11:05 This morning we did a hike to an
area of primary forest, where DL took out some spiky trees along the way with a
machete and as it is unmarked it was great practice being trusted to lead
everyone back. Even though it is a
fairly hard trail, I have a good eye for remembering certain rocks or really
obvious trees and thus found it relatively easy to navigate back, with only
minor corrections from DL where I half created my own way back to the path I
could see.
 |
| Entrance To The Primary Forest (D.Philpot) |
 |
| Cute Spiky Tree (D.Philpot) |
.JPG) |
| Cat-Claw Vines - Right (D.Philpot) |
The highlight was that I spotted a
Jaguarundi maybe 7 metres away or less. It walked down a hillside at an angle,
right to left, I spotted black movement then saw something hop over a log with
a tail, then before a tree it paused, looked right into my eyes before it continued
off on its own business. When it hopped
over the log instead of reaching for my camera I wanted a positive ID so just
kept my eyes focused on it, was amazing to see a wild cat in the jungle, and the
student next to me saw it too which was a bonus! Upon reaching the primary forest we did find these claw marks on a tree, one set about 2-3 feet off the ground and another scratch higher up...
.JPG) |
| Cat Scratches & Cat-Claw Vines (D.Philpot) |
DL is off soon then I am running the
show with this group for a short while and so we have a hike as well as a quiz
and bonfire planned out for Mission Colleges last night here.
22:15 The hike took a while due to the
wide age range of the group so we missed snack but at the same time it meant we
all had a really slow enjoyable hike.
Everyone was very considerate of one another and everyone made it all
the way to the waterfall including the older gentlemen of over 70 who I was
particularly impressed by.
We returned, then I set up a sheet to
attract insects which is always interesting in the tropics as from day to day
you never know what you are going to get, as I am sure will be shown in the wet
season.
 |
| Dust Collecting Mite (D.Philpot) |
 |
| A Weird Fluffy Moth (D.Philpot) |
 |
| Green Moth (D.Philpot) |
 |
| White & Gold Plated Moth (D.Philpot) |
The quiz turned out to be pretty
entertaining, more than I had originally thought, due to my English English not
being understood. “Nought, what is
nought…” (zero i.e. before 1). Not only
that we ended up with quite an impressive array of insects, from white and gold
moths (like actually gold colour) to furry moths and odd Katydids.
The night ended with that planned
bonfire with marshmallows. The Americans
were wimps and extended their marshmallow sticks, whilst I sat right by the
fire out of the wind.