Sunday, July 11

My World of Wildlife

Every afternoon the boys drive off into the National Park to film proper he-man animals: crocodiles, elephants and leopards. I stay behind at the Lodge, process footage and have a different sort of wildlife experience. The Lodge is in a sandy woody area, guests stay in cabins among the trees. I have set up a work station on a couple of tables in my room and the geckos have taken up residence above me, their tails poke out from the rafters, I like them but wish they wouldn't deposit such unusually large amounts of lizard poo among my hard drives, adding fresh ones every time I go off for a coffee.

When I do go out for a coffee, giant squirrels suddenly appear on branches, close to my face, cocking their big-eyed faces and holding out little paws, (for what? Spare change?), palm squirrels copulate on the table where I am eating my dinner and cows belch and fart explosively outside my window.

In the evenings at six, about two dozen wild pigs come round for drinks, they snorkel noisily around the cabins waving their snouty lips up at the air-conditioning pipes to catch the icy drips. Tonight I watched a big old boar with his head stuck down a drain, front legs knelt down, hind legs on tiptoe, straining his bottom and huge swollen testicles up in the air in an attempt to reach something delicious, he sensed me watching him, jerked his head out of the drain and glared at me, the perfect image of Ken Dodd, it was just an instant, then he tossed his tatty mane and trotted off to join the outlet-lickers.

15 comments:

  1. too.much.nature.

    bless your heart, sugar, but if i ever needed confirmation that i am a city girl, reading this made it crystal clear! xoxoxox

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  2. why does that old porker remind me of some men I see in my local pub?

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  3. Us men and our testicles are always thinking about delicious things. They say every three seconds or something like that.

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  4. I can't help feeling that the image of the old boar isn't a metaphor for one of the disappointments of life.

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  5. Sounds similar to the food court at the local shopping mall ...

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  6. Hats off to the ice water sipping piggies!

    When I lived on Maui, the cats would nail any gecko foolish enough to venture too far down the wall.

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  7. Sav - I can deal with this kind of nature - I might baulk when I get to the snakes though xxx

    Madame DeF - why does that old porker remind me of some men I see in my local pub? Funny that me too.

    Wow - only every three seconds - I think it's more than that

    Kevin - yup

    Will - yup

    xl - there are some scrawny cats around - the geckos are speedy buggers

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  8. Dear god, where ARE you?

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  9. oh it sounds fantastic! I wanted the squirrels to come closer but they're tantalising little teasers in Greece.

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  10. Outlet lickers...?
    I must remember this. *Makes note on list of insults*
    Sx

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  11. I think I'll enjoy Sri Lanka from afar! :¬)

    xxx

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  12. Exotic quotidian; I can well imagine that geckos can lose their shine if they poo on your stuff all the time.
    Like Scarls I'm particularly taken with: 'outlet-lickers.' It made me think of all those women who rave about discount-brand shops.

    Can't wait to read more, X

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  13. For some reason the face of Ken Dodd has always scared me, and now I think I know why.

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  14. Dolce - Deep in the jungle my darling!

    Nursey - the squirrels here are very sweet - and not at all shy

    Scarlet - I hadn't thought of how good outlet-lickers is as an insult - I too shall use it thus

    Map - I quite understand - sensible man

    Eryl - YES - discount-brand shops.
    I've always loved the French term for window shopping that tranlates as 'window-licking'

    Gadjo - he used to give me nightmares

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  15. And I thought Sri Lanka was a land of paradise.

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