Bees! (Grandpa's Perspective)

Wasps at Nam Nao National Park - August 2017
Introduction:  I am Grandpa.  I was once Daddy, and before that I was Uncle William, then William, then Bill, and way before that I was Billy.  Identity can be confusing, because inside I am just the same old me.  When I am with my Daughter's Family I am Grandpa, Daddy, and William - depending on who is addressing me and my role at the time.  In this story, I will be addressed as Grandpa, which means everyone is who they are from the perspective of the Grandchildren.  So, here I am, Grandpa telling his story about "Wasps at Nam Nao National Park".

We had driven the five, or so, hours up North from Ayutthaya (sp?) to Nam Nao National Park.  Grandpa (65yrs), Grandma (60yrs), Daddy (37yrs), Mommy (34yrs), Eris (10yrs), Meriel (8yrs), Hollis (6yrs), Simeon (4yrs), and CallaOlivia (8 months) all looked forward to the 6 night stay in a jungle cabin.  We had stayed 3 nights in a jungle cabin before at Kao Yai, but this time we really wanted Mommy to get out of the city noises and replace them with the peace that comes with the sounds of the jungle.  

This day we were on one of Daddy's long walks.  Daddy usually chooses a goal and we go for it, and nothing can stop us, except wasps and leeches (another story).  Daddy had decided on two walks, and it Grandpa's duty to follow-up in the rear so tigers and elephants don't eat the Grandchildren.  I do not allow Grandchildren to walk behind me because that is how the wild animals pick off the young and weak - of which I am neither.  I am at my peak in my fierceness, evidenced by how few tigers and elephants show up on my walks.

So, Daddy says we are going to do two walks, the loooooong one first and the short one second.  Of course I had my compass and flashlight in my backpack, along with Pepsi and water, bug repellent, sunscreen, flipflops, extra shorts, longsleeved shirt, extra cellphone batteries, and plenty of double A batteries for my flashlight, just in case we got lost.  I never was a boy scout, but I am prepared.
And here we are on the long walk through the Jungles of Nam Nao where, as usual, the trail comes to a fork.  When we get to these forks, we have a system.  Daddy goes one way and Grandpa goes the other way and then we (hopefully) come back and tell the other what we have found - like if the trail keeps going, or it is an animal trail where tigers and elephants are waiting, or if we indeed have found the correct human trail.  I knew if we stayed on the ridge we could turn around and find our way home.  In this case Daddy goes left and Grandpa goes right, staying on the top of the ridge.  And this time, Daddy had taken (almost) 4 year old Simeon with him, and I/Grandpa had gone ahead with the ones who usually lag behind with me and Grandma, Meriel and Hollis (who I dropped off with Grandma).  10 year old Eris usually takes care of whoever needs her, so in this case she had been with Grandma and Hollis (6yrs), while Meriel (8yrs) was with me.  Mommy had CallaOlivia (Baby-in-Arms) and she always keeps up with Daddy, but in this case she and Grandma and Hollis were waiting at the Fork in the Trail.  Grandma, never wanting to waste time, decided to make an big arrow out of logs to point the way back home.  Now, if she had asked me (which she usually doesn't), I would have told her that this was not necessary because the trail is obvious since we are following the ridge.  But, Grandma made her Log Arrow as Grandpa, Meriel and Eris blazed the trail ahead.  I hear Daddy’s call to me that I am on the right trail as the other one was obviously an animal trail.

 "Whew", I was thinking, "this is indeed a long trail, I wonder when we will turn around?" 
 Now Meriel and Eris were walking behind Grandpa and we were way ahead of the "slowpokes" :)  and we were making really good time.  Of course I was looking out in the distance through the jungle, trying to see tigers and elephants, and I have to admit, while we didn't see any, we certainly smelled some big wild ox and even saw their fresh footprints.  And then we would also see occasional footprints of the deer as well - but no elephants.  I honestly did not expect to see any tigers, but the Visitor Center did have impressions of Tiger Footprints, and a clear plastic box of Tiger Poo, so one never knows.  So I was seriously looking for elephants, wild ox, and maybe even a silly monkey (we knew how to deal with monkey attacks by throwing one peanut-butter and jelly sandwich to the pack of them and letting the fight over it as we ran away).

So, here we are, just happily minding our own business, with me up front and Meriel right behind, and she and Eris just chattering away, when all of a sudden, there was screaming behind me!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I turned to see Eris running back on the trail and Meriel running towards me.  I turned from Billy the explorer to the fierce Grandpa in action.  Somehow I threw off my pack, ripping out the longsleeved shirt, throwing off my hat, and was beating the wasps off of Meriel with my shirt.  Yes, my Granddaughter was being attacked by wild beasts!!!  And I was attacking them ferociously. 
At this time we were about 30 feet from the hive and the wasps were just swarming all around us, but somehow we were making real headway as we moved even further from the nest and the wasps were not resisting being knocked away.  I felt a sting in my right shoulder and awaited more when all of a sudden they were gone and I had a crying little girl who I examined carefully and found free of wasps.  Daddy then came and swept her into his arms and took her back to the main group.  Hmmmm …  Well, I was wondering what would turn us around from that loooooong walk.

I carefully recovered my backpack which was close to the swarming nest, but they didn’t seem interested in chasing or stinging me, but they were still swarming all around me.  I couldn’t find my hat and I determined that I was not going to leave without it.  Meriel’s camera was right in the middle of the swarming nest and so I started looking for a long bamboo stalk to pick it up by its strap.  Daddy showed up then and told me that he had grabbed my hat when he picked up Meriel.  It was obvious that everyone was doing OK in Mommy and Grandma’s arms, so the two of us found a long bamboo stalk and recovered her camera.  We amazingly didn’t get stung and the wasps were not at all interested in the camera.  We took a good look at the swarming nest and saw that it was about a foot off the ground on a small cutoff stub of a tree on the edge of the trail.  A human trailmaker had obviously cut the small tree off and unfortunately for everyone, including the poor wasps, the wasps decided it was a great place for a nest.  I kinda wanted to get out my camera and get a good picture, but I kinda did not want to get stung anymore, so we just took a good look and left the wasps alone.
So now Daddy and Grandpa had returned to the Group for our hike back, but we found the Group in disarray because Eris and Hollis had ran off back down the trail.  Grandma had called after them to stop, but the wild animal instinct in them was so great that they had just run and run and run.  So Daddy ran after them, frantically calling their names, “Eris !!!  Hollis !!!!  Eris !!! Hollis !!!”  Grandpa was calculating how long it would take to get a search party out.  I remembered all of the Search and Rescue gear at the Ranger Station, and saw all of the soldiers there in their gear for the Celebration of the Queen of Thailand Birthday, so I knew that, if we didn’t find them soon, the soldiers would be swarming the jungle in no time.  Grandpa, Grandma, Mommy (with CallaOlivia), Meriel, and Simeon were walking back when we came to Grandma’s “Arrow in the Trail”.  Mommy remarked how bad Eris’ sense of direction was, but that she was glad that she was with Hollis because 6 year old Hollis has an excellent sense of directions.  Grandma remarked that hopefully they had remembered her arrow and followed it.  

Mommy couldn’t just abandon her children to the fates, so she and CallaOlivia took off, leaving Grandma, Grandpa, Meriel, and Simeon following behind, as we heard the distancing cries,  “Eris !!! Hollis !!! Eris !!! Hollis !!!”  We listened carefully for the girls answer back, but heard only forlorn silence.  We had hoped the girls’ wild instincts had not sent them running down some animal trail off into the jungle, but hoped and prayed that they had found and stayed on the main trail.  We also kept, in our hearts, that they would wait, about a kilometer away, at the top of the Falls for us.  Somewhere along the long trek we heard the girls voices joined with their parents and relief flooded Grandma and Grandpa.  

We found Daddy and Mommy (and CallaOlivia) sitting with Eris and Hollis on the top of the Waterfalls.  Eris’ swollen foot was soaking in the cool water.  She had been stung once.  Turns out that she had run away from the wasps and told Daddy, “BEES!!!!” and Daddy had told her to “RUN !!!”, so Eris ran, grabbing Hollis along the way, and ran down the jungle mountain.  Grandma had called out after her, but Eris held true to Daddy’s imperative, “RUN !!!”  When Eris came to Grandma’s Arrow, she followed it faithfully.  Grandpa just chuckled when he heard this as Grandma beamed proudly.  So we gathered ourselves and we prayed together thanking the Lord for safely bringing us back together and then we walked down to the place which indicated, “Short Walk and Loooooong Walk” and we took the short walk to the base of the falls and we all went a splashing in the beautiful tropical falls pouring itself into the refreshing pool.   We found some Thai young people there as well and they played in the water and gave us their beautiful smiles as well.

Did I mention that I had put my swimsuit into my backpack?  Well, Mommy gave me permission and I changed into it and jumped into the water and even splashed a Thai boy with my cupped hands.  Grandpa also decided to tell them, warn them, about the wasp nest and what had happened to Meriel.  So Grandpa skillfully re-enacted the whole scene to them as his family just laughed and shook their heads.  Grandpa was very sure that they understood his sign language, especially the part with the wasp wings buzzing around.  I mean, doesn’t everyone understand flapping hands held about shoulder height as the wings of insects?  Grandpa could hardly wait to tell them, at the Ranger Station, about the wasp nest.