T IS FOR TIGER : A-Z Challenge

Welcome to Day 20 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:

'Wildlife Encounters'

This is an edited version of a piece of flash fiction I wrote for an online competition. It is loosely based on a real experience:

The tigress sat high on the ridge washing her face. She pricked her ears. The humans were stirring.

‘Hurry, hurry,’ said Ashok.

In the watery-grey dawn his guests bundled into the jeep.

‘Let’s go.’ Ashok threw the vehicle into gear and they were away, bumping along the rutted road at bone-rattling speed. The stinging winter wind snatched at their clothes. 

They slid to a halt at a waterhole. Ashok examined the sandy soil.

‘Look.’ He pointed at fresh pug marks. ‘The tiger was here last night.’

They raced on. A second waterhole yielded more evidence. Spotted deer barked in alarm. Ashok's head snapped up. He shot off in the direction of the barks, bouncing onto a corrugated track. 

Ashok braked. ‘Shh!’

The deer called again. They scanned the ridge with their binoculars and the tigress sat quietly in the impenetrable vegetation.

Ashok wobbled his head. 'Tiger's up there, laying still.'

The jeep wove up a steep track, negotiating fallen rocks, swaying tortuously. Ashok paused to listen for the alarm calls, pinpointing the cat’s position. As they closed in, she languidly rose and melted into the jungle.

My apologies for the quality of the tiger photos... but they were taken on genuine game drives in Rajasthan!

See you on Monday – I’m heading south west. Can you guess where and what the next animal will be?

If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE

S IS FOR SHARK : A-Z Challenge

Welcome to Day 19 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:

'Wildlife Encounters'

Here is an edited extract from one of my South African articles which was published in a newspaper in Spain titled 'Facing Fear'. I subsequently wrote a fictional version of this experience which was published on the Cafe Lit Website titled 'Shark Bait'.

Off the coast of Walker Bay, Dyer Island is home to a colony of Cape Fur Seals and the strip of water between the mainland and the island is called Shark Alley.

Our boat was small and the one person cage looked puny, but we were assured that the sharks never attack the cage. It’s the bait they’re interested in, not canned diver.

We lurched out into the choppy water. Eventually the anchor was lowered and the boat sat bucking and bouncing like it was struggling to break free.

Frankie and his crew got to work with tuna bait and a seal decoy. They lowered the cage into the water.

We suited up.  

We waited.

An immense shadowy figure began to circle us. Abruptly it lunged for the bait which Frankie tweaked away to encourage it to stay on the surface and fight for its meal. Spooked, it vanished instead. Another came to investigate the bait.

It was time to go shark cage diving.

I plopped into the bobbing cage, gasping from the freezing water. Unthinking, I hooked my toes through a lower rail in the cage for balance. 

Tension mounted as I waited in the water for a Great White Shark.

Suddenly I realised where my toes were and with a little spurt of fear, jerked them to safety.

After a body numbing aeon, the shout came, ‘Dive down!’

I dropped underwater and there I was, eyeball to eyeball with a Great White Shark. 

This beautiful animal, shimmering and sleek as it sliced through the water inches from the cage made me forget where I was until I realised I needed to breathe.

Great White Shark, South Africa

In the years I have been scuba diving I have had numerous shark encounters.  Despite the bad press, sharks are not scary or dangerous to divers underwater. Shark attacks occur when an animal mistakes a human for prey – all too often it’s surfers who come under attack because the shark thinks the surfer is a seal.

Nurse Shark, Maldives

I have nothing but admiration for these immensely beautiful and important predators in our oceans. 

Grey Reef Shark, Fiji

Scalloped Hammerhead, Fiji

Oh, yes – and please, please boycott all restaurants which serve shark fin soup so that these animals will finally stop being slaughtered before it is too late!

Great White Shark, South Africa

See you tomorrow – I’m heading north east. Can you guess where and what the next animal will be?

If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE

R IS FOR RHINOCEROS : A-Z Challenge

Welcome to Day 18 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:

'Wildlife Encounters'

We knew that there were rare black rhinos in the Etosha National Park in Namibia but we were hazy about actual numbers because the authorities deliberately do not disclose this sensitive information. However, we were aware that numbers were low enough that we should have zero expectations of seeing any.

Although rhinos visit waterholes, it’s often at dusk: the time you are obliged to return to your fenced camp, or face being locked out overnight.

Wildebeest at waterhole at dusk

As it was, we cut it fine a couple of times.

We were heading along an empty gravel road. The terrain was scattered with trees and scrubby bushes and pimpled by termite mounds. 

Suddenly there was an almighty crashing and a black rhino hurtled from the side of the road back into the bush.

My husband stopped the car. The rhino was standing amongst the trees, looking straight at us. Clearly the animal had been about to cross the road when we had come along and startled it. But now our stationary car was directly in its path.

 ‘We need to move,’ I said.

‘Isn’t he incredible?’ said my husband.

The rhino pawed the ground. (I am not making this up.)

‘He’s also very big and we need to move,’ I said.

‘Stop panicking.’

The rhino fidgeted and pawed the ground again.

My voice went up an octave. ‘We need to move.’

‘Okay, okay.’

He put the car in gear and we slowly slid forwards. The rhino took a couple of steps towards us. My husband accelerated away.

As we fully registered what had just happened we began to laugh, slightly hysterically.

‘That was amazing,’ I said.

‘Did you get his picture?’ said my husband.

I thumped his arm. 

Since I didn't take a photo of the black rhino in the heat of the moment here are some white rhino photos I took in South Africa instead.

See you tomorrow – I’m heading south east. Can you guess where and what the next animal will be?

If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE

Q IS FOR QUEER UNDERWATER CREATURES : A-Z Challenge

Welcome to Day 17 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:

'Wildlife Encounters'

One of the prime areas to find seriously queer or weird creatures is the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. I have had articles published about this location in Australia’s Sport Diving Magazine and in a newspaper in Spain. Here are a few random extracts from these publications in no particular order:

I was finning slow and low over the black sand.

A flash of electric blue caught my attention. I had been about to swim directly over a blue ring octopus. 

I was far too excited by the sighting to consider the implications of my near collision with one of the most dangerous animals in our oceans.

Pfeffer's flamboyant cuttlefish pulsed yellow and purple when we approached. Longhorn cowfish and helmut gurnards skimmed fast and low.

Frogfish - or anglerfish - in an unlikely range of colours remained motionless no matter how closely we approached; stoical and somehow dignified despite their absurdly comical appearance.  

Hairy Frogfish

I fell for the hairy version big-time. Of course it's not hair at all but skin filaments.  Nevertheless the hairy frogfish looks cute and cuddly enough to pet.

Lethally camouflaged dragonets, waspfish, scorpionfish and lionfish required constant vigilance as we homed in on likely spots in our search for critters. 

Snake eels hole-up in the sand with just their heads protruding. As we were photographing one a ghostly spaghetti-like tentacle emerged from the sand.  It quested blindly for a few seconds before vanishing again.  Never has the underwater world felt as alien as it did for those few eerie moments.

As a dive destination, North Sulawesi is a great place to find unusual, rare and beautiful animals (or queer underwater creatures, if you will).

See you tomorrow - I'll be heading west. Can you guess where and what the next animal will be?



If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE

P IS FOR PLATYPUS : A-Z Challenge

Welcome to Day 16 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:

'Wildlife Encounters'

Edited extract from one of my articles published in an English language newspaper in Spain:

The platypus is an animal I had learnt about in school. Unique to Australia it is not a marsupial, but a monotreme – or egg-laying mammal. 

These little creatures live in burrows on the banks of freshwater lakes, rivers and streams. They only venture out early in the morning and evening. They are nervous as actors with stage fright.

The accommodation I picked near Mount Field National Park in Tasmania was specifically chosen because I had heard that it had a small lake containing a colony of six wild platypuses.

On the evening we arrived we caught a brief glimpse of movement out on the lake.

In the ill-lit dusk we hazily managed to identify a platypus through our binoculars. It wasn’t enough.

The following morning I rose early and crept out in the misty dawn.

As I neared the lake I spotted disturbances in the water close to the shore. I approached with care and was rewarded with three platypuses diving for breakfast, sleek as miniature otters. 

Crouched in the dew damp grass, at that moment I didn’t care if I saw nothing else in Tasmania.

See you tomorrow – I’m heading north. Can you guess where and what the next animal will be?

If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE

O IS FOR ORANG-UTAN : A-Z Challenge

Welcome to Day 15 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:

'Wildlife Encounters'

Edited extract from one of my articles published in Air Nuiguini’s in-flight magazine:

The trail was slick with mud. Sweat trickled down my back. The air smelt rich and peaty from rotting leaves. Thick jungle muffled the scrapings and scratchings of unseen wildlife. My husband stopped abruptly with a small exclamation of disgust. A leech was exploring his boot.

We were in the Sepilok Forest Reserve in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo searching for pongo pygmaeus, better known as orang-utan: The Man of the Forest.

The orang-utan is the only ape in South-east Asia and their numbers are dwindling at an alarming rate.

We slogged for an hour up the track in the reserve but our search only yielded ants, millipedes and leeches. Our time was limited. If we wanted to see orang-utans we would have to visit the rehabilitation centre. 

Staff conduct two feeding sessions for the apes at a nearby platform in the forest. The orang-utans who visit this feeding station are in the last stages of rehabilitation. Whilst the animals are completely at liberty, they haven't quite severed ties with the Centre.

We followed the signs along wooden boardwalks to the busy public viewing area. 

Ropes had been placed to allow the apes easy access to the feeding platform. We watched in delight as young apes swung along these ropes, stopping periodically to take a good look at the gawping visitors.

I was struck by their silent contemplation of us and gentle behaviour with each other. ­­

We went for another walk along a trail in the reserve in the hope of seeing a male adult Man of the Forest. But the fully grown males don't need human interaction any longer and stay hidden deep in the reserve. 

All we got were leeches and millipedes, but maybe it was better that way.

See you tomorrow – I’m heading south east again. Can you guess where and what the next animal will be?

If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE

N IS FOR NUTHATCH : A-Z Challenge

Welcome to Day 14 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. My theme is:

'Wildlife Encounters'

I have seen a reasonable variety of what could be described as unusual or exotic animals in the wild. However, there are plenty of animals and birds right on my doorstep that I still haven't seen. For example, I've never seen a live badger, only road kill - isn't that sad?

Last year I saw nuthatches for the first time.

They were feeding on my friend’s bird feeders in the Wye Valley in Wales.

Nuthatches breed in central and southern England and Wales. Apparently they don’t travel far from where they hatch, so this might account for them not spreading throughout the UK.

A beautiful little bird, about the size of a Great Tit and similar in behaviour to woodpeckers, the nuthatches I observed seemed willing to share the seeds and nuts with other garden birds.

Although peanuts appeared to be its food of choice.

See you on Monday – I’m heading south east for an altogether more 'exotic' animal. Can you guess where and what the next animal will be?

If you want to blog-hop to the next A-Z Challenge blog, please click HERE