The normal routine of up at 5:30am, breakfast at 6am again today although brekkie seemed to take a bit longer so we left around 7am. Today was my first day on Ram Kali and immediately the Howrah was more roomy and comfortable. Cathy and I sat back to back and quickly found our groove. Sitting atop an elephant is a bit like hula-hooping but be prepared to go double speed if the hunt takes over. We quickly lost sight of the elephant and headed into the forest and within 30mins quiet but insistent chant of "Tiger,Tiger,Tiger!" Could be heard from Bimh on the back. He pointed out the elusive tiger which had been walking away but sadly we couldn't see it, what ensued was effectively a fast dash through the forest on elephant back chasing th tiger which Bimh saw on three separate occasions. We even saw two of its lairs, one with the bones of a midnight feast. The other we spotted from the cacophony of noise coming from the overgrowth. I thought it was a swarm of bees but in fact it was the back legs of a baby elephant covering in excitedly buzzing flies. Bimh said he had never seen a tiger catch a baby elephant, normally the mother elephants are too fierce and protective, so they somehow must have been separated. He has seen it with the occasional brave tiger who attacks a female rhino by biting her mouth and scratching her flanks in order that the baby rhino runs away in another direction, allowing him the escape the female and catch the infantAfter a further half an hour search we gave up and continued on our journey.
We saw blue tailed bee-eaters and pied chats as well as circling woolly stalks that looked like vultures in the bright daylight. We passed under a large bees nest and were informed by Bimh that the honey is quite alcoholic and a teaspoon full had him drunk for several hours half in and half out of a waterhole wth his friends equally drunk suffering with bad stomach ache.
We reached the river again and were treated to the sight of a large rhino have a bath and managed to follow him for a little way into the bush before he gracefully flicked his tail and ran, spraying scent as he went. Apart from a few more tiger tracks and some nervous deer we spotted nothing else substantial until with emerged from the bushes on the riverbank opposite camp. A truly peaceful spot, similar to an English forest camp except for the occasional tropical bird noise, but otherwise the crows, peacocks and jungle foul noises sound like home in an Autumn forest with leaf debris crunching underfoot. The river is a cool green and reflections of overhanging trees and vines like children's swings dot the bank.
A chill out afternoon with a magnificent pork curry lunch, time for a bath in the river and washing clothes as well as reading and relaxing. The plan this evening is to do a short elephant safari back to the spot with the baby elephant carcass to see if we can spy a tiger.
We went back out on the elephants in the late afternoon, the baby elephant Carcass had moved but no tiger was spied, we saw a rhino on way back to camp bathing in the river a bend away from camp where earlier the men had seen a mother and baby rhino crossing. I'm beginning to feel ill, only I could get a cold in the jungle in 30deg heat!
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