Thursday, February 6, 2014
The morning started with a failed search for the local Starbucks. We may have found the mall with the Starbucks, but it did not open until 10:00. So we pressed on without breakfast or coffee. Which in hindsight was not the best idea, as the road south to the famed National Park was a bit of a nightmare. A dual carriage way of crazy truck drivers who have trouble staying in their lanes.
As we approached the Park, the road narrowed and the number of roadside hotels increased. We decided to stay in the Park, in one of the park run bungalows. We considered camping, but the threat of annoying monkeys put us off that idea.
We went for a short hike on a trail near the visitor center, which was nice and easy. Later in the afternoon I went on a longer hike by myself in search of wildlife as Caroline relaxed. The only thing I spotted was wild pheasant. But it was great to stretch my legs.
Dinner was cup-o-noodle soup cooked on our camp stove. Monkeys and deer took an interest in what we were doing, or maybe it was the smell of the food, not sure. Ants also joined us for the night. We fell asleep to the ruckus of the forest on our very firm beds.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Up early-ish for a longer walk with Caroline. Trail was advertised as an easy trail along a concrete path. Well there was no concrete path, and a little more challenging than expected, but still very nice. The only wildlife we spotted were butterflies. After the walk we did a small driving tour in the mountain forest taking in a viewpoint and seeing no wildlife.
Like yesterday, we had a late lunch at the cafeteria. And relaxed most of the afternoon, until we decided at the last minute to go in search of wildlife at a waterhole at dusk. The walk along the trail in fading light was a little scary, as the park has tigers. But we safely made it to the waterhole and back without been eaten. And saw no wildlife at the waterhole, but heard frogs and saw a few birds. As we were in the car, we did an impromptu night safari. Sterlin finally got to use his spot lights. We drove around for several hours and saw deer and a squirrel. Ok, maybe it was not a squirrel, as it was about 200 meters away, but it was something very small, like a squirrel.
I managed to drop our backup hard drive, destroying it. That is the second hard drive we have lost of this trip. Fortunately we have not lost any photos yet! But we need to buy some more hard drives.
Dinner was cup-o-noodle soup. Also forgot to mention, the park is dry, so no drinks for us. Deer visited us for dinner but the monkeys stayed away. The ants found our toilet bowl interesting for some unknown reason. The forest was just as loud as the previous night.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
The monkeys visited Sterlin during the night as we saw their footprints all over the car. It was time to leave and we planned to see elephant as we drove out of the south exit of the park. Regrettable, we did not see any. Chatting to other tourist, we were not the only people not to see elephant.
