Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25037
sat al'ound waiting for something to happen and readily adlllit that this can be an achinglY banal process, ol}-e that lulls theIll into a Kind ot- nypnotlc "When a Bengal tiger comes," says a Nepalese guide, "the [other] animals will let us know." If a barking deer rants for minutes on end, a tiger is near. The guide knows his stuff so well he makes a few extra rupees by selling cassettes of himself making uncannily accurate animals noises. For two months the painters passed crystal rivers where rare Gangenic dolphins arched through the currents and sloth bears loped by on the banks. Mists drifted off the water. They rock and rolled aboard domesticated Asian elephants. Along the way, they spotted Bardurgaj-one of the area's three known excep tionally large elephants with mutated craniums bigger than that of long-extinct mammoths. Overall, it was a creative, spontaneous time that produced 15 five- by four-foot paintings and 50 drawings. But they couldn't find what the International Trust for Conservation invited them to observe: tigers. They sat around waiting for something to happen and readily admit that this can be an achingly banal process, one that lulls them into a kind of hypnotic state. One day they were particularly annoyed. Their experience with tracking was to go slowly and listen closely but their young Ghurka guide moved at a fierce pace in the sweltering midday sun for five hours. Finally, it was five o'clock and, as Oily complains, they'd "only been going in one direction. Away from camp." They sat by themselves until they heard a chilling roar. Then another, ominously close, so boisterous it was as though they were listening to it through headphones. "So this Ghurka says, 'Tiger'," recounts Oily, "and we're like, 'No shit.'" They walked stealthily through a dry creek bed for about 300 yards. "Then all hell broke loose," says Oily, "The bushes behind us exploded in a loud, deafening roar." 5uzi continues, "We both picked up a rock-as if that would do any good. [But] it turned out they were mating. It was mad dangerous to disturb them. Then, in a flash, they were gone."