Yesterday was Buddha overload. Almost too much to take in. My third eye is having to buffer my chakras - not enough bandwidth in my karma.
Today was a safari 4WD trip into a national park to see elephants. I have always been a little dubious about wildlife safaris - the promise is often much greater than the reality. Many go for a long rough spine shattering drive in an uncomfortable vehicle in the expectation of an abundance of wild beasts, to experience a zoo without walls. The reality is often disappointing. The beasts don’t perform, or are so sick of being gawped at they hide. Often they are so distant and camouflaged only the guide can see them (and maybe he’s sometimes bullshitting).
“Look, there’s a Chimera, right next to the Basilisk! Over there the Unicorn is fighting with the Centaur over the carcass of the Leprechaun! Can’t you see it? It’s just over the horizon near the Griffin, who’s playing chess with a Pterodactyl, using penguins as pieces! If you squint you can see impending checkmate.”
I admire the vision of the guide. For me, it’s like trying to spot a dead pixel on a hi-res monitor 50 metres away in bright sunshine.
This particular safari’s goal was elephants and birds. The guides spotted an awesome variety of birds, which took me several minutes to locate each time.
I thought they would present me with a white cane at the end of the trip.
The spine shattering nature of the road didn’t disappoint expectations, unfortunately. There were also numerous tropical downpours which drenched me in the open vehicle (only a top, no sides). One particular lurch flung me heavily into my guides lap (fortunately he is amply padded, and I am grateful for his being a human airbag and saving me from numerous broken limbs). Very fortunately we weren’t flung out of the vehicle. No safety belts at all - it would be illegal in Australia.
I’m glad I added ‘back issues’ cover to my travel insurance - discectomy here I come again….
After a few hours, finally elephants! I saw over the next hour or so 4 or 5 small herds.
Some of them not nearby, but even my failing vision could see them, and digital 40x zoom on my iPhone means I have some 64x64 pixel elephants recorded.
I’ll share the blurs with you.
On the way back the car got bogged in a detour around a bridge washed away in the flood. It took half the nearby village to help extricate it, much of the help being arm waving and criticism.
After the car had had enough of the criticism it unbogged itself.
Much self congratulation from the critics, who were awarded the inaugural FIFA Global Car Liberation prize.
I had had visions of yesterday’s boat abandonment, needing a rescue vehicle.
I returned, wet but happy with the outing. I saw enough elephants in better than 8-bit resolution, each at least 16x16 pixels.
This trip has confirmed I need to get a cataract operation in 2026.
The afternoon was a bird watching trip on the lake, with one of the hotel staff who was a naturalist as well. While hesitant after yesterday’s experience, today’s rower was about four times the size of yesterday’s guy, with a more Aussie Oarsome Foursome physique, so I was reassured.
I wonder if yesterday’s guy made it back, or was he lost at sea?
I returned uneventfully to the precise point of embarkation, now fully sated with bird and beast, as well as fully saturated.
The rower barely broke sweat.