Jungle Walk & River Ride

We started our day by drifting down the river on a “one piece tree” boat, floating past many birds and two different species of crocodile; one just a fish eater and the other a meat eater both just waiting in the shallow waters of the river. Each crocodile was about 3 to 4 feet long and capable of doing us some damage so we were glad we were in the boat and not walking along the river. Further down the river we caught sight of a rhino lazing by the river at the edge of the tall, elephant grass. We beached the canoe and headed on foot to the rhino, who to our surprise stood up and looked directly at us. Our guide had warned us before hand what to do if it made signs of charging so we all stopped. We were about 20 metres away at his point and we all started to walk backwards. The rhino was huge and seeing such an impressive animal looking directly at you, remember all we had was a short bamboo stick, our boat and a short tree for cover and there was no way all 7 of us would get up that tree! If he decided to charge we don’t know what we would have done. As we returned to our canoe the rhino slowly walked off into the deep long grass and disappeared. Within a matter of seconds it was as if he was never there. A short paddle across the river and we arrived at the edge of the jungle walk. Our guide went in to a lot of detail about what to do if we encountered tigers, sloth bears, wild elephants or rhinos. Tigers - keep eye contact and walk backwards slowly until you are out of sight or until he walks away. Sloth Bears - the most dangerous animal in the jungle according to all guides, group together an make lots of noise. Elephants just run for your life and rhinos find a tree and climb above 6 feet high or hide behind a tree. You must remember that this jungle is their backyard and their home and half the time we couldn’t see a tree to hide behind. We walked and walked, finding fresh rhino tracks, elephant tracks, trees scratched by tigers and paths made by bears. We rested in a tree top look out, but we saw nothing. The only wildlife we could find (or what found us) were leaches that sucked our blood at every opportunity. We headed back to our guesthouse for lunch and a rest - we were exhausted. The heat and humidity really took it’s toll on us even though it was raining. The two hour walk was fun but it would have been nice to see some mote animals in the jungle. Maybe we will go for longer next time.