Snow and Waterfall

 

Two more photos of Shirato Falls at Karuizawa.  

A cold but exhilarating walk along a trail through fresh snow to reach the falls felt rewarding, but I was happy to hop on the bus back to town.  Love Japan - the 12.28 bus arrived at 12.28 and there is a bus on a Sunday, even in a relatively remote location!

Shirato Falls - Waterfall of White Thread

No river feeds into Shirato Falls near Karuizawa, instead they are fed by ground water from the base of the volcanic Mt Asama.  The falls are in two stages, with the top falls being 3m high but in a curve of 70m.  They looked great steaming on winters day, I don't think I have ever visited a waterfall in the snow before.  The falls, their locattion and the walk to them would be spectacular with the lush greenness of summer of the colours of autumn in the surrounding larch trees.

Nachi Falls and Hydrangea

Another photo of Nachi waterfalls. And another photo of hydrangeas. It is Hydrangea season at the moment and their showy bright blooms were a constant in each village we passed through when walking on the Kumano and at Nachisan.

Nachi Falls

There is a shrine at the base of Nachi Falls, that were shown on Monday's blog.  Of course as it is a Shinto shrine there is a tori gate at the entrance and an altar for offerings.  You can also pay money to walk to up to a small platform to experience the peace of the waterfall.

The Money Shot(s)

The Three Storied Pagoda with Nachi waterfall in the background is the famous or most common image used for promotion of the Kumano Kado as a walk.  It looked fantastic- vermillion and green make a great combination.

The pagoda is a 1971 reconstruction - built to commemorate 300 years since the original burnt down.  At 133m Nachi Waterfall is the highest in Japan.

A Sunday Picnic after the Rain

After the rain its time for a picnic.  Several Laos families were enjoying the water at Tad Moon.  Normally when I ride around this area the creeks are dry, but today they were flowing with full force.

By the Waterfall

The Kaeng Nyui waterfall at Vang Vieng was in full flow as it was rainy season.  We all enjoyed swimming in the refreshing pools below the falls.  These two girls didn't go swimming, but enjoyed sitting by the lower cascades and being models!

A Week in the South

Last week school had a break for the boat racing festival.  I was able to join Mark and Jo and some of their friends to visit the southern area of Laos.

We hired a rather unreliable Hyundai Van in Pakse and squeezed in to travel to the Bolavan Plateau and then further south along the Mekong River.  The Bolavan Plateau is an elevated plateau of coffee plantations, jungle and waterfalls.

Our second night was spent at Etu resort next to Tad E-Tu (Tad is the Laos word for waterfall). The waterfall was powerful and magnificent. It was great to be staying there as I was able to visit at daytime, dusk and early morning (not dawn!)

Our group of nine; from left Dave and Terry, (Mark's mates from Canberra), Jo and Mark, Matthew (Jo's cousin who is doing teaching rounds at school) and Heidi (Matthew's partner) the back, and Margaret and David, (US and friends of Jo and Mark's from Jakarta who are now teaching at VIS) front right;enjoying a Beer Laos overlooking the lights and hills of Pakse on our first night away.

Waterfall

This weekend I went on a scooter trip with two friends who teach at the Primary Campus.
We visited Doi Inthanon National Park.
Most of Sunday morning was spent at Mae Ya waterfall.  It was wonderful. We sat under the waterfall just below the tree in the photo and enjoyed the play of light in the flowing water.
The Mae Ya falls are supposed to be the tallest and the most splendid in Thailand.  We thought they were lovely and the many steps of the broad falls would be more spectacular during the wet season.

Elephants at play

I stopped at the waterfall yesterday to see the elephants before heading home.  Another great session of elephant watching.  These two young elephants were having fun playing and pushing against one another.

I have been reading about Asian elephants.
Here is some information that may be of interest.

Asian elephants fall into three types: the grey and pigmented Sri Lankan (Elephas Maximus Maximus), the lighter grey Mainland elephant (Elephas Maximus Indicus) and very light grey Sumatran (Elephas Maximus Sumatranus). Asian elephants are much smaller than African elephants and have smaller ears.  Only males have tusks and some only small tusks or none at all.
Asian elephants have an enormous double-bulged forehead, a trunk with fewer rings, smaller ears and a skull with a 90-degree orientation. Intelligent with a good memory, they are easy to train.

African elephants are relatively safe, with estimated numbers as many as 500,000, whereas there are probably no more than 30,000 Asian elephants left on this planet. One hundred years ago there were about 100,000 Thai elephants. Today there are fewer than 4,000 elephants in the entire kingdom – 2,000 of which are in the wild and 2,000 are domesticated.

Interesting Facts About Elephants

Brain: When compared to its weight the elephant’s brain is relatively small and smaller than a human brain, yet it is the largest of all land mammals. Large areas are devoted to memory and scent. Plenty of curves and notches in the brain indicate high intelligence and a capacity for learning greater than many animals.
Teeth: Elephants have six or seven new sets of four grinding teeth during a lifetime. These teeth are huge by any standard, weighing about 4kg each and are about 30cm long! When the last of these teeth wear out, the elephant will die because it will starve to death. Tusks are an elephant’s incisor teeth, which grow from the upper jaw and become visible when an elephant is 2-5 years old.
Eyes: Elephants have small eyes when compared to their large size, yet they can see things clearly at a considerable distance.
Trunk: The trunk is an incredible organ with multiple uses. There are no bones in the trunk but it contains 40,000 muscle groups (compared to about 60,000 muscle groups in the entire body of a human being). This flexibility enables the elephant to have very sensitive touch, which of course is perfect for painting. The elephant can use its trunk to pick up tiny objects as well as weights up to 100 kg, use it as a pipe for sucking water (an adult can hold 10 litres) and dirt, as a ‘radar’ by blind elephants, for smelling, trumpeting (calling), for throwing things and it is used as a powerful weapon for fighting, to grab a smaller opponent (before stamping on it or stabbing with its tusks). Interestingly, the trunk is not used for drinking, but as a tool for sucking up water and then blowing into the mouth.

Some Things You May Not Have Known About Elephants

• Elephants sweat only at their toenails.
• An Asian elephant has five toes on the front feet and four on the back.
• Asian elephants have ears about 30 x 60cm, one third the size of African elephants.
• Elephants have very advanced listening capabilities and can communicate over vast distances (as far as 4 km in normal conditions) using infrasound, sound waves which humans are incapable of hearing.
• An elephant smells by placing the tip of its trunk inside its mouth after touching an object.
• Elephants can stay afloat for a long time and swim well.
• Elephants can walk or swim under water, using their trunk as a snorkel.
• Elephants have a special pouch in their throat from which they can suck out water with their trunk to use as a cooling spray.
• Elephants live to about 55 to 60 years old, though the oldest known is 82 years.
• Elephants have a prime working age of 25 years and a “retirement” age of about 50.
• Elephants can run up to 20km an hour.
• Elephants cannot walk over 12km per hour.
• Elephants sleep 3-5 hours a night.
• Elephant society is matriarchal, with a senior female as head of the group.
• While females form a close knit bond with each other and their collective offspring, males tend to be nomadic, forming bands with other males that join the female herds only for mating.
• Females become fertile at age 15-16 up to 50 years old.
• Females can give birth to as many as 11-12 calves during their lifetime.
• Male elephants reach puberty at about age 14 years.
• Elephants will mate whenever she is receptive, but she is most often fertile in the hot season and only for a few days.
• Pregnancy lasts 17.5 -24 months, with male infants (21 – 24 months) taking slightly longer than females (17.5 – 23 months).
• A newborn baby elephant weighs 80-100kg and will stand up and be able to walk within two hours.
• A newborn baby may drink more than 10 litres of mother’s milk a day.
• Elephants are pure vegetarians, eating mostly leaves and grasses, but they also love sugar cane, bamboo shoots and ripe fruit, especially bananas and mangoes.
• Elephants drink about 200 litres (90 gallons) of water a day.
• Elephants eat about 250kg of food a day.

A Walk to a Waterfall and Beyond

My Saturday afternoon stroll to a nearby waterfall turned into a saga.
1. The track was unmarked, with many junctions and a few signs written in Thai.
2. I could hear the waterfall, but not see it.
3. I arrived at this spot with a crossing over a creek, but couldn't actually cross. The waterfall was below passing through a rocky chasm.
4. Instead of retracing my steps, I decided to keep walking in the direction of school.
5. As the sun was setting I found a small lake, but no track leading off the main ridge.
6. As the evening darkened the jungle seemed to become denser and more overgrown.
Finally I found a small section of concrete track heading downwards which eventually  lead into the village near school, but I long way from my original starting point.

Back to Blogging - More Elephants

After a late start (how unusual) I spent Sunday morning at the waterfall near school, reading in the shade and then watching the elephants.
Reading in the shade means perching under a grass thatched roof on a rickety bamboo platform above the water's edge.
Only one elephant was there when I arrived, the others were out taking tourists for a ride through the jungle. They returned to be washed in the river by the tourists.  The water was flowing quite quickly but looking at the color of it I'm not sure I would be too keen to jump in.

More Elephants

They were so gorgeous, I thought I would share another elephant photo today.  This time of a family group.  My morning at the waterfall with the elephants has been the highlight of my time in Thailand so far.

Elephants

So excited to see some elephants today.  They were at a resting place and waterfall not far from school.  They come from an elephant farm near school which runs a "Be an elephant owner for a day" program.  I would like to do that one day when I have visitors. I had cycled past the farm yesterday and stopped in. The manager told me they would be at the waterfall most mornings and it was OK to visit and look.
Today I just visited the water hole and watched the elephants and the tourists.  They were great, gentle and gorgeous - the elephants - not the tourists. The baby is about four months old and was very cute.