Jan
10th, 2010 - For the second night in a row we slept on the top
platform of the watchtower near the Katka (Kotka) Forest Department
station. The results were much the same although we did see an
unidentifiable shape move through the twilight of a full moon. Tiger?
Maybe. It could have been a unicorn for all we knew (probably easier
to find one). Had it shown itself again we would have illuminated the
area but it did not return. So one more night in the tower with only
a blissful night’s sleep in our favor. There are worse tragedies.
We
awoke the next morning to discover yet another large group of Bengali
men on a company outing making their way along the trail. Of course
their first stop was the tower. The fact that Alex and I were
still in our sleeping bags and occupying the majority of the space on
the platform did nothing to deter the interlopers from conducting a
morning photo shoot. One of them was so anxious to start
snapping photos that I had to request he give me a moment to put on
my pants before commencing. Even before I’d extricated myself from
the bag the session had begun. They were exceedingly friendly and
kept apologizing profusely for disturbing us, even though we were the
ones hogging all the space on a public viewing tower.
