Beautiful Monkeys/Langurs!

One early morning last week during the walk, our human was lucky to meet a troop of monkeys, probably a family.

These are dusky leaf monkeys, also known as Spectacled Langurs.

The brave one was in front while the others hid behind branches and leaves.

So happy to see them, our human stood still not moving a muscle and only looked up smiling (not grinning broadly for fear that it may be interpreted as a threat).

That brave one came down close to look, so close that our human could touch its long tail; still our human never moved.

It then leaped on to the next tree. One by one the rest of the troop leapt over our human sprinkling leaves, bits of bark and other stuff in the process.

Meeting them made our human's day!

Mirage!

Three people, inclusive of our human, reached the peak. The male hiker brought his wife who hikes occasionally.

After resting a while, his wife pointed and exclaimed, "monitor lizard!"

The man and our human jumped up immediately, turned to look at where her finger was pointed.

The man who has a laid-back character sauntered towards it.

Wanting to snap its photo, our human quickly whispered audibly not to frighten it. The man stopped in his tracks.

Not to spook that creature, our human started to approach cautiously moving sideways like a "crab" trying to hide and blend in with the adjacent tree trunks, ready to flee the second that creature moved.

Monitor lizards can run really fast!

A few minutes passed; it did not move. Our human and friends exchanged perplexed glances.

Decided to find out, our human and male hiker carefully crept towards it. Nearing it and upon realising what it was, both let out hearty laughs. He then told his wife, who was some distance away, that the monitor lizard's body was an exposed tree root above ground and its tail was a broken small branch brought down from the previous day's thunderstorm that fell on the right spot!

His wife laughed; the three laughed heartily together.

PS: This happened on Wednesday morning. It is good that we could laugh at our own silliness and it is better to be safe than sorry, always.

The Throne!

This is at the top of the hill (approximately 440 metres) which our human goes for daily morning walks.
Our human do not know but believed that it was probably assembled by one creative and playfully mischievous hiker.
Anyone care or brave enough to sit on this nature's 'throne'?

Avid Hiker Jack Russell

She started her first hike when she was three months' old; a tiny little thing then and was dot on by many hikers.

Now an adult, with her short muscular legs, she climbs with such ease putting many hikers to shame.

This is one of the many low steep slopes near the start of the hike with higher and steeper slopes as you ascend.

As you can see our little friend here received no help at all while humans grunted clambering up.

Our human has seen many hikers slip and fall here.

Ginger Cat and Black Cat Visitors

Two days ago there was loud feline wailings outside the house. Thinking it was the neighbours' cats fighting, our human decided to check and perhaps break up the fight.
It was between two unfamiliar strays, a completely black cat and a ginger cat outside in front of the gate. They broke up when our human repeatedly told them to 'go home'! 

Both cats had bald patches and injuries on their heads and necks.
The black cat left but not the ginger cat. It jumped up, sat on the parapet and eyed our human. Its eyes looked a bit weird; the left smaller than its right eye was probably injured by previous fights. It sauntered off after a short rest.
Both were not seen since.