These cacti have nasty thorns - 3 inch nails that pierce your pant legs and sneakers with complete ease - Incredible snake houses made of mud - peacocks, wild chickens/roosters, flocks of hawks they call "eagles," a "bison" - water buffalo chewing leaves, plenty of spotted, white tail deer bounding around, a couple wild asses on the loose - (not me and the guide)
I mean donkeys galloping by, long horned deer, monkeys leaping from tree to tree - other than that not much to report - all seems rather peacable in the jungle - just following my guide quietly gliding through the bush - Glad I bought this pimp hat from a street vendor in Bangalore - Only 5 hours sleep - feeling a bit wiped out - We sit downon some black rocks and breathe in the lucius air - what a relief after Chennai and Bangalore!
My guide hears a sound - that sounds like a distant weird, crazy bird - a strange shriek - He jumps up and waves to me - "Come!" I follow - He starts to trot - so light on his feet - I clomp along behind, Western buffoon style - He begins to run "Come! Come" The sound is getting louder, more hysterical, desperate - "Come, Come! Tiger!" We are running as fast as we can through the bushes towards a wild animal - I just ate four eggs for breakfast, have high cholesteral and it occurs to me - if I don't die of a heart attack trying to keep up with my Olympian Indian guide - I'll probably be killed by a tiger!
We come to a large bush that is shaking wildly - The tiger is on top of the boar, trying to rip a hole in its throat - Blood is splattering on the shaking bush - They are 20 feet away, maybe 15 - The tiger sees us, drops its kill and bolts - stripped tail waving behind - The boar writhes in the bush, groaning, panting - The guide points at the blood on the bush, telling me to take a picture (I do, tempted to dab my finger in it and make a third eye of Shiva on my forehead but pass on the shamanism as I don't wanna freak him out)
He says we should wait for the tiger to return but I don't think its a good idea - It might be mad as we interrupted his breakfast and I don't want to listen to a boar in its last throes - As we walk off he says - "Big Luck, big luck - Twenty years - never seen" I tell him "It's the Chinese Year of the pig. I'm not sure what this represents." And he just smiles
This is not like riding some monorail through a sterilized zoo where thrilled children and happy moms clap when they see an animal doing their life sentence. Far from it - It's not state park deer or moose either folks - This is boar blood on the bushes and a frickin' pissed off wild tiger stalking around out there - I say "Let's go find some elephants." So we head off in search of tuskers - hear them trumpet, see plenty of poop piled everywhere but huge as they are they elude us - The jungle has showed me enough for one day - I gotta go check up on my travelling companion
Pictures to come soon
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