A dragon fly can tell a lie on early Dry

The above was a title of the local newspaper (NT Newspaper) at the beginning of the month. It is true that the Dry season is not supposed to have officially arrived before mid-April. But it has been quite beautiful and dry since the beginning of March (to the exception of a couple of flash storms). I have also noticed that the reed beds in the mangroves are starting to lose their bright green wet colours in favour of dry browns. for the locals, one thing is for sure, the en masse arrival of the dragonflies clearly marks the end of the Wet (even if they can tell a lie). The one above was flirting with some others above my fish pond.

See you next time

Bye bye the countryside and see you next time! it is amazing how quickly time flies. I hardly had enough time to reconnect with my native environment that I am already travelling away from home. A brief stop in Paris tonight and I am off to take my nephew along to London tomorrow. I already took him a few times when he was a kid but it is his first time as a teenager. I have not been there myself for a couple of years neither. It is always interesting to rediscover a familiar city through someone else's eyes though.

France profonde

We like to call it 'Deeeeep France' both reluctantly and affectionately. The fact is that having lived here as a teenager has never been easy but I am quite attached to the place and it can be beautiful for a few days in all seasons really. At the moment we are having a late Autumn. The colours are not quite yet this beautiful array of browns, goldens, greens, yellows and reds but when the sun is out there is nothing nicer than enjoying the countryside and its pure air with a digestive walk after a delicious French meal.

Nepenthes Ampullaria

What a day! It was absolutely gorgeous! We left in the morning to Kampung Bako to catch a boat to go the river to Bako National Park. Leaving the jetty we were already graced by the sight of a crocodile. In the park itself we decided to make the 6 kilometers Lintang trail. We are relatively good walkers having walked places like the Cradle Mountains in a record time but I must admit the heat killed us and I personally ended the trail on my knees! But it was very rewarding. Regarding the fauna, we first saw dozens of common macaques and just a few hundred meters into the trail we saw the famous proboscis monkeys with their funny noses which are quite a rare and unique sight. And for the flora, we are not specialists but we obviously encountered some interesting species including many different types of nepenthes. The ones above are the nepenthes ampullaria which are very distcinctive from any other species in the genus and they also probably are the only ones to have moved away carnivory.