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Rosemary's Ramblings
The following morning I was ready bright and early to go off and explore the day breaking in the national park, I waited in the hotel lobby for what seemed like an eternity. It turned out that the driver was waiting just outside the hotel drive where he was out of sight - sensible huh? It wasn't longer before one of the hotel guys told me where he was so off I went, inside the reserve we saw a family of elephants made up of cows (females) and calves (baby eleies!) They were just eating and playing, throwing dust over themselves. One mother and calf were very close to the road so we didn't get too close as we wouldn't want to upset them. After a while other jeeps joined us but were less sympathetic toward the young, the mother started to look a little anxious and on top of that a bull elephant started approaching from the far side of the clearing. The females were unsure of this addition and gradually bunched together before slowly heading into the undergrowth. The jungle into which they had entered should have had giant elephant shaped holes in it (of the cartoon variety) but it didn't! It wasn't long before the elephants were completely submerged in an island of the jungle. Which I think is a pretty impressive feat for a creature of that magnitude. The jeeps set off round the corners with the hope of seeing the elephants emerge again at the other side... they didn't! So not only did the huge creatures disappear into the undergrowth they also seemed to have vanished onto thin air. It was possible from this part of the road to see the opening through the trees, something that should have been there were elephants thought I could see not a one; a small amount of movement could be heard. After a while we continued on our way, seeing a plethora of deer and birds and monkeys. Soon we came to a building with an elephant that was in the process of being saddled up - I told the guide I wanted to go for an elephant ride and seeing another jeep pulling up he leaped out of the car and bounded over to the guy in charge.
I was the first one on the elephant that day. It was an amazing experience. Yet another mode of transport to add to the growing list encountered here in India, and like all other modes of transport there were no seatbelts. The slow plodding of the elephant caused quite a lot of movement to the saddle cum platform on which the "driver" and I were perched. The view as we headed away from the boiling was amazing and it wasn't long before we were off the road and cutting our own path through the undergrowth. This consisted predominantly of a bush with orange flowers which was growing in perfusion. It turns out to be an introduced species from England; it was taking over and causing all kind of problems for the native species, the other giant blow being that none of the herbivores seemed to eat the bush either so although looking and smelling nice it really was a bit of a nuisance and a waste of space.
It wsa so quite viewing from the top of an elephant and it was possible to go off road so to speak, we often headed down into the river beds (dry of course) though some of them had small streams along one side this was rare. I saw many birds, and even peacocks in trees which seemed oddly absured to see them there with the beautiful long ttails dangleing down, I even saw them in flight. I know its really quite normal for birds to fly but until that day I don't recall ever seeing a peacock fly. They probably have there wings clipped at home to stop them escaping but they are wild creatures here. Further on the guide pointed out some remains from a deer by the looks of them, part of the shins and hooves were about all that was left of the tigres dinner. They looked to be quite fresh though with the overgrowninvasive species there was little hope of seeing the tire if it was still around. If you have never been out to look for something - I mean really survey the lands and habitat around you in the hope of seeing a particular creature. You may never have come across the odd tricks the rest of the things you look at play with your eyes and your brain. Take for instance my looking for a tiger, a tiger is bright orange and black, surely something of such colour cannot hide in the green that surrounded us. As you look something emerges, it's the outline of a tiger, there's it head, ears its not moving and a moment later you realise it's a fallen tree, or a bush in the shade. So many inanimate objects become a tiger at first glance but under careful scrutiny they reveal themselves for what they really are.
Anyway back to the elephant, though I didn't see a tiger that day I did see some wild boar (which I was pretty impressed with) they soon fled when they either caught site of us or heard or smelt us. A rather noise creature that charged through the undergrowth making more noise that the elephant on which I sat. after a while I realised we had started heading back to the headquarters, I had been on the elephant for about 2 hours thought it felt much longer but at the same time I wasn't ready to get back to the noise and bumps of the jeep. The elephant very gracefully came to a halt next to the mounting block I carefully climbed off the elephant but it took a while to find my legs again. It was a bit like getting off a boat on to solid ground after having been through a storm, your body keeps trying to compensate for the waves that no longer exist. In this manner I rather comically made my way down the steps, swaying and stumbling and sitting down a couple of times on route.
This was the end of my time in the park, we headed out and back to the hotel, where I stayed one more night before heading off to nainital.
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