Masks and poison ivy (Part 3)

Of course, no exploration of Cave Rock hill is complete without a trip to the “great egg” itself! How about inside the great egg?! We set off to do both– explore the inside of the cave and rest at the top of the cave, enjoying a bird’s-eye-view of the entire school. Sitting on top, one feels the sweet monsoon breeze brushing through every strand of hair and its moisture, getting absorbed through the skin.

We got there at say 7:20 AM and we realised we had competition…monkeys. Now the monkeys of this valley are special. They are all tricksters and daredevils. If you are found walking under a canopy with a fruit in your hands (especially guavas), you can bid your fruit farewell. It is going to get snatched by the smallest one of the troop. If you do put up a fight, you might manage to keep your food, but you will enrol yourself for a couple of rabies vaccinations throughout the following week or two. Similarly, when the monkeys get to your spot first, you better think twice before challenging their occupancy.

We learnt this the hard way. We were aware that a couple of macaques choose to visit the Cave Rock every morning, stretching, jumping through the short neighbouring trees and wrestling on the very edge of the cliff. A family of a female and a couple of her children are always there with occasional visits from the male. We also took a couple of hockey sticks with us (no, we do not encourage animal cruelty, we use the sticks to shoo them away without any physical contact whatsoever).  They were there as expected. We approached, without the hockey sticks first, but they wouldn’t budge. Next one of us tried walking with the hockey stick towards them. This triggered them even more! Normally at our houses at the school, any monkey would be threatened by a stick and would immediately back off. However, we cannot challenge them in the wild. It’s their lair, not ours. The female got extremely defensive, tail raised screeching with anger, showing its small but dangerous teeth, looking us in the eye. She chased us away! Maybe we’ll come back next time when they aren’t there.

This experience really does support the fact that animals do understand spaces. Yes, they do burgle our houses, yes they do “trespass” but they know it. Whether they think it is right or wrong may still remain a mystery. The female monkey may have displayed aggression out of her defensive maternal instincts, thinking we were a threat, although during monkey raids on houses, the smallest of monkeys can be spotted fooling around and their parents couldn’t care less.

We did return a couple of days later, when the monkeys weren’t there. We did enjoy our time on top, looking onto the entire land beneath us. Sitting on Cave Rock feels even higher than standing on top of the summit of the hill, although the summit is at a higher altitude. This, perhaps, is because Cave Rock juts out into the sky whereas the hill becomes less steep and flatter towards the top. Seeing that there’s nothing directly beneath you on three sides makes you feel like you are in a more risky place. Our brains do a good job in associating risk with height.

Lastly, we did attempt to go inside the cave but the entrance of the cave was sealed using rocks. Why was it sealed, we are not entirely sure. Maybe because it was a dangerous place to go because of the many bats that resided inside. We just sat near the entrance, it was a rainy day and the plants looked even prettier catching the pearls of water making the light green and drier look of the area transform into a more vibrant and joyous, damp and dark green feel. Water is the source of life and liveliness after all.