Donkey Double

I apologise, it's been so long since I put up any travel tails. There really haven't been too many in recent months, so I'm giving you a double! I'm working in Islamabad, Pakistan and there are a few creatures around the place, but I'm not allowed to get out very much to see them. But I've seen monkeys by the side of the road that leads up into some hills (apparently if you walk up the tracks you can see more of them), and foxes that run across the road at night. And I'd even seen a few donkeys pulling carts along the side of the road. Of course cruising past in a 4WD does not a good photo make.

I noticed these donkeys from the roof of our office, helping with a construction site that has apparently been going on forever. There are about six donkeys that cart dirt up from the big hole in the ground to a spot behind a brick fence. If you stand there long enough and watch them (which I do when I need a break from my computer) it becomes obvious that the donkeys are pretty cool. They stroll down the ramp unassisted to where the labourers are picking away at the dirt, and wait patiently to be loaded up. Then the donkey totters back towards the ramp and makes it about half way up. It just stands there for a while, not sure of what to do next, and the labourers are so busy with their shovels that they don't notice it hasn't quite made it. Eventually one guy will walk up behind it and give it a slap on the rump, and off it will go. It becomes more amusing when there's a donkey pileup on the ramp.

Perhaps now they've brought the donkeys in the building might actually get finished!!

After my wonderful safari in Kenya I spent a week on the island of Lamu, at the far end in a quiet little village called Shela. There is apparently one car on the whole island, but by far the most popular form of transport is the donkey. The walk between Shela and Lamu town takes about 40 minutes, and during the stroll you get passed by men riding donkeys at break neck speed (all calling out a very helpful "excuse me ma'am" just in time to allow you to get out of the way) and other donkeys that are laden with all sorts of food items.

The streets of Shela are narrow and mostly sandy, and around almost any corner there are donkeys. I liked the little ones.

Jambo Junior

The travel tails have been a bit light on of late, but I've got enough saved up to last a lifetime after my last trip. I went on safari in Kenya to three different parks, the Masaai Mara, Lake Nakuru, and Samburu. The 5 days we actually spent safari-ing were some of the best of my life, it truly was a magnificent experience, and I certainly didn't get "animal-ed out" as I had been warned!! Our guide was a man named Justice, who'd been a safari guide for 45 years, and I jokingly demanded that he find me a rhino and baby, along with basically every other baby animal I could rattle off. I'd been joking about all of them (of course, secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of the Big 5) but Justice delivered.

We'd been roaming around Lake Nakuru, marvelling at the sight of the pink flamingos in the lake, and keeping an eye on a distant buffalo. Justice had driven us far enough away from the buffalo so we could get out and walk around a bit, but he was still wary. We got back in the van as the clouds began to darken and the wind picked up. It was after a pack of babboons that we came across our first rhino. It was absolutely huge, and covered in mud, and seemed completely oblivious to our van parked not 10 metres away.

Justice spotted a "crash" of rhinos (I just googled the collective noun for rhinos and this is it!) further on, and as we approached I spotted this baby, and my heart melted. While the older members of his crash paid no attention to us, little Junior was not impressed. He twice attempted to charge us, the sight of his fat little legs propelling him made us laugh, but he'd chicken out and veer off before he got too close. I could have watched him for the rest of the afternoon, but the rain had other plans for us.

Here's a first for Travel Tails, video!


The photos of more amazing animals can be found on my photo site.

Get ready

There will be some extremely fantastic travel tails in the next couple of weeks, once I finish my current travels and can get home and upload them all!

Startled

The city of Chittagong in southern Bangladesh is home to a thriving port. The busiest trade in the port area is shipbreaking, an horrific practice whereby gigantic ships are taken apart bit by bit to be sold as scrap metal. The horrific part is that this is done by the hands of men, not machines. Men who are paid peanuts and who are not given personal safety equipment. Many of the beggars on the streets of Chittagong who are missing limbs formerly worked in the shipbreaking yards.

While this isn't a particularly fantastic photo of the animal, it does give a bit of scale to how big some of the ships are that come into the yards. It's a noisy business, and as this dog made his way along the beach, he was startled numerous times by the sounds of banging metal.

The Vista

I'd never had a burning desire to visit the USA, but I'd thought that if I did, I'd want to do a road trip in a convertible. When I ended up in the States I knew that it had to be done, and decided to drive up the west coast, from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The only convertible the rental company had was a brand new, bright red Mustang, which seemed highly appropriate, so off I roared. The wind was in my hair, the sun was shining, and I had a fantastic mix CD that was perfect for singing along to at the top of my lungs. I drove along beside the ocean, through the forests, marvelling at the varying landscapes.

I passed a road sign that said "Elephant Seal Vista," and thought it an odd name for a lookout, since there couldn't possibly be any elephant seals. However when I approached the lookout, there were quite a few cars parked, so I pulled over to check it out. A couple of seconds passed before I realised all of the large rocks on the beach weren't rocks at all, but massive seals. It was nap time as there was barely any movement, and the thought crossed my mind that perhaps there'd been some freak accident and they were all dead. But every so often, a giant rumbling sigh would escape one as it wriggled around and rolled over.

I stood watching them for quite some time, and as the minutes rolled by, I could spot more action. There were two ginormous males having a tousle in the shallows, a little baby awkwarding sliding after its mother. But the vast majority were like the ones above, happy to laze around enjoying the sunshine.

The Ladies and The Tramp

A very special guest blogger has provided the following travel tails, my Mum!!

Our holidays visiting Carly and her brother have presented us with many photo opportunities, and the following are a couple of my favourite Tails.

Life on the streets of Bangkok: not easy! This tramp may have found some comfort on his bench at the ferry terminal, and the bottle below? Well that's exactly how we found him.

Some doggies have a very different life experience. Take the ladies of Ginza Street, Tokyo.

After checking out the leather wear at Prada, dogdem sets in and it's far too much effort to walk to Louis Vuitton. A ride in a jaunty dog-o-pram is necessary for these pampered pups.

Left out

A blue gate is almost as great as a blue door. After finishing a magnificent four wheel drive tour of Bolivia, we were left in the small town of Uyuni. As either the start or end point for any four wheel drive tour, the place is filled with tourists, but in the part of town we pulled up in, there was not a soul on the street. Except for this shaggy guy, who was obviously desperate to escape the deserted streets and get into where all the people were. At least he had some shade to wait in.

Let sleeping dogs lie

One of my favourite things in life is seeing a blue door. This is closely followed by seeing a red door. So you can imagine my delight when I noticed this blue door in Humahuaca, in the very north of Argentina. I'd spent many hours on a luxurious bus (seriously, the buses in South America feel more like aeroplanes) to get up to the north, where I'd hoped I could find some condors. When I reached the small town of Humahuaca it was siesta time and it was quite the ghost town. My travelling companion and I wandered around, trying to find some shade, and marvelled at the incredibly tall cacti that dotted the landscape. We managed to find a restaurant that was open and after eating an unsatisfying lunch we strolled around the town. The blue door caught my eye first and then the sleeping doggy in front of it. I was immediately reminded of my canine friend in Nepal.

I never did see any condors, I was easily convinced to carry on into Bolivia, where there were many travel tails to be had. I'll just have to go back one day to track down those condors to share with you.

Lovely Llamas

I love this photo. This was towards the end of the Bolivian outback adventure, in the wide open plains between the salt flats and the town of Uyuni. This baby llama had wandered a little way away from its mother, but as our car got closer the mother came running. You can see above that her head has turned, just moments before she came to protect her baby.

I love the sky, I love the baby's little shadow. I love this photo.

Cheeky Coati

I wasn't sure I would see anything as unusual as the Machu Picchu critter on the rest of my travels in South America, but that wasn't quite the case. After spending spent many hours on a bus, I made it to Puerto Iguazu, home to the mammoth Iguazu Falls. As I've mentioned before, the falls are breathtaking, and the national park is huge, so walking around and round and up and down really builds up an appetite.

I had a ham roll in my backpack and after spotting some picnic tables, my travel buddies and I took a seat. We'd seen the signs advising not the feed the coatis, and to tell the truth, I didn't know what a coati was (at this point, still not knowing what the Machu Picchu critter had been). I thought it was probably a bird, since there are so many signs at home advising not to feed the ibis. But the signs also proclaimed that coatis can carry rabies, but still, I wasn't sure what to be on the lookout for. As we sat under the shade of the big umbrella enjoying our sandwiches, we spotted something heading towards us. It was dark brown with white stripes and looked like a furry anteater. That was when we realised what a coati was. The critter changed its course and I grabbed my camera and chased after it, at a safe distance of course. I snapped a couple of shots and went back to the table to finish my lunch.

Suddenly, there were four coatis, circling the table like sharks. Now when a sign has told you to be wary of rabid creatures, you don't take that lightly. We'd pulled our feet up onto our chairs, and were waiting for them to get bored and go away.

Then this cute little one approached the table, so much lighter in colour than the others, and not menacing-looking at all. A couple of seconds after I caught this moment, it sprung up on the table, grabbed the remaining half of my sandwich, jumped off the table and sped off, the others hightailing behind it.

Greedy little thing!

Anise, Atrice and Twitchy

I'm much more of a dog person that a cat person, but this has slowly been changing, after my bonding experience with Mangy in the Philippines, and now in Lebanon. We'd seen a fluffy cat wandering around the work compound and eventually we discovered that she'd had three kittens. It took a while to discover this as she'd been hiding out on the roof of one of the prefab containers our offices are in, but finally she brought them down. And promptly disappeared. We started giving them powdered milk (for babies) and named them Anise (meaning the friendly one), Atrice (the chubby one) and Twitchy (the scared one) once their personalities became clearer.

Atrice and Twitchy (pictured in front) would have nothing to do with us, other than hang around in the mornings waiting to be fed. Anise (pictured behind) on the other hand, was very sociable, and would spend hours sleeping on people's laps, or giving cuddles. It was winter time and quite chilly, so they would all pile on top of each other, or wrap their tails around each other to share warmth, like in the picture above. If you tried to approach Anise at this time, the others would bolt off, hissing as they ran.

One tragic morning, we were told that Anise was dead. It took a long time to confirm this, with different guards giving different stories, but in the end it was discovered that she was found outside, and appeared unharmed. We guessed it must have been a snake bite, or the cold. It was a very sad day for those of us who knew and loved Anise.

A couple of days later, an incredible thing happened. Twitchy stepped up and let himself be patted. We were shocked. But even more so, when a couple of hours later he was found curled up on a colleague's lap, sleeping soundly. We summised that he knew his sister had been the family breadwinner, encouraging us to feed them with her cuddly charms, and now that she was gone, someone else would need to fill her shoes. Twitchy remains as cuddly as ever, but some three months on, Atrice still won't come near us.

Slithering snake

Just the other day I was telling a friend about the wildlife in Australia. We talked about possums (noisy critters), Tasmanian Devils (nasty critters), dingos (killer critters), koalas (you wouldn't want to meet a male koala in a dark bush alley), and basically came to the conclusion that almost all Australia critters are deadly.

This little green tree snake however is not deadly I'm by no means a fan of snakes, and have luckily only come across one or two in the wild, this being one of them. In a nature reserve not far from my house, the ocean and a creek are divided by a beautiful headland, which has a lush canopy that lowers the temperature down a few degrees...a welcome respite in the Australian summer. There is plenty of wildlife hiding in the headland, and when I took a friend there one Christmas we spotted scrub turkeys, kookaburras and lizards. And this snake. I was heading towards this hand rail, to look over and enjoy the view below, but luckily my brother spotted the little snake (he wouldn't have been a metre a length) slowly slithering its way along the wood.

I snapped this photo (using a moderate zoom) and he quietly went on his wriggling way into the wilderness.

Hard work

A very recent tail to share, but not much of a tale. Just 2 days ago a group of friends journeyed to the north east of Lebanon to go for a bit of a hike and a picnic. Along the way, we drove through lots of tiny villages, where life was being led on the streets. There were people sitting outside cafes drinking coffee, butchers cutting off sides of meat, men greeting each other outside mosques, and all of this taking place on the side of the road.

The strength of donkeys never ceases to amaze me, and this one was no exception. He lumbered remarkably up the slight incline, with his owner struggling to keep up. Amazing what you can notice from the window of a minivan!

The Cats of Constantinople

I spent a few glorious days in Istanbul last year, and was amazed at the sheer number of healthy, shiny-coated cats in the streets. In other places I've lived and visited, the cats are the most pathetic creatures wandering the streets, all skin and bones, but not in Istanbul.

My wonderful travel buddy and I both marveled over these gorgeous felines, parading down little alleys, sitting on discarded armchairs, or investigating large potted plants. On this particular day we'd set out to find some funky boutiques and antique stores but alas, being a Sunday, everything was closed. We found ourselves in a maze of tiny streets, with shuttered windows, washing hanging on lines, and cats. Endless cats.

These two black cats were hanging out in an empty lot beside an antique store, and I wish I had a panorama view to share, because to the left there was another beautiful cat curled up on an armchair (which may make an appearance here at a later stage) and more to the right. There's definitely a calendar to be made of the cats of Istanbul!

Chinchillas chillin

I had a wonderful time traipsing around the ruins of Machu Picchu; exploring tiny corners, stooping to avoid hitting my head on low hanging doorways, and marveling at the ability of humans to build a city on top of a mountain without modern machinery. As I was winding my way up and down and back and forth through the ruins I noticed a small tourist group looking up and snapping away.

Of course I walked over and looked up to see what they saw. At that point in time, there was a single chinchilla sunning itself on top of an entryway. I thought that was pretty cool, snapped a photo of my own and carried on. I passed by the same spot again and the solo chinchilla had been joined by two others; calmly checking out all the tourists snaking through the maze of corridors from their higher vantage point. I kept thinking that they'd dart back into their cosy nook at any second, but I must have stood there for at least five minutes, and they barely moved a muscle.

Vizcacha says...

The 4WD trip I did in Bolivia was perhaps the highlight of my time in South America. The scenery over four days changed from rolling velvety hills, to jagged mountains, to flamingo-filled lagoons, to beautiful snow-capped mountains.

It was at an altitude just past 4,690m that I saw this guy. We'd been exploring in the ruins of an old church just before the snow line started. A flurry of movement caught our eye, and I was amazed at this creation. Known as a Vizcacha, they are a rodent most closely related to the chinchilla. With a tail like a fluffy beaver's, and long whiskers, this vizcacha looked like a drawing of Confucius. And even though he looked like a wise old man, he sure could move quickly!

Cat nap

If I believed in reincarnation I'd want to come back as a domestic cat. I can't imagine a more blissful life than napping 6 times a day, getting back rubs when I wanted them, scratches under the chin and on the side of the face. Yep, life would be pretty sweet.

And that's how it seemed for this cat in the Philippines. I spotted him just minutes before I came across gigantor-pig. He seemed very happy to be stretched out on the side of the sink, not caring if he left orange hairs all over the clean dishes, and staying cool in the shade. While I was still feeling the high of such gorgeous surroundings, I couldn't help but wish we could trade places, just for forty winks or so.

Scooting Scooby

I've seen some interesting things on scooters and motorbikes in different parts of the world, usually it's a surprising number of family members and perhaps a couple of chickens all squished on together, or a suckling pig ready for roasting. A few months ago I was in southern Lebanon for a weekend away with a visiting friend, and we took a walk down to the water to watch the sun set over the Mediterranean (which is still a novelty for me). As the brilliant orange sun put itself to bed in the distance, I heard the buzzing of a scooter approaching.

At first I didn't notice anything unusual, but when the scooter came to a stop for the driver to light a cigarette, but then I saw the head of a dog stick out and then he jumped off the scooter and went for a little sniff around the rocks. A quick whistle was all it took for the dog to come running back and settle back onto his perch. The man caught my astonished look and gave me a big smile, before happily setting off with his dog in place.

Monster pig

One of the most remote places I visited for work in the Philippines was a place called Kalamansig, which was a four hour drive from the office, then an hour on a boat, and then a short trip on the back of a motorbike. Following a very smoothly run food distribution, I ventured off to find a bathroom, which is when I stumbled upon the giant above.

I remember writing a blog post about this pig, which went along the lines of "I saw a tail swishing from around the corner. It was too high to be a dog, but too low to be a cow. I walked around the corner and was greeted by the sight of the most ginormous testicles," which I then compared in size to the bull statue on Wall St in New York (it's a big statue).

This pig was a monster; it was about the size of a large Shetland pony, or a baby hippo with an overactive thyroid gland. I wish there had been something around to provide a better sense of how big it really was. This photo was taken around the time that there was a lot of talk about H1N1, the swine flu, and I imagined that if this guy was a carrier, that the whole island of Mindanao (the 19th largest in the world incidentally) would be infected by him, single hoofedly.

Camel caravan

When I was young, my Mum had an old spelling book that we'd use to improve our spelling. I remember one of the hardest words in the book was "Egypt", and I credit that, along with my uncle telling us stories about Egypt, with a long fascination with the country and its history. I finally realised my dream of seeing the pyramids just over a month ago, and like the other wonders of the world I've seen, I was not disappointed.

Of course, the hawkers are out in force, and if you even look at a camel or a horse for too long, the handlers will approach you for money. But this caravan of camels were off in the distance, and the barren landscape, coupled with the mist and mountains in the background, really made me feel like I had reached the mythical Egypt of my dreams.

He's with the band

Here is another great dog I came across in Kathmandu. While wandering through narrow streets, winding towards Durbar Square, a flash of red caught my eye. I noticed the red jackets, then the euphoniums, the blue door, and the broken pink chair.

And then I noticed this dog, curled up in the doorway. I wondered if he was the mascot for the marching band, but he didn't really strike me as the energetic type.

Chickens after crisis

This is one of my most recent travel tails, from the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in Northern Lebanon, where I'm currently working. For three months in 2007 the Lebanese army laid siege to the camp, in order to flush out members of the militant Islamist group Fatah Al Islam, who had established a base in the camp among the 27,000 Palestine refugees who had been living here for over 50 years. By the time the Government declared an end to the hostilities, over 95% of the camp, and large parts of the surrounding neighbourhoods had been totally destroyed. As such, UNRWA has begun rebuilding the camp, following a long period of removing all the rubble, which was made all the more challenging by the sheer number of unexploded ordinances and booby traps that lay in the ruins.

For the past two years, families that were displaced have slowly begun to return back to the areas surrounding the camp. There is little employment to be had, and the exam results for students are the worst in the country, due to the trauma and interruptions to their schooling during the conflict. On a visit to the camp one day, we stopped to get a snack, and this little boy was so excited to see some white people, and he wanted to show us his chickens. He tried to only open the door where they were kept a little way, but of course the chickens rushed out. He wasn't concerned by this at all, and spent a very happy few minutes playing with his feathered friends.

Dignified geese

Barcelona is a fantastic city, full of surreal architecture (mostly thanks to Mr. Gaudi), great food and the best coffe I've ever tasted (try a cortado sometime). The structure that is La Sagrada Familia is mind blowing, but when I visited, there was still a lot of work underway (as I'm sure there is now), so it didn't have that quiet serenity that cathedrals normally do.

There was another cathedral however, that had a beautiful courtyard where I could have stayed for quite some time. Even these geese seemed to understand the nature of the place and though they strutted around, flapping their plumage, they remained quiet.

I remember sitting outside the cathedral on a bench afterwards, next to a young man who was playing guitar. He pointed out some gypsy kids and gave the instruction to watch as they picked out a target to pickpocket. Everyone knows about the risk of pickpocketing in Barcelona (indeed anywhere really), but it was nice to be warned by a local. I don't think I have any other travel tails from Spain, but this one brings back memories of a country I long to visit again.

A lucky kid

The ongoing conflict in Mindanao has displaced over 200,000 people. Many of these families have taken refuge in temporary camps, with a lucky few being moved into longer term barracks or structures. I visited one such area, which was situated on top of a hill, which had a spectacular view but no access to water, and the land was not fit for agriculture. People had to walk a few kilometres to access clean water and some how transport it back up to the shelters in the containers you can see in the photo. Some families had managed to save their livestock, mainly chickens, but I noticed a face poking out at me from around the corner of one of the shelters; a lucky family had managed to save their goat.

Piggies in Peru

I have a fondness for pigs, well, more for piglets. I found this family outside a touristy market stop at the start of a bus journey through the Sacred Valley in Peru. The piglets were quite docile, and happy to follow their hairy mother around, sniffing around for tasty morsels in the grass. What can’t be seen in this photo is one of the piglets, who had the same colouring as its mother, but with spots instead of stripes like the others. 

They didn't seem at all bothered by the bus loads of people pulling up, focusing much more on finding something tasty to munch on. How I wish I could scoop up the little one on the right and take it home with me!

La Vultures at La Ventana

I've started avoiding photographs of famous places I plan to go to, so as to not spoil the surprise when I get there. The Iguazu Falls in Argentina were a slightly different case in point, as I really didn't know much about them to begin with, but was told by many other travellers that they were a must see. So I got on a bus in Buenos Aires and travelled for about 20 hours to reach the falls, which span across Brazil and Paraguay as well. It was a lovely warm and sunny day, which was lucky as any package to the falls includes a boat ride in which the pilot takes the boat under a waterfall, saturating everyone. Great fun indeed! Since I had no idead what to expect, I was eagerly awaiting the first waterfall. Well, it was a piddly little thing, and next to it was another small fall and so on. But then suddenly, there were huge waterfalls, stretching as far as the eye could see, and the roar of all that water was astounding.

After the boat ride, it was a short hike up on a nearby island, full of lush greenery and lizards and shade. My Spanish, though rusty, allowed me to translate the directional sign to La Ventana: The Window. The rocks, as you see, form a window that loks into one of the most impressive waterfalls in the area (though this is dwarfed by the incredible Garganta del Diablo - the Devil's Throat fall). And it must have been an excellent feeding ground, as there were many vultures circling around, and smaller birds darting in and out of the water.

These two vultures seemed particularly lazy in comparison to them.

Posing in Petra

I have to say from the outset that this photo wasn't taken by me. I tried to take this photo numerous times but it just didn't work out as well as my friend Jeremy's did. So thanks to Jez for taking this fantastic photo, I'll make sure he gets some percentage of any future book sales...

I'd wanted to go to Petra in Jordan ever since I first saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as a kid, and then found out that the magnificent structure at the end was a real place. Funnily enough, many of the people I've met who've been there had the same inspiration. Jez and I, along with our friend Emma went to Jordan on holiday from Bangladesh and I was giddy with excitement at the thought of seeing the Treasury building (the one from the movie). After we'd bought our tickets, a bus load of ageing European or American tourists pulled up in matching white caps. We took one look at them and rushed towards the Siq, the long rocky corridor that leads to the Treasury, not wanting our first view to be masked by all the white caps. As we came around the last corner and got our first glimpse of the Treasury, through a narrow opening at the end of the Siq, my heart skipped a beat. It was absolutely stunning.

After admiring the view for quite some time, and throwing off attempts from the Bedouins to check out their merchandise, we headed off through the ancient city and started the ascent to the Monastery. Side note: have you ever noticed how so many wonderful places sit atop hundreds of steps? It was a long trek up, I think over 400 steps, and the summer heat was almost unbearable. But we made it in the end, and the Monastery was quite a sight to behold. While not as ornate as the Treasury, it was much, much larger. And there stood this donkey, perhaps taking a breather in between lugging unfit tourists up and down those 400 steps.

The Story of Mangy

I hadn’t planned on telling the story of Mangy so early on, but in light of recent events, I thought I should share a success story. When I moved to the Philippines I was very lucky as a staff house had just been established; my colleagues had spent previous months (and in some cases years) holed up in a nearby hotel. I’m not entirely sure how the cat family came to be part of the household, if they came with the house or just smelled the food, but Grandma, Mum and the kitten soon became part of daily life. Grandma and Mum were named for obvious reasons, but it took a little while to decide on a name for the kitten: Mangy. She was a pathetic looking thing, I was initially scared to go anywhere near her because she looked so terrible. But sure enough, I caved in, and would spend a lot of time curled up on the couch outside on the patio with Mangy curled up beside me. I started giving the cats milk every morning, and my leftover dinner every night. Soon enough, it became clear that Grandma was pregnant again, and then there were another three tiny kitties to admire. Well, as is the way of life, two of the kittens didn’t survive very long, which was very sad indeed…particularly as I found one of them one lunch time. Throughout all of this upheaval, Mangy became more and more outgoing and interested in the world around her, and became stronger and healthier and much less ugly.

Mangy is one of my happiest success stories...I don't know where she is now, but I hope she's thriving.

Nibbles

Squirrels are adorable. We don’t have them in Australia, and it wasn’t until I first went to England that I saw them bouncing around Hyde Park. This though, is an American squirrel. I was there in early November and think I experienced some unseasonably warmish weather in Washington D.C. I’d spent the day wandering around the monuments of the city, marveling at how they were all free, and soaking up the sun. It was getting later in the afternoon as I strolled along the reflection pool (swallowing the temptation to yell “run Forrest run”) towards the statue of Abraham Lincoln, and then on to the Vietnam War Memorial. It was as I was making my way towards that long black wall, with thousands of names etched into it that I heard some noises in the trees. Sure enough, there was this squirrel, happily gorging itself on the bright red berries. He wasn’t the first squirrel I’d seen on the trip so far, but was extremely endearing.

Bathing Buffalo

Water buffalo are a precious commodity in Mindanao, the largest island in the southern Philippines (and the 19th largest island in the world). Buffalo can plough land, drag heavy loads, and produce milk. So, people take care of their buffalo. The west coast of Mindanao has been plagued by a long running conflict for many years now. I worked there for a few months and was lucky enough, even in an insecure environment, to be able to see a lot of the area while observing food distributions.

The area on the opposite side of this river was experiencing shelling on the day this photo was taken; we could hear mortars exploding in the distance, probably only a few kilometres away. We were conducting an assessment on food needs for people who had left their homes on the other side of the river the week before, and were now living in makeshift shelters, with bamboo frames and walls made of sarongs or old rice bags. We could tell these people had already been displaced by fighting before, as many of them already had rice bags marked with the logo of the agency I was working for. I heard stories of people who'd been forced to leave with only the clothes on their backs, and perhaps some cooking utensils if they were lucky. A number of women told me that their husbands had returned to their homes to try and save the livestock, and they were worried that they wouldn't make it back to safety.

This man had managed to bring his buffalo with him, and it was obvious how precious they were to him as I watched him brush the water off their backs after their bath.

Flat Out

It can get quite hot in Bangladesh. I lived in Chittagong, located in the south east of Bangladesh for a year. My housemate and I went with a friend on a boat trip down to Rangamati, part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, which has suffered from sporadic fighting in recent history, along with a rat plague every fifty years or so. We didn't actually get as far as Rangamati, as special permits are required to enter the area, and the border police stopped the boat.

It was February at the time of this photograph, which was the end of winter. I remember it being quite warm in the middle of the day, and our friend jumping in the river (complete with his BYO life jacket) for a swim, but that it cooled down dramatically in the afternoon and that I wrapped my thin orna (a scarf) around me in a futile attempt to block out the breeze.

This dog must have spent the whole day running up and down the river bank, enjoying the sunshine, which as we all can imagine would get pretty tiring. So what better place to have a nap, than a dug out little spot in the mud in the shade, complete with headrest.

Horsing around

Kolkata, or Calcutta as it was formerly known, in India is most commonly thought of in relation to Mother Teresa, and ergo, poverty. I went there for a long weekend while I was living in Bangladesh, and to me, the poverty wasn’t as apparent as it was in the city I was living in. I actually found Kolkata to be a little piece of paradise – I could easily order a beer, and have bacon for breakfast. If people didn’t speak English, I could use the Bangla I’d been learning to get around, winning favours along the way. My first taste of India wasn't one of being overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and smells as it is for many tourists, but one of comparison and a feeling of slight superiority that I wasn't so overwhelmed.

It was during a stroll on the first morning that my friend and I stumbled across this horse. While you can see a motorbike and a truck in the background, that doesn’t truly represent how busy this road was. Cities in India are busy, noisy, places. There are buses and trucks and motorbikes and autorickshaws, and in Kolkata, the fabulous old yellow Ambassador cabs. And there, amongst it all stood this horse - no reins, no rope, nothing to bind it to any one or any place – fast asleep.

Babushka Roos

Being Australian, I tend to forget just how odd some of our native animals are. In the past couple of weeks I've been asked twice what a marsupial is - the best example being a kangaroo - with the answer being an animal that raises its young in a pouch. I grew up not far from a wildlife reserve where you could buy bags of puffed oats to feed the kangaroos. This was always the highlight of any trip to the sanctuary, to try to get up close to the joeys without angering the mothers. When I lived in Canberra, early morning drives to the airport were met with trepidation, as kangaroos could hop across the road at any given moment. A kangaroo hitting your windscreen would cause about the same level of damage as a small deer or elk for those northern hemispherites reading.

I've never been a huge camper, but did go to a few lovely campsites in recent years and had up close and personal views of other native fauna including goannas and wombats. At Merry Beach in New South Wales, there were lots of kangaroos hanging around the camp grounds and this family of three arranged themselves like a Babushka doll near the tent, which was a nice surprise to zip open the tent to find.

Cluck and Whistle

This is one of my favourite travel tails. I was at the famed Machu Pichhu in Peru and had hiked up to the Sun Gate which has a magnificent view over the ruined city. It was a long walk up there, and after taking in the view for some time, I started my descent. I was about half way down when something jumped out of the bushes on my left and raced across the track in front of me. Something red, something with a fluffy tail and a long nose. At first I thought it was a fox. Then I thought perhaps I shouldn't stand around in case it jumped out and bit me, as a course of rabies treatment wasn't an attractive prospect.

Then I heard a sound - a sort of clucking then whistling. I imitated it, feeling pretty sure that foxes don't cluck and whistle. I waited. And waited some more. And then...a little head poked out between two stems of bamboo. It was the most precious little face, with a long nose and big eyes that were looking right at me. In a split second, it jumped out just as the first one had and ran across the track. I got a better look at its body - red and brown on the face and body, with the same colours in a stripey, bushy tail, about the size of a normal to small house cat. I settled down on a nearby rock to wait for more, and I was rewarded for my patience. There must have been another five who came out nervously, stopped to look me over, then jumped the trail.

Eventually, I continued down the track - going down almost as hard as going up - and when I reached the bottom and looked out over the city again, I spotted a lonely tour guide. I showed him the photo and asked him what it was. He said the name in Spanish too quickly for me to catch, but said it was a native raccoon-type animal. He also said that I was very lucky to see one, and couldn't believe it when I said I'd seen seven. After much internet searching, it turned out that it was actually a type of coati (though I'm sure that's not what the guide had called it), a creature I would meet again in Argentina for another memorable travel tail. For a long time I thought it was something completely different, but the power of Google has proven it so.

Those minutes that I spent perched on a rock waiting for more critters to appear, were some of the happiest I had in Peru.

Flight of the Flamingo

At 4125 metres above sea level, in a place called Laguna Hedidonda in Bolivia, there are thousands upon thousands of flamingos. During mating season, this number can rise to over fifty thousand, which I imagine would look like a shocking sea of pink. I didn't see fifty thousand, but I watched in awe at the strange grace of these gangly birds; all necks and legs. The flamingos spend their days hanging out in lagoons filled with borax, that's the white stuff, which we more commonly find in cleaning products (and which I've long said coats the water pipes in Brisbane causing the water to taste funny!). We've all heard the saying "as happy as a pig in mud" (evidence of which will be presented here at a later stage), but watching these birds led me to coin the phrase "as happy as a flamingo in borax"...go on, use it in conversation today!

Where it all began

I met this wise old dog at the Swayambhunath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. There must be hundreds of steps to reach the top of the hill (apparently 365 according to Wikipedia) which are lined with little stalls selling jewellery and knick knacks. Otherwise known as the Monkey Temple for good reason, little monkeys dart in and out and around.

After reaching the top of the hill, and doing my best to avoid all the hawkers, I saw this dog; so calm and serene among the madness. He stayed in this position for as long as I watched him, until I was disturbed by a man wanting to realign my chakras. This old dog has inspired me to seek out other animals on my travels, and I wish I could give him a scratch on the belly in thanks.

Travel Tails

Two of my favourite things in life are travel and animals, particularly cute, fuzzy animals, but also the strange, weird and downright ugly animals I've met throughout my travels. The idea of "Travel Tails" belongs to my Mum, and one day, I hope to turn these photographs and stories into a book. A such, please do not reproduce any photographs contained on this site without my written permission.

I'm not a professional photographer, and none of these photos were staged, they are simply the animals I found along my way. I hope you'll enjoy reading about these animals as much as I enjoyed the adventures that surrounded them.