Tuesday 15 December

I wake to what sounds like a call to prayer. Not long after, the elephants behind the hotel trumpet loudly. An interesting alarm clock to say the least. There is no rush to breakfast this morning thankfully. Scrambled eggs and potatoes. Yum. We get ready to leave by 10am. We walk the short distance to the river and board a dugout canoe. We take the canoe just over 2 hours down the river. We heaps of different types of birds and even a rhino tucked away in a quiet cove. Elephants are getting bathed in the river by their owners and ladies washing clothes. Lots of crocodiles too of both varieties. I get very sleepy. It's so peaceful. When we reach the end we have to climb a steep bank to where a jeep awaits us. I'm not expecting much of this safari seeing we've already seen a rhino. Tick. And the other group didn't really see anything when we chatted to one of them on our mountain walk back in India. We are told we will drive for 30min before our lunch break. We pass a army checkpoint in the park and keep going. Not far in Malcolm points out a snake! We stop and back up and it's a python. Such good spotting. We see a few deer and monkeys along the way. There are lovely butterflies fluttering around. Yellows and oranges, blues blacks and greys. Since a nice ambience! The lunch spot is by a lake, although it looks more like a a weedy swamp. A colourful peacock is startled and flies across the lake. We also see several bright blue birds. Pretty. We climb a rickety 3 storey tower and have lunch at the top. The lunch is pretty awful. They definitely need lessons in packed lunches. I'm not really hungry at all, so I just have the boiled eggs. Back in the jeep I except not much action, but not far down the path we see a mother and baby rhino bit far off the road. A bit further and there is another one even closer that we get a great view of. We are wowed. We find another mother and baby in a waterhole. A few other jeeps stopped too. We head down another road and there is something ahead in the road in the distance. The guide uses his binoculars. Tiger. We are so excited. We are seeing so much. It's beautiful. We watch and creep closer in the jeep till he walks off the road. This was a massive highlight. Now we need to see a sloth bear! We see more deer and some wild boar. We see fresh diggings of the bear, but we have missed seeing it. Oh well. Can't see it all in a day! On the way out we see some massive storks high in a tree! They look like they could easily carry a baby. At first they looked like winged horses when I saw the wingspan! As we continue we get a massive surprise. There digging on the roadside is a sloth bear! We zoom by, then back up. At first we thought boar, not no it's the bear! So much in one day. We see two more rhinos also. We re cross the river in dugout canoes and walk back to the hotel. The tiger us a big brag for the group and guides! Very rare! We decide in a dinner time at the same place as last night. We shower and relax. No way I want cold water tonight. We share dinner with two from another group. Our guide makes momo's for us in the restaurant kitchen. Much better than the local ones! We gather around the fire when we return to the hotel, but it's pretty wet and doesn't really take off. I head to bed.