Another long winding jungle transect, beautiful though. This was the first time we went through real thickets of forest. About half way through, we stumbled upon a monk's sanctuary. We found out that this young monk, not too much older than I am, was spending about 3 months in the middle of the jungle on his own, meditating.
Jungle Boy of sorts
Further along the trail, we came across a farm. Much like the other people we have passed while trekking over the last 2 weeks, our field guide- Jayathilaka- knew these farmers. Upon recognition they offered Jay free vegetables and some freshly cooked corn for all of us for the road.
Reeve and I got into a small conversation with the farmer's wife. Very roughly and succinctly translated, her words were: “often, one of us has to spend the night in the treehouse on the look out for elephants. We usually light oil lamps which notify elephants of our presence and so they do not venture this way. If the lamps are not a sufficient warning to scare of the elephants, we throw down firecrackers. As a result, we have not had elephants on our land. But if we didn't protect it, we probably would.”
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