Unpredictablility

Of bears. Another early start and a short walk beside a stream to view more damselflies (wings closed at rest) and dragonflies (wings open at rest). This is my fact for the day. It really is impossible to retain everything Luca tells us.

By 9.30 the sun was very hot and the humidity level made it feel like 35 degrees, it was only about 23. So it was quite a relief to done wellies and climb down into the “cave of the cross”. Only a limited number of people are allowed in each year and it is kept as natural as possible so we all carried heavy torches attached to us by a harness. A secondary cave is the bear cave which was full of bear bones indistinguishable from the rocks until you picked them up. We saw a bat, early but driven in by the cooler temperature last night and a couple of tissue moths.

Back to our accommodation for a 3 course lunch, salad, chicken stew and chocolate cake. Fortified we drove to another dense forest area and we were left in our hides from 1.30 to 7pm to watch for bears. I have never done meditation other than a few weak attempts as part of a yoga session, however I am confident that I gave it good go today. I was sharing a hide with S and we did exchange a few written messages from time to time and at 6 I read a bit on my phone, looking up every few seconds to check for bears. There was some logging noise but apparently the bears are well used to this so their non appearance was just bad luck. It was still a good session. Our guide did not accompany us, he said he can’t do it for more than about 15 minutes which made us feel very superior.

There are cyclamen everywhere and flower constantly between June and September, in small outcrops rather than swathes of colour.