Brazil: Night boat
We set out in the small motorboat after dark to take a look at the animals in and around the river. It’s very cool and still, and in the moonlight, eerie blue reflections of the trees are cast on the water. Our torch catches the twin red glows of caiman eyes, looking our way before quietly slipping under the surface. A family of capybara clusters near the bank, ears twitching and their long, square heads breaking the water like a collection of floating, furry shoe boxes. A herd of white brahmin cattle on the bank peers curiously at the boat, gleaming like pale ghosts. Everything is different in the dark.
Then the guide says he’s heard a jaguar, cuts the engine and turns out the torch. What a weight of silence! No cars, no aeroplanes, no human voices. Just the tiny night sounds of animals moving, breathing and hiding, and our own blood buzzing in our ears. History peels away: we are just Homo sapiens listening in the dark, not breathing, listening for the cat.
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Dark is fun.
Try scuba-diving at night.
Especially when the dive-master turns your torch off, just for a laugh, y'understand.
So you can't even see your bubbles, to determine which way is back up!
That's when it gets primeval.----- Even doing nightwork on the not so mysterious rivers of Sussex can be exciting â no lights, trying to guide the boat by moonlight and the all to bright glow of surrounding towns is pretty cool. Add some grumpy swans (I donât wake up well at 2 am either) bats right in front of your face and the odd pair of bovine eyes on the bank and its pretty memorable stuff.
by Birchscrub @ 01/10/2005 8:10 am • Permalink •
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Mr. D.: Eeek. Not sure that I fancy that much.
Birchscrub: Everything seems different in the dark. I had some really magical night wanderings in Brazil. One night, there were loads of fireflies out, and it looked like strings of fairy lights flying around. Caiman also grunt at night in a way that sounds disturbingly like a big cat, especially when they are very close to you. It made me jump a couple of times.
by bsag @ 01/10/2005 3:10 pm • Permalink •
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I found your blog by accident, and it's the first one I've really bothered to read. What an introduction to that art - surely this is no ordinary blog! Your writing is so clear and vividly descriptive - especially the section this is attached to.
Have you thought of becoming a travel writer? Several very famous ones don't write as well as this!
by Peter A @ 01/10/2005 8:11 pm • Permalink •
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Peter A - shhhh! don't give her ideas..
by ThoughtBadger @ 02/10/2005 5:11 pm • Permalink •
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Peter A.: Thank you! I'm very flattered, but I've got no plans to switch jobs. Having to do something for money would take some of the fun out of it, I think. Being an amateur has its own unique advantages and pleasures.
ThoughtBadger: Don't panic---I'm not going anywhere.
by bsag @ 02/10/2005 6:10 pm • Permalink •
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You are writing very well compared to many professional writers.
Best Wishes.
by Gote Borg @ 17/02/2008 11:07 pm • Permalink •
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'Try scuba-diving at night.'
Did you wave your torch around the plankton in the water flouresces! Gets a big WOW from the student's!
by Roger @ 19/02/2008 11:38 pm • Permalink •
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'Did you wave your torch around the plankton in the water flouresces! Gets a big WOW from the student's!'
Try going into a wreck and both your main and back up torch fails :( v scary!
by Tom @ 23/02/2008 6:54 pm • Permalink •
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