Day Five

Even though the forest guys were relaxed, we kept a look out for the crocs while crossing rivers

The trek this day was again up the river but we crossed over at different places and covered different areas along it’s banks. Some of the crossings were through a lot deeper waters, which at time came above the waist. One had to be careful about your footing between the rounded and slippery stones below the swiftly flowing water, at the same time keeping an alert look out for crocs! We knew the forest guys wouldn’t cross from a dangerous area but we weren’t taking any chances!

 
The trek again ended at the Domunda bridge from where we headed back to Gairal. In the evening we went for a drive to Khinanauli to check what the latest was there. Saw another herd of elephant on the way there. It was obviously a different herd from the previous day as there was only one baby with this one. On reaching Khinanauli we were told the beat there had seen the tiger that morning!! We drove down to Getheryo with Tripathi ji but no luck. Then after a quick cup of tea, we headed back for Gairal. As we came down to the penultimate dry stream crossing, just before crocodile pool, we caught sight of a huge elephant standing right in the middle of the track. He swung around to face us, although we had stopped a good fifty yards away. It was decision making time. Should we go all the way around by the other route or wait for the beast to move away. I reversed the car up the hill a bit at first but then decided it was getting too late to go by the other route. I headed back cautiously down the track and crept around the corner. He was still very much there and even took a couple of aggressive steps towards us. We were back up the slope again! Waited a while and then repeated the procedure. This time he had moved around ten yards off the track. I remembered Tripathi ji’s advise of always waiting for an elephant to face away from the track before taking a chance of getting past. Finally he faced away and we took our hearts in our hands and made a go for it. Suddenly the huge elephant seemed to have lost all interest in us. So much so that we stopped at the point where he had been standing on the track and watched him in awe as he ripped out bunch after bunch of grass from the riverbed.

That night it rained after a long time. We hope it would last long enough to put out the surrounding fires but it was not to be so. The fires were blazing so strongly that the light rain evaporated before it even came in contact with it. That night was an exciting night on our balcony as we saw a family of wild boar on the track ahead, which then moved behind our room.

The wild boar sounder we saw minutes before we heard one of them squeal for the last time

A short while later we heard a long squeal followed by a loud growl, then another squeal and then silence. Not a sound except the patter of the small raindrops on our tin roof. We waited a while but then decided to call it a day. An hour later, we were jarred awake by a loud sambar alarm call. I went to the window and looked around. The next time he called again, I located his position and saw him standing around fifty yards away looking further up the track ahead. I don’t why I didn’t wait longer (still kick myself for this) but after waiting for around 5 minutes I got back into bed and was asleep in a second.