Day 22: Monday October 28th
Sauraha
Rained in the night. Didn't go canoeing until 8.00 instead of 7.00 as planned. Pauline decided not go. She just wanted to rest. The canoe trip down the river was pleasant but did not see any animals, just a few birds. Saw a few monkeys in the jungle. One peed from the tree tops trying to hit us and scare us away. Quite a hot shower it would be. Nice young guide. Makes 1400 rs a month working at the lodge. $35/month, $420/year
Got back to hotel and rested until 3.00pm and then went for an elephant ride. Polish man and his mother, Pauline and I atop
the elephant in a carrier. Did not go into the park but down a country road. Lots of cows, water buffalo and goats grazing.
Houses made from reeds and mud, thatched roofs. Lots of little kids around. Bicycles and a few motorcycles parked beside
the mud houses.
Crossed a stream twice, finally came to a fenced area. The keeper of the forest let us through. We found three rhino in a mud hole, sound asleep. The elephants were able to come real close to them. Rhinos are afraid of the elephants.
Pretty scary just the same
to be so close and have no control of the situation. Later going through the woods saw three more [dry] rhinos. We could see people up in
the trees acting as look out. They could see where the rhinos were and direct the driver to that area. The elephant driver looked like a young
boy. It was hard to tell how old these people were. He had the most beautiful face and eyes. Straight out of the Arabian Nights!
The harness holding the structure atop the elephant started to slip sideways and I felt like I was going to fall off. The young guy driving the elephant got off and walked and let Eric steer the elephant. Pauline also got off and walked. She had to wade through two muddy streams and got her boots wet.
As the sun set it was really neat seeing the huts with the little fires glowing on the hearths and the children playing around. Did not get back until after dark and everyone was looking to see if we were coming.
Had dinner and some raski. Talked with the guides from the lodge and some from the lodge next to us came and joined us. The manager of the lodge and our guide smoked a pipe of marijuana.
We asked them if they knew one of the songs Hari had been singing. One guy said it was about f-ing. We thought this was pretty funny as we had been trying to learn the song.
Talked to a German chap traveling alone for a while.
Slept well, even the roosters didn't bother me.
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