Trail of Ants

‘Don’t try to out run it’. The message was clear. ‘Right, forward!’. A second, equally forceful instruction, delivered with intent. ‘Can you climb a tree?’. My heart now pounded with panic at my chest, pleading me to cease this needless onslaught. ‘Forward, together!’, boomed out, like a roll of thunder roaring through my head. ‘If one comes too close, huddle together and make a lot of noise’, my pupils dilated, flooding my senses with suspense. ‘Hold on! Hold ON!‘. No sooner than I had a received my raft guides outburst, than I was hurled violently into an explosion of white water and spun, forcefully in a tremendous grasp, while I gulped mouthfuls of icy water from the underbelly of the imperious, Kali Gandaki river. ‘It ran away, we’re safe’, came the soothing voice of my safari guide a few days later. No sooner than I’d absorbed his obvious relief, than I was struck with a bolt of disappointment. There was a rhino here, whom I wanted an audience with. Continue reading ‘A Rapid Realisation’