Nature Day

If you know me, you know I love God's creations. I feel suffocated without grass, trees, flowers, and even plain dirt. God has blessed me by giving me a yard for most of my life. Even in desert Beersheva, we had a patch of grass and a couple of olive trees. Then in Bangkok, we waited four months before moving into a home because God had promised me a garden.

These last two years, God has given me the grace to live in home without a yard, and it is extremely difficult for me. Not only do we not have a yard, but I have not found a park nearby. We can't just walk a few blocks a way for an evening at the park. Our busy neighborhood peters out into small fields just a couple of kilometers away. But can't just romp around in someone's rice paddies. We have to go into Bangkok or go the nearest National Park, both about 45 minutes away, to run barefoot through the grass.

Though it takes planning and is a whole day event, I decided for our health and sanity, we needed to play outdoors more. So this year, I am building "nature days" into our schedule, about every 2-3 weeks. The first of these days was a trip to Namtok Samlan National Park last Friday. It really does take about the same amount of time to get there as it did to drive to Immanuel Baptist Church every Sunday. As we drove into the park, we rolled down the windows to let in the fresh air. It just smelled so "green" and clean.

The last time we went to this park, we spent the night and we troubled with lots of ants. We had been told it was because they were all on the move for the beginning of rainy season. This time, we still saw many ants but not nearly so many, and they were not so aggressive. We did enjoy plenty of other wildlife. At the beginning of our hike, I walked along with Simeon. The good thing about going Simeon speed is that there is plenty of time to notice details. We spotted a group of bright red long-horned beetles spread over the leaves of neighboring plants. They each had a black oval spot right in the center of their oblong backs. At bit later, we noticed a funny looking spider. I think we've seen one before. These spiny orb weaver spiders appear to be wearing a horned helmet.

The path crossed over a dry creek bed past what would be a waterfall come rainy season then skirted a hill. I heard rustling in the dry leaves on the hillside. I paused, looking carefully for a lizard or a snake. The rustling stopped when I did, and at first I couldn't see anything. When Simeon moved, the creature moved and my eyes opened wide as I discovered hundreds, no thousands of daddy-long-legs moving in a group. At first I thought they were just in a particular plant, then I realized they spread further. As we walked along the path, I continued to hear stirring. It became apparent that the entire hillside was covered with these arachnids. (Technically, daddy-long-legs are not spiders.)

We made it to a large waterfall area where the kids explored by climbing up and down.  At first, Simeon was a bit timid. He is going through a stage where he is often afraid, and he is, unfortunately, a "city-boy." I gave him a few challenges, and he became Adventure Man. We clambered upstream, peering into funnel webs, hopping rocks, and looking for whatever treasure we could find before he decided to join his older sisters. They had found a spot with enough water left for splashing and jumping.

Calla and I played in a shady spot where the ground was fairly level, but then we wanted to see the fun everyone else was having. As we trekked down to the pond, I heard crashing in branches of a nearby tree. As I watched, a snake writhed in the air and hit the ground. I really didn't understand what had happened. I held still for a long moment, then carefully crept to a place where I could see the ground at the base of the tree. The snake was there, holding perfectly still. I never would have noticed him, if I hadn't seen him fall from the tree. He wasn't looking at me and I was through some bushes, so I felt safe enough to watch him; he never moved.

I took Calla down to Philip and the other kids, and we watched them all splash and jump for awhile. When it was time for us to move on, I was curious whether the snake was still there. I figured he was probably long gone, but I crept quietly to the edge of the trees. He was still there, but he was curled around something. At first, I wasn't sure it was really a snake, it looked so like a vine. But then the tail twitched, and I was certain. I still don't really understand why he fell or dropped from the tree or what he was wrapped around. I have some guesses, but I don't know enough about snake behavior and the type of snake to know what he was really up to.

That wasn't the only snake of the day. Not too much further into our hike, I heard some more rustling. The dryness of the plants and leaves on the ground certainly make it easy to hear any movement. I glanced up to see a small snake hopping along the ground as fast as he could. Then he slithered up a tree. He wrapped his tail around the trunk and leaned out toward the trail. We crept to the tree, and he look straight at me. Fortunately, I didn't resemble his prey in any aspect and he didn't feel threatened. He held so still, I had a hard time pointing him out to the rest of the family.

The final exciting creature of the day was spotted when this time I was with the leading group. I carried Calla and stepped quickly on a less dense and smoother trail with Eris and Meriel. Suddenly, a horrible crashing echoed through the jungle. An enormous monitor lizard emerged from trees and rushed across the trail, disappearing on the other side with a tremendous racket and amazing speed. He seemed six feet long without his tail, wider and taller than any lizard I've ever seen. I can't think of anything else it would have been, but it seemed like a small dragon.

Our adventure concluded with eating fruit down by the lake. Since it was a Friday night, some campers were setting up tents. The air began to get cool. We half wished we could spend the night, too, but we were also ready to get home to our comfortable beds. As we drove out of the park with our windows once again open, we each supplied an adjective for the day: active, wonderful, green, great, nice, fun. Night fell quickly, and we drove in silence for a bit, each storing up memories of nature until the next time we escape our concrete jungle.