Wednesday, August 03, 2005

The passenger

everyone needs a shoulder to lean onHave you ever felt a tree frog on your skin? It's a lovely sensation, I assure you. It's cool and soft to the touch. This little fellow jumped on our longboat for a ride -- it eventually jumped on my legs, and proceeded to jump on my shoulder, where it stayed quite happily for a couple of hours!

When we stopped at a river bank for lunch, it hopped back on the boat, where it eventually disappeared. I had thought that it had swam away for when we started to move once more, it was still missing. Half an hour later, it popped out of nowhere, jumped into the water, and swam towards me! It then settled itself back on my shoulder.

Soon we heard loud excited chatter -- when we turned a river bend, I was so pleased to spot three otters by the riverbank.

I love otters! They are such a joy to watch. Often, you often hear their excited chattering before you see them. This is why I prefer poling downriver as opposed to using the boat engine -- you just see more wildlife that way (later that day, we saw red langurs).

Treefrog watched the entire scene quite dispassionately, I felt. Myself, I was so thrilled to see the otters because they're quite an uncommon sight.

Now, Treefrog was with us for a very long while, and we were rapidly heading downriver where the habitat was getting drier and not so friendly for treefrog-kind. I said aloud, "you know, I think this should be your last stop -- I'm sorry but you can't follow us home".

I felt it shift on my shoulder, and a few seconds later, I heard a *plop!* in the water.

It was his stop after all.

Tree frog once again

4 Comments:

At 2:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I, too, love otters. Here are a couple lousy photos of an otter I spotted, in a far less exotic locale.

 
At 10:53 AM, Blogger Edward said...

Ah, yes. The funky-legged green frog. Go great with mushrooms and shallots.

 
At 11:02 AM, Blogger Cayce said...

Funnily, Darren -- B.C. seems very exotic to me right now. :) Love the "loch ness" photos!

eduardo: !!!!!!!!!

 
At 12:58 PM, Blogger adriene said...

what a lovely story :) the frog must have sensed that u were a good kawan :)
take care,
adriene

 

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