Rather than take another elephant ride at dawn I decided to take a nature walk instead. I picked up an endemic to the park area, the Straited Grassbird.Its a real pleasure walking early in the morning here,it's nice and cool and there is lots of bird activity. A large group of tea harvesters were at work in the plantation across from the Lodge so I had the opportunity to watch the way they pick.the tea, they just skim the new growth grabbing a portion of stem and a few leaves.
After breakfast, I joined the German couple for a jeep safari to the northern tip of the park right on the Bhutan Border. There is a small lodge at the border where we had lunch then headed off for a hike across the border into the Royal Manas park of Bhutan. No one minds if you cross for a short time here as the only road access is through India, otherwise its a very long walk to the nearest road in Bhutan. On the way back We stopped at a Fig tree that had plenty of ripe fruit and was just teaming with birds. As it turned dark we spent some time waiting for a couple of elephants to leave the grass and come out into the road. Very little animal activity in the dark tonight, the evening was quite cool. The Assamese were bundled up like winter, even the German's were putting on jackets. They were amazed that I was not cold, story of my life.
