Animal

Consoled from our inital frustrations the spectacular animal sightings yesterday have me grinning, Cheshire Cat Style, even in my sleep. Dilli-The-Dunce still raises irritation within us when he appears, always at meal times, starting conversations when we have a mouthful of noodles, but we cope with laughter. He is off on another walk in the wild with new guests ("good luck!") while we partake in the first activity of Day Two - An Elephant Sarfari in the 'Jungle'.

Large, spiral staircases leading to no-where hang mysterially in fields and courtards and we discover their purpose as our rotund, 13 foot, 4 tonne transport reversed his rear next to the top. Wobbling onto the wooden saddle it feels foolish to perch on such a huge mammal. Did he flinch when Andy got on I wonder? The name of our gallant steed is Bilbo, he's a 45 year old Indian Elephant (hathi) with slight flatulance. As we go to collect two more guests from a nearby resort I marvel at his height, his rough, leathery skin, his bumpy, bristly head and his floppy, spotty ears. Such a character! By contrast our driver is very petite, who must match Bilbo's age, and sits behind his huge lugs directing him with nudges and repetitious calls. He carefully lifts the low lieing elecriticity cables with his stick before they nearly strangle us. I am slightly disturbed by the metal, sharp-hooked tool he carries, is it intended for discipline when Bilbo buckaroos?, or for restraining the grumpy rhinos?, or just to 'pursuade' us to give a good tip? Gladly, it goes unused and the more favourable bamboo stick is waved to get Bilbo going, or a quick tap on his head to make him turn.

Two German women in white trousers join us on the wooden frame and Bilbo saunters into the 'buffer zone' - which is a secluded area just outside the actual park that we are told contains the same jungle life. From this tall vantage point it is so much easier to sopt the creatures before they scamper off; the shy spotted deer sticks around longer and even the elusive langur monkeys made an appearance.

Most visitors to Chitwan take this safari ride and because there are no wild elephants I wasn't surprised to see other tame elephants with tourists on their back - although, I was dissapointed the rustling I heard was not a crouching tiger. Without these other on-lookers however, we may not have got the jungle gossip..."Rhino Ahoy!". Top speed by trunk-travel must barely be 5mph and due to the dense forest vegitation there are no quick manoeuvers, but Bilbo took us to a small clearing just in time to see the most precious scene.. a mother and baby rhino, eating leaves together. They both seemed placid and undisturbed by our presence, even though we were in spitting distance. I would have thought Mummy Rhino would have been protective and aggresive but she just stood there, munching away, she even had a wee - as you do when people are gawping at you. When she finished off they went, marching into the shrubs, military style. Ohhh! I wanted to watch them all day!

Activity Two was a bike ride to the 12,000 Lakes in a conservation area and to our great delight Dilli would escort us there, hurrah! ? When our rickety cycles arrived, with non-adjusting seats, we laughed like hyenas as our knees came up to our ears at every peddle. Joviality was prerequisite today because everyone was celebrating Holi Festival, which meant all ages were out throwing bright, coloured power and squirting water at passers by. As we cycled through the villages and into the farmland we were not spared from the sabotage and Andy got stopped and smothered in bright pink powder - his favourite colour!

We escaped the onslaught as we rode into the parkland and we started a pleasant trail by the waterside...which didn't last long with Dilli around... Once again he abruptly turned and told us to hush, dismount and walk back quickly. Assuming it was a farce we rolled our eyes in jest, not another sprint for our lives?! But, no, he was right.. wading waist deep in the middle of the river was another Rhino; Rolf, filtering through the algae. We climbed a nearby tree to get a better look and most importantly to stay safe - we must have looked so silly splashed with various colours hiding in a tree. A Spanish guy who we met on the way into Chitwan was also riding past completly covered in red stuff, so we waved him down to come see. Wow! Thats's SIX rhinos in 2 days, How lucky are we!!

I got pelted with blue on the long ride back, so I looked reminiscent of my dressing-up days as a smurf. Even back at the lodge the waiters were waiting to ply us with red! Exhausted from the ride, covered in rainbow colours and beaming from our rhino encounters we slept like logs.

A 6am wake-up call was how we started our first "real" day in Chitwan and with omelette's in our belly we were ready to face the fearsome Jungle! The three Japanese ladies we shared the rickshaw ride with yesterday also met us by the 'Rapti' River, and in our own dugout canoe we all floated down the misty water while the golden, morning sun emerged. Dilli pointed out the array of wild birds and lent us his rubbish binoculars, which were about as good as looking through swimming goggles. Goggles weren't needed to peer into the shallow, crystal water though, and the beady eyes of a spiky, fresh-water crocodile were spotted towards the bank. Warm blooded, these reptiles have long, thin snouts, and are a lot smaller and less vicious than their Australian counterparts - but not the stroking kind either. Kingfishers, Herons, Cormorants. All birds seemed to have three types accor.ding to Dilli.. "small", "medium" and "large". Hhmmm, Interesting. Gracious 'Love Birds' glided above our heads, who typically live in pairs through their life, and if one dies the other also gives up the ghost. Now thats romance for you!

The river is so peaceful at this time with only a few woman doing a spot of washing and the humming, ribbetting and tweeting sounds to accompany us. Reaching a large, sandy bank we disembarked and stood to attention for our Jungle Brief on the dangers and perils we may encounter. Our canoe driver was already off chopping down bamboo which is used to build houses. With Dilli infront and myself and Andrew a few paces behind we barely set foot into undergrowth before we were told to hush and stay still. I thought he was just being dramatic but then I caught a glimpse of a large, tank-like object.. Roger the Rhino had come to greet us! Then his friend Robert was following behind. What an amazing sight! Their thick, overlapping skin really does look like armor!

As the ladies and I zoomed in with our cameras agitation was rising and the beasts were coming towards us. In a race against a Rhino a human is the sure-fire loser, and it isn't wise to stick around to fight. Rumblings and confusion rose amongst the group, shouts of 'get down' and 'move' ensued panic, and as I tried to check the animals whereabouts Andrew practically pushed my down the steep bank, followed by the other visitors. The canoe man, now engrossed in his daily task, was not aware of the frivolity even as the guides whistled and hollered at him, concluding he was deaf and in the danger zone. Roger charged down the bank and splashed into the river so the current splurged with waves of water from his weight. We all scrambled back up the dirt, grabbing roots and vines to pull us onto higher ground. One of the woman lost a trainer and frantically tried to shove her foot back into the shoe for what seemed like a decade. As with most uneasy situations I had a fit of nervous giggles, mainly at the sight of Andrew's wide-eyed, white face.

Our hearts returned to normal as Roger plodded away over the river and Robert retreated into the darkness. How we all laughed and sighed! I really thought our Japanese companions would be horrified but we all beamed at the surviving the situation having got such great snaps! It was no Steve Irwin moment, but hair raising non-the-less.

We didn't hang around for long and continued our journey deeper into the trees. Dilli mentioned it was mating season and therefore the male Rhinos in particular were more aggressive at this time, which made us wonder why we would tempt fate on foot through the wild? The guides laissez-faire approach came across as arrogance and although on the one hand it was an amazing experience, we felt a bit uneasy about the amatuer-ness.

From a watch tower we marveled at the expanse of flower and fauna, and spied on spotted deer as they timidly dispersed. Andrew and I were then taken on a different route to the gang and we ducked through entwining undergrowth, bypassing giant cobwebs and lots of scurrying creepy crawlies.Our second guide at the rear suddenly instigated silence and then instructed us all to run like the clappers. Unsure why were legging it we tried our best to dodge the sticky obstacles and keep up speed. It felt like we were on the set of Jurassic Park 5, or it is 6, but this was not movie with mechanical dinosaurs. Stumbling and puffing we ran for about 5minutes before finding the big path. They told us a Rhino was chasing us, but surely we wouldn't be able to out run that mean machine? We rejoined the others a little out of breath and enjoyed the rest of the walk back to the start point - just glad to be alive once again. What an unforgettable experience!

Back on the riverbank we were just in time to see a group of elephants being scrubbed. Every day at around 10:30am the local, long-nosed residents come to be bathed and it didn't take any persuasion for us to help out. We jumped on one of the Jumbo's back and he waded in ready for a wash. With shouts from the 'driver' the rough-skinned Nellie sucked up the water and sprayed it all over us, then slumped into the waved to tip us off before starting again. Tourists would watch from the bank above and holler and laugh at our screeching and whooping. I could have played all afternoon, the marvelous, floppy-eared creatures fascinate me and I really hoped they were having as much fun as we were.

We returned to the riverside later that day to watch the sun set and just as we settled down to a beer and basket of popcorn Andy spied Roger in the distance, coming down the river. Maybe her was coming back for a second shot at us? But no, he was just happy to saunter with no intent to come too close. This was certainly a rare occurance for a Rhino to come so close to the village and locals gathered to marvel at the sight. Roger trudged along and almost mechanically maneuvered back into the park.

The bright orange, red, yellow sky signaled the departure of the day in the jungle. Seriously, I could die happy tonight with such wonderful sights we've seen!

We had great hopes for today having spent all yesterday travelling from Kochi up in the mountains to Sultanbatheri from where we would explore the Wayanad Wildlife Park today. Waking up in a modern featureless hotel devoid of any other toursits apart from ourselves we soon realised we might have chosen the wrong location from the guide book!

However we arranged a guide who took us in his jeep to the wildlife park. Outside the park we spotted our first monkeys, who appeared very friendly even jumping on to the jeep. Also saw a posionous 'Boa' snake, thankfully the guide saw it first as to us it just looked like a tree branch. The park is over 400 sqkm and apparently only has 10 tigers so the odds of seeing one where slim! Driving along the tracks we saw countless Spotted Deer which although nice where nothing special. The tour guide who came in our jeep kept saying 'Bambi, Bambi' every time a deer came in sight was a but disconcerting because the batteries in our camera were running out and we didnt really want to waste it on deer in case Tony the Tiger came along. We drove around all the watering/bathing holes that the elephants used but to no avail, there were signs of a tiger though with his fresh footprints in the sand. At this point we stopped and the guide went for a walk towards some rustling in the bushes, wasn't sure this was the best idea but we followed cautiously, and found nothing.

Towards the end of the trip the guide was informed of elephant movements ahead and we came across 7 elephants with a baby washing and drinking from a nearby lake. They can become very aggressive if you go near them so we kept 100m away and took some great photos. It was amazing to see elephants wild and free and just to watch them. On the way back we gave a lift to a disabled tribal woman, Gem had to sit in the back with her and she said she said scary red teeth.

In the afternoon our guide took us to some caves which although disappointing in themselves did provide us with some much needed exercise to climb to the top of the mountain they were on. The views on top were great as it was the highest mountain in Kerala (Everest won't be a problem!). To celebrate reaching the top we opened our pick'n'mix selection of Indian sweets. Unfortunately though we seemed to have bought giant spicy gobstoppers that we couldn't break, bring back Woolworths I say!
Sultanbatheri was definetly not on the tourist trail and made for a nice change to escape to a traditional mountain village.

More of Gem's silly facts, this time about elephants:

- Elephants travel in matriarchal packs, and gestate for 22 months
- Elephants can communicate over a distance of 50km
- Elephants can either be right-handed or left-handed
- Elephants can find their home, years after they've left
- Elephants know when they are close to dying and make their way to a river-bed for nature to take it's course
- Elephants bury their dead and grieve.