Welcome to Travel Bite 40: The Grand Prize.

Hi Traveler,

Welcome to Travel Bite 40: The Grand Prize.

Khao Yai National Park,Thailand’s third largest, is a three hour drive north of Bangkok.

It’s noted for hornbills, gibbons, and the occasional tiger.

I was looking for wildlife along remote creekside trails, and hoping to see a tiger. 

How stupid!

What would I do if I did see a tiger?

And what would a tiger do if it saw me first?

There was a buzz near the trail. A wasp hovering over a spider and looking for an opening

 to string and paralyze its prey before burying it and then laying an egg on its abdomen. 

What a photo opportunity! I froze, then inched closer. I looked down and was surprised

to see blood pouring out of the eyelets of my running shoes! Lots of blood. LEECHES!

   But I couldn’t move. I had to remain still in order to capture that special moment.

A few years later I wrote a series of rainforest articles for Indias’s nature magazine Siristhi.

The stalking wasp photo was included in one of the articles.

And a year or so after that I learned I had won the Grand Prize in India’s Nature Photography

contest. But I hadn’t entered the contest. Siristhi had entered the photo.

The prize - three nights in Corbett National Park, India’s first national park.

I haven’t collected the prize.

Summer is ending. Schools are open. Where will you be going next?

Have a great week.

Duncan

Duncan Macswain, former cross country coach at Terra Linda High School in San Rafael and science teacher at Redwood High School in Larkspur.

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