch up!! 

Looking forward to day 2 in the jungle....