...too few until this point, that is.

   Dreadful puns aside just a short note to mark the arrival of the harbingers of the dry/cool season - the flock of 600 plus Little Egrets are back.  A handful of Cattle Egrets saw out the wet season with us, though my book gives them both as winter visitors only - our protected grassland and ponds must have given the Cattles cause to stay. 

   It is a little hard to believe in the dry season as massive rains in China have sent the Mekong to her highest level in three years, backing up the Ruak and causing me to go swimming on a number of occasions to save my boat (most enjoyable).  The depth guage at Chiang Saen gave the Mekong a depth of 10.1m on the day I managed to check it - I estimate the Ruak was 5m deep up at the Four Seasons breakfast sala.

   The flood waters are receding but three days of warm sunshine on all that water has given us great fog to keep the epiphites happy each morning and dreadful mobile phone reception.

   The photos (of our elephant grazing field and our boat pier - with the elephant camp boat) were taken 50cm below the waters' peak.