IT is nearly a week since there was a decent post (Karanji Lake). Since then we have spent 3 days away from Mysore in a national park in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. India has beaten England in the second test, despite the mistakes of the Australian umpire. Dr Haneef has arrived home in Bangalore (100km away) after his brief vacation at Her Majesty’s pleasure (The media has been and still is distinctly Anti Howard government handling of the affair, but in the wash-up since the UK police mistake the ‘Letters’ page of the national dailies seem to be 55:45 in support of the Oztraylins placing caution above trust). The kitchen is spotlessly clean and the house repeatedly tidy!!! Yes! Gazza has made it to Mysore and is now safely ensconced in the front room. He is suffering with toothache, but has booked in a course of dental work to provide himself with some root-canal work and a crown for the ailing tooth.
Following are the boys’ accounts of the Jungle and Guruji’s birthday, with photos spread about. More from me later.
Tai’s Blog: To The Forest
Today we are going to the forest and are staying at a place called Casa Deep Woods. We got in the car and started to drive to "Casa Deep Woods". When we were in the forest we saw a type of monkey called a Langur everywhere. It was like safari. After the langurs we saw some Spotted Deer which after that I was hoping to see a tiger. After that we saw a big male elephant with tusks, here they call them ‘tuskers’. Then we saw a mongoose, which I first thought was a dog. We got here and had lunch, then played on the swings with Aryaman and Devina, who are Tina’s kids.
After that we got into a jeep that took us to an elephant camp. On the way we saw 6 big wild elephants, 3 adults and 3 babies. I was quite amazed. We got there in time to see them being fed balls of food the size of footballs. After that we saw a baby orphan elephant. It was very cute. After that we went into a museum with animal heads on the walls. We got back in the jeep and went back home, had dinner and went to bed.
Safari
Mum got us up early in the morning so we could get dressed and hopped in another of those jeeps and went on safari. We went to the road that led us on the safari. The first animal we saw was a spotted deer which ran away. Then I just got a glimpse of an elephant and a mongoose. After that we stopped at a bridge where we saw some more, different deer called Sambar.
We kept on going until we reached a lookout where we saw an elephant bone and a peacock. Then we saw some huge bison, which Aryaman was dying to see. After that we went home and had breakfast.
Then we went to the brook which was running by the Casa Deep Woods. We also went to a lot of trouble trying to make a dam. After we had finished we went up and played on the swings until lunch. After lunch the others went to look at a temple, while me and Aryaman played until dinner
Back we Go!
I got up this morning and went straight to the swing with Felix. Then the others came, even Peter, who pushed us up really high. We had breakfast and went to pack. After we had packed we played on the swings until it was time to leave.
We got in the car and went. The first animal I saw was a mongoose, which was coloured orange-red and had a black stripe down its neck. We saw another mongoose and some wild elephant, then some tame. Then we saw more spotted deer and another mongoose. We had lunch at a restaurant and went home.
Guruji’s Birthday
This morning we got up and got ready for Guruji’s birthday. Some of our friends came over to practice a song for Guruji’s birthday.
We went to the shala where we quickly found somewhere to sit for after that people started pouring in the door way. Inside it was very smoky and I started to feel very squished.
When we got in they started a puja for Guruji. During the puja they threw water on our heads in which they used leaves to do so. Then people started to go up and perform something. A small band went up and one person was on a drum called a tabla, a man singing and a woman on a guitar sort of thing [sitar].
Then a girl from Bali did a dance and then Mum, Peter John and Inge sang a song then another woman sang a song.
After all the singing and dancing we went down stairs to have a feast and some cake which was very yummy. (We ate off banana leaves.) We went upstairs to play with one of the boys then went home.
Wild Boar, eveyone says, even though this is a sow (perhaps even wilder)
Langur monkey - cute
This is the first elephant in the wild any of us saw. We saw quite a few, by the end, but this is the only good still photograph we got. they are pretty thrilling to be around (even the domesticated ones)
Mongoose
Monkeys on the Jeep.
Tai on the left, then Aryaman (11) behind, Devina (8) in yellow, Felix behind and Barney
About 30 minute drive from Casa Deep Wood is an elephant camp. where working elephants are housed and cared for.
This is what each elephant is fed; blocks of oats and rice and coconut and sugar and salt. It is rolled into big football sized balls and hand fed to elephants (see below)
This little sweetie was found in the jungle, orphaned. they brought it to the elephant camp, but their attempts to have it accepted and adopted by the working elephants have been unsuccessful, so they will raise it by hand. We were asked, us Westerners, not to touch its cute nose to ensure that we didn't infect it with any of our nasty foreign bacteria. The baby is 11 months old
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