2nd March
Morning soon came and if you ask me… far too soon and before even a coffee or breakfast we joined the rangers on a mock patrol for 45 minutes to see what they do and how to set a camera a trap. To this point and even beyond we didn’t see many animals and that’s a good thing in a way because it shows that the animals are afraid of humans. So most of the data about animals in the park comes from these very important camera traps and sound recordings.
Setting up the traps they clear a space of 8m X 5m although from what they showed us I’m not sure if something got lost in translation as the area was quite a bit smaller.
They take a lot though, even with professional infra red motion detector cameras, to become safe and water proof. Tape over the seams and a couple of heavy duty straps around the camera and tree. They face 2 main problems with the traps:
1 – if locals are in the forest for illegal activities (especially poaching) and they see a trap they think they may have been photographed on they will steal the camera, destroy the chip and then either destroy or sell the hardware.
2 – the gaur are such big and aggressive animals that they just smash them to pieces.
We then headed back nice and hungry, ready for a breakfast of fried rice, soya milk and some crackers that we initially thought were actually fire lighters but ended up being pretty tasty. In Vietnam they’re not huge fans of sweet things during meals such as breakfast or a desert as part of dinner and that’s one thing I really missed so was happy to have this cracker. Plus, we needed the energy for the trek to come which was the exact same route only this time, because of fatigue, even harder.
Speaking of sweet things at breakfast, let me jump forward to breakfast on the next day when our group was a little smaller. We had been eating Vietnamese food all the time and wanted to share something British and to be honest I had already eaten the hobnobs and black jacks while Luke had pounded a whole bag of wine gums. What we had left were a couple of packs of short bread… perfect for breakfast with a coffee.
They hated it! They screwed their faces up while eating it as if we were chewing on some chicken feet (and during this trip we encountered far too many boiled chicken feet), which was funny to see and shows just how regional tastes really are.
How none of us fell in the very strong waters is beyond me, but we all managed it! It’s amazing how strong the current can be in a river that’s only waist deep and this was highlighted by the very sad fact that just a few months ago one of the rangers got cramp, slipped in to the river and got swept away. As they work in twos and the other ranger was much smaller he went for help which came quickly considering the remote nature of their ranger stations. They hoped to mount a rescue mission down river but sadly because he’d had cramp in his leg, he was unable to control his way down the river and it soon turned in to a recovery mission.
The rangers work very hard, a month at a time away from family in the forest. They face many dangers from the water and plants, to rocks and animals or land slides and poachers. I have a huge new found respect for these very hard working and dedicated men.
This time, when we finally arrived, the lunch stop was back at the ranger station with my make shift toilet and it was a delicious egg noodle dish with more of the crackers. Essentially it was a super noodle pack with a punch of flavour. I think they could tell that the rice and chicken on the bone was getting us down a little (except for scott of course who ate half a tonne of rice on the trip so far – he says because it’s more delicious here but we think because it’s the least flavourful food on the table… we got your number mate!).
We did also, during this time, see our first snake which was amazing but far too fleeting.
It was a long slender species with dark colouration but we didn’t see it long enough for an accurate ID… I’ll take a look a my field guide for the possible culprits later as I left it in my other bag… on inspection of my very limited guide it MAY have been some kind of bronze back. We actually also spotted our second reptile shortly after the lunch break in the form of a sun skink… I say we. Scott and Luke motored ahead and only I saw it. They’d get their glimpses of this species soon enough but I think none of us have been able to get a good shot of one.
Language barriers were beginning to be broken and we learned a lot on the return journey which was a far more worthwhile experience. We learned about some of the medicinal plants & fungi, what Vietnam pheasant habitat looks like and some useful tips about how not to get attacked by a larger bull looking animal called the gaur which wallows in big puddles, charges after being flashed by a camera, leaves very few footprints and instead just leave huge poos all over the place.
I think it also became apparent to them that I was starting to struggle. I kept having Scott give me tips and telling me it’s easy… “just keep walking, it’s better that way!” He’d say to me, and I would have to tell him that I was doing the most walking I possibly could. It wasn’t that I just wanted a leisurely stroll… when I stopped, I had to stop.
Scott’s a man who exercises just about every day, coaches boxing more than half of the week and has a boringly healthy diet. I do none of those and am carrying about 30kg extra than he was on my gut. Big guys like me have to carry a lot more baggage.
I did also ask him to carry my bag down from the ranger station which was up a rock face. I shouldn’t have even gone up there in the first place. But I’m so glad I did because after he’d been complaining about how heavy his bag was for the past 4 days or so, he had to admit that mine was noticeably heavier. I have been the camera equipment mule.
Scott did very well in the jungle, hats off to him, but being last in the pack even with a lift up the last couple of hills has for me done nothing to dampen my feelings of pride and achievement.
Oh yeah that’s right, Luke said to Hai jokingly that one of the guys at the bottom of the hill with a bike (one of his rangers) needs to drive me to the village. Apparently he didn’t think it was a bad idea and before I knew it I was scooting along on the back of a bike with my camouflaged hero at the helm!
I don’t know how he got up those hills on a bike on his own let alone with me on the back. I did hear the suspension bottom out a good few times to be fair but I’m pretty sure it never ran quite the same way again.
If anything this gave me my own little adventure. How many people can say they rode along with a forest ranger, off road through the forests of Vietnam and then got randomly dropped off at the house of the village elder and his wife with no translator. I had no choice but to share his cup with him, which he kept refilling with crystal clear hooch. By the time Scott and Luke found me I was half plastered. I was so glad to see them as it meant I could make a quick exit without causing any more offence.
It turned out we were heading to the shop and then around to where most of the village seemed to congregate, in order to pay the porters and say hello to the kids at the primary school next door. They were so excited to see us! It’s not often they have people from outside the village visit anyway unless they venture out themselves, let alone a group of foreigners.
It’s also here that Scott got 2 of his 3 leeches after taking his socks off… and don’t we all know about it! I think Luke ended up with 8 and by this point I think I had maybe 15.
We packed our bags in to the back of the truck nice and secure ready to head off. Well, we all thought we had… all but Scott that is, whose bag bounced out of the back of the truck after less than 5 minutes.
It was a long drive to the next ranger station where we would be spending the next night. It was a substation for the monkey bridge ranger station (which was stunning), and we drove through some rural villages where they are trialling a couple of home stays (which are gorgeous) and saw the local corner shop, which rather than being on the corner, pulls up like an ice cream truck at the corner. Selling everything from detergent to vegetables and eggs to cigarettes.
I won’t go on for too long about the evening because it got dark soon after we arrived at the ranger station, and it was cold there, even with the camp fire going, where I roasted myself some corn on the cob and had some white sweet potato cooked on the fire too.
It was a fun evening with food, karaoke (which only Scott joined as that’s a drinking man’s game… something I am not) and Luke made sure that they had to send a motorbike out to grab some more crates of beers.
Sleep however did not come well as I sat there in my pants, until 1am, blogging and charging camera equipment between inflating the camping mat they gave me. Because tonight we slept in tents and I really could have done with some fresh air around me when I stripped off for bed… a couple of days in the jungle leave you smelling as if you did just that, no matter how many rivers you cross.
