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Safari girl
Fully loaded rifle just out of shot.Early start for heading to Khao Yai National Park, but day didn't start too well for me, as Xan had to hold me back from an American guy who was kicking off loudly about the lack of bacon for breakfast. He grabbed a chair from the nearest table and thumped it down so he was sitting right by the buffet and proceeded to go to and fro opening and banging shut the metal food containers! I couldn't get over how rude he was being! Came so close to saying something and poor Xan had to put up with me sitting there seething!
Turned out was lucky I kept my gob shut for once as he was also on our tour, although not in the same vehicle. Bearing in mind the park is the largest in Thailand, we saw and heard him regularly throughout the day. After lunch he was swimming where we'd specifically been told not to (and where there was a big 'no swimming sign'), but his pants did fall down as he swam, so that was quite funny. He also managed to scare off a few animals - we crept up to a quiet pool to get closer
Paula in leech socks.
And with a massive 3-legged insect behind her. to some crocs, then a few minutes later heard him crashing through the undergrowth yelling 'I'm gonna wrestle me an alligator, where are you mister alligator?'. The croc slipped silently under the water.
He also managed to scare off a Hornbill that was about 300m away in the treetops. Only the monkeys seemed to not be scared off by him. By the end of the day he was as unpopular, if not more so, with the rest of the group than me! We were all hoping a tiger would come out of the forest and take him off.
Anyway - beside them it was a bloody good day. With the same group as day before - couple dutch guys, an Israeli couple, and German guy UIf that came to be known as Mr Wolf because he fixed everything. Along with trekking through some amazing jungle and taking in some great views over the vast park area from on high we saw the folliowing:
1. Elephant evidence (poo, footprints and smashed up jungle)
2. A barking deer's bum.
3. A small crocodile (the big one was scared away by the septic tank)
4. A family of gibbons lazing
The jungle party
(Left to right) Mr Wolf, Sander, Tata (guide), P-Mac and me, Patrick, Mia and Sol about in the trees
5. A lot of very cocky monkeys
6. Some lizards that changed colour before our eyes
7. A great hornbill - which is close to being endangered, has a 3m wing span and looks like a cartoon bird
8. Spiders of all sizes and colours
9. Various eagles, hawks and buzzards
10. and some alien-looking insects that looked and moved like nothing we'd ever seen before. Was Xan that spotted them and called our guide over. They were bright white, kind of fluffy, about the size of a 50p piece, left a chalky white residue, shuffled along in jittery movements and them jumped. The more we looked the more we realised there were, clusters on tree trunks, branches, bushes. Our guide had never seen them before! He had seen the chalk but never the actual insect. They looked like they came from outer space.
We bumped into the amazing Tommy later on - he emerged from the undergrowth with a machete and another tour group. He said they were jumping white butterflies. Have googled them since and can't find any pics or info on them or anything even similar! Is a mystery.
Throughout
Hornbill
Just before our American friend tried to climb up the tree and punch it in the face. the day as we drove between trekking sights we were soaked by roadside locals still celebrating Songkran. On the way home we discovered that this is not so fun when you're in a cold jungle, it's dark, you're tired and in a huff cause you ain't seen any actual elephants just evidence of them!
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Dave Morris
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Invisible Elephants
Hey Paula - looks like you are having an exciting time! We had a very similar safari experience in India with a very enthusiatic guide pointing out the very freshly laid elephant-poo - and yet we got to the end of the day never having seen any of the poo-producers! Still saw lots of other cool things but doesn't stop it being a tiny bit irritating... Take care and enjoying your blog in Edinburgh Dave