Breakfast at the jungle guesthouse was at 6:30 am and we were packed in an open air 4 x 4 jeep truck and bumping down a jungle track in the early morning mist by 7:00. We only have an hour and a half ride back to our base camp, but there is a people's political strike starting to close the main roads beginning at 8:00 or sooner. The government has doubled the price of cylinder gas, and the people complain by shutting down the roads...parking cars sidewise in the middle of the road.
We will be avoiding main roads and doing some cross country and village dirt tracks back to the base camp. Driving through sleepy villages just waking up, villagers starting cooking fires, milking goats, pumping well water, squat sitting in family groups close to their shelter are a photo vomis we jadn't anticipated bonus we hadn't anticipated.
As we approached the broad river we had canoed down the day earlier, our jeep rolled forward into the river. We could see the road on the other side. Fortunately, the driver had local knowledge and did not drive straight across. Instead we arced down river and and back up to the road avoiding a deeper area that could have swamped us. By 8:30 we were back at our ho,e base with a whole day, until 3:00 p.m. and our elephant safari, to just relax.
Our clothes from our jungle trek were filthy and sweaty, so for all of us laundry topped our list of "free time" activities. We sent ours to be beat on a rock at the river, and others did their own. One of our fellow travelers is a yoga instructor, so between laundry, taking walking excursions tothe village, and catching up on email or naps, we had a yoga session on the shaddy lawn.
Our entire group signed up for the 2 hour jungle safari in the late afternoon. This time we wouldn't be trekking ourselves, but would be high above the ground on the back of an elephant. We were excited about having the opportunity to actually look around and not at our feet. Rhinos, tigers and bears apparently are disinterested in attacking elephants, so our chances of getting closer to the wild life without fear was definitely appealing. Our mahute was Ali
There were 12 of us, four of us on 3 elephants. Our elephant was Sompakali. She had a square platform on her back with a guard rail attached by short poles in the four corners? Two of us straddled the poles forward facing, and two faced backwards. The ladies were in front and had a more comfortable ride than the men who sat backward on the downward slope of the elephant's back and had their chests pressed against the rails for two hours.
We crossed two rivers and each time the elephants would suck in the water and with their trunks swinging, spray themselves and us to cool down. I was quite nervous that the camera would get squirted, but I took fewer photos when we were in the water to keep the camera more covered.
We thought it was a great experience being so high looking down or high enough to not look so high for monkeys. We saw deer, wild bore, monkeys and three rhinos feeding. Even though the rhinos were disinterested in the elephants, the elephants had to be coaxed to get within 10 feet of the rhinos. Each rhino encounter, we could feel Sompakali shuddering and raising her trunk to puff indignantly, She didn't like it. We felt sorry for her.
Our safari came to an end and we parted ways with our elephants. We ate at a local restaurant and retired early. We would be leaving at 2:00 am,! The strike would be continuing in the morning and we couldn't wait or the roads would be closed. Our trip is expected to take 5 hours, so we will be in Lumbini, birthplace of Buddha, by 7:00 a.m.
Lights out. All is well with the Worrall Travel R's
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