The Trick

Another story from December. Enjoy!
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As my previous blog shows, I took many pictures of the setting sun.  In many cases the rising sun was just as stunning. I was just too sleepy to take pictures.  I’m generally not a morning person….

The few pictures I took of the sun rising

One  morning after watching the sunset with the two fishermen (still early in our expedition), we walked to the next lake.  I wasn't used to the hours and the work and drowsily walked with the fishermen.  We walked in single file along a path leading from the community to the lake.  

Me walking slowly and taking pictures from behind the group

After about 15 minutes on the trail, I saw one fisherman pointing up and saying something.  I looked up and tried to spot what he was pointing too, but I couldn't see it.  He kept pointing up and even though I didn’t understand what he was saying I scanned the skies for what he was trying to show me.  He then pointed down, and there lay a 2 m (~6 ft) freshwater crocodile.  My heart skipped a beat and I rushed away from it (I'm glad I was too tired to yelp).  The fishermen all began to laugh and I realized the large gash on the crocodile's head... it was dead.  It had probably snuck up on a villager with a machete the night before.  As I rushed away pale-faced, a fisherman stopped me and told me to take a picture.  

Dead freshwater crocodile that almost gave me a heart attack

When it came up later (and it only came up a FEW times), I told them that the joke almost gave me a heart condition- which they thought was funny.  The jokes continued until the end of our trip.  My shoes were even nicknamed mouths of a crocodile as all the hiking caused the sole to peal from the rest of the shoe (to open like a mouth).  And as we hiked, grass would collect in the "mouth" and my crocodile ate; when we walked through water, it drank.  

To close their "mouths", I had to stich my shoes

All things considered, it was pretty funny...

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