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Messi struck again last night. He caused further damage to the kitchen, a shade house but the worst part was the thing that I was most worried about before last night, the big tusker pushed open the doors to one of the bedrooms. Ram was already awake, he's been unable to sleep properly since Messi started causing trouble again.
I was in the machan you can see in the image when Messi sneaked past. I was exhausted from work yesterday dealing with the snarling aggressive rehab leopard plus the humidity made it impossible to sleep before about 1am. Messi arrived about 2.30am and then a whole sequence of events took place. At one stage we found him about 20 metres from Honey Bee Cafe where two boys were asleep in the open. Ram and I had strong torchlight (thank you again Bernd Hirthe, having good equipment is so vital) and Messi didn't like it, he went into thick vegetation nearby. We wanted to make sure he went back into the main jungle area across the river and I was keen to test the tiger audio, but only when the circumstances were right. We quietly, and we thought safely, searched a bamboo grove, it was very still and there was no sign of the huge elephant.
Thinking he had gone we began to make our way back when all of a sudden Messi appeared very close to the machan, the second image is of Messi from a camera very close by. We realized that Messi must have been in or near the bamboo while we were there.
That was very sobering, not fun, Messi was so still and camouflaged he had tricked us.
Again he didn't like our torchlight so he made his way into the darkness. He was so quiet for such a big animal, it was amazing but also just a reminder as to how cunning he is.
The fact he didn't attack underlines his unpredictability. To say it was a game of cat and mouse doesn't work, Messi is massive. It was hide and seek, luckily this time no injury to man or beast but spare a thought for Ram, imagine two huge white tusks breaking open your bedroom door...
