Anything for a little manufactured suspense! And by the time Mark could get the warning out of his mouth, Genie would be (literally) eaten… or at least taken under with a dramatic body roll…

But this is the Trailverse, where laws of time and space sometimes take a back seat to expedience…

This appears to be the (aptly named) Mugger Crocodile...

OK, I’ll say it. Those eyes. Or lack of… I mean, what’s the deal, here, James Allen? I get that these local folks, but really? You might be willing to give them some eyes with which to see…

…not if they see you first! Haha!

“Spring Water?” Uhmmm… it’s more like melted snow water, but okay… As Mark calls out to Genie like she’s a furlong away… She’s taking no chances as she heads to the stream with oversized walking staff in hand…

Mark, you passive-aggressive goon… So the Good Doctor has a little hitch in his giddyup, and this is what you want to know about? With Genie? How clumsy.

It’s apparent that Mark is still not very happy about his assignment…

…with Dr. Camel huffing and puffing along, Mark gets in a good smirk.

I will say this, though… Mark has new facial expressions now.  I don’t think I have seen that on before…

Riveting, I tell you!  imply riveting!

While the Yak/Cattle Hybrid (Dzo is much easier to say…) looks on, Dr. Camel has grabbed the tiller and called curfew!  As usual, it’s a regular tent-city, replete with full-height wall tents that magically appear, since there is no way that much canvas could have been stored in the backpacks… Time, space and the laws of physics have no dominion in the Trailverse!

Higher elevations!  Which means we will now get to see what cold-weather gear Mark has brought!

As Mark holds forth using his vast knowledge of hybrid species, Dr. Camel sits gobsmacked at the thought of Genie climbing into her sleeping bag…  err… sack.

What have we learned so far?  That Nepal is largely temperate until one gets to elevation,  Sherpas are still available for hire, the flora and fauna are almost jungle-like, One-horned Rhinos are easily perturbed, Cattle mate with Yak, Mark has but one outfit that he wears every day, and that Dr. Camel is a fraud.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

Why, for the love of all that is Trail, do women launch themselves at Mark and first sign of danger?  Such an old and tired trope…  But there’s Genie, at best an acquaintance, seeking Refuge in Mark’s Pink Chamois Cloth…

Rustle, rustle…  It’s… it’s… The Great Pumpkin rising through the Pumpkin Patch?  Monty Python’s Flying Circus?  Nope.  Just an old bovine wandering around at night…

As Mingma starts to spin the yarn that his Grandfather taught him… that keeps all the Seekers seeking… Mark continues to display skepticism, if not utter contempt for the whole thing…

I am happy that Pemba is back in the picture.  I was afraid we were already down one Sherpa…

Really?  NOT Amazing, Dr. Camel.  For those of you curious, a Dzo (pronounce Zhou) is a hybrid between the yak and domestic cattle. The word dzo technically refers to a male hybrid, while a female is known as a dzomo or zhom. In Mongolian it is called khainag.

That’s right everyone!  Stay calm!  And Genie!  You don’t have to tear your top off, although that would make for interesting Trail-jinx…

Thank you Mark, by process of elimination, we now know that it’s Pemba that seems to be out of the picture…

How in the heck did Mark know one from the other?  Are they wearing name badges?  And if it’s your grandfather’s tale of “The Snowman” the creature must well over 100 years old by now…  I guess what really blows a hole in the ‘whole Yeti thing’ is the fact that no one has ever found any remains…  I mean, what, are they given to interring their dead with great care?  Leave no trace, as it were?  We have been stumbling on the bones of our evolutionary ancestors for generations now… and Nary a Bumble!!

What the heck are those in the foreground?  I sure can’t find anything…

Why in the Trailverse do we always have to pitch camp in the broad daylight?  At 27 degrees North Latitude, Num should have a reasonably long twilight, somewhere between Miami and Los Angeles.  Not like on the equator where the sun literally falls into the sea with an alarming speed, experiencing first hand how fast the Earth is spinning…

Meanwhile, it appears that we might be down a Sherpa?

Dr. Camel returns from the Sherpa Union Hall with Mingma and Pemba in tow…

Sherpa and Bearer?  All in one?  Are there credentials?  Do they get the red hoodie as part of the deal?  And how well will they be treated?  Western Civilization has long “used” the local population in Nepal to achieve their greater glory, and while Sir Edmund Hillary made a special effort to share the light with Tenzing Norgay, the history and story of the Nepalese Sherpa is darker than that…

Num to Seduwa   It’s a thing.  On Trip Advisor…  Brought to you by Himalaya Treks.  Might be a little crowded where they are going…

With The Fraud off returning Elephants, Mark has the opportunity to interrogate Genie…

10 years, huh?  Hard to distinguish age in the Trailverse… Mark seems to be stuck somewhere in his early thirties… and I suppose so is Genie.  Which puts her in one of Dr. Camel’s classes, sort of like Professor Indiana Jones and his admiring throng...

OK, let’s start with the premise that it’s broad daylight…

…and the fact that bats, vampire or otherwise, are nocturnal creatures… why would they be swarming now?  Also, so-called vampire bats are tiny… about 3 inches in length.  Dr. Camel, you are nothing but a showman, a  huckster. The fact that people have this thing called google allows them to fact-heck your ass!

Do you have to return the elephants with a full tank?  Or did you pre-pay upon picking them up?  And how exactly does one “get” a Sherpa?  Talk about working for peanuts!  <HA HAW> And how high are you planning to go in search of Squatch?  Hey- that would make a great show- Tonight on Animal Planet, “In Search of Squatch!”  Has a nice alliterative feel to it…  and it seems that we already have the opening song… and oops, seems that Leonard Nimoy beat me to it…

Work for Peanuts!  HA-HAW!  That is such a creepy laugh!!

Even from a distance one can see the look on Genie’s face… As if to say, WTF?  What did I do or who did I piss off to deserve this lot in life…  Riding an elephant being driven by a lunatic?

Good thing they came upon the elephants- no way their Land Rover could have forded that river!!

Meanwhile, Mark’s entire lower body appears to have disappeared inside the elephant’s neck.  He’s becoming one with Nature!  Ahhhhh!

Mark is doing a mighty fine job of getting under Dr. Camel’s skin… by now it’s obvious he’s doing it on purpose, given that it seems very easy to set the guy off…

And why didn’t Genie get a ride of her own?  There always seem to be cues, subtle or explicit, that remind the reader where women stand in the Trailverse…  always the underling, always the assistant.  I recall one time (pre-blog) when a woman played a crooked, money grubbing, nature-be-damned CEO… and of course she had her reckoning with the obvious and eventual outcome of that story line…  but not in recent memory.  Every woman has been positioned as subservient to the male dominated world.  Huh.

This is too easy…

Dr. Camel will brook no negativity from anyone… certainly not his assistant…

Exploitation?  Really?  These are working animals, Mark… would you consider any animal powered conveyance to be exploitative?  Elephants have been partnering with mankind for millennia.  I guess I underestimate just how “woke” this strip has become…

Are we going to be doing an impression of Hannibal?

The Good Doctor seems awfully confident in the face of despair…

Thanks, Mark for pointing out all the features to today’s installment, just in case someone is joining the story at this particular moment…  And it’s nice to see Genie again, serving to register a look of concern in order to heighten the level of angst…

Well, of course you do!  It beats standing around and gnashing your teeth, wondering what the next move will be…  As they are still in a temperate zone along the Indian border at least we won’t have to worry about hypothermia…  just boredom.

Oh Mark, you are so droll…

…that’s “Greater One-Horned Rhino” to you, Nature Boy…

Once again, we find ourselves not quite knowing where the story will go, but we have the first of what will be a handful of plot twists, not designed to spark wonder or intrigue, but useful in dragging out an otherwise tepid storyline.  Guessing too that the American Automobile Association doesn’t cover this area…  Whatever are they to do??

…that wherever Trail goes, trouble follows!

By the way, who is driving the SUV?  Looking back, I now see that it’s Dr. Camel that has his hands on the wheel, not that he is to blame in this situation…  But good heavens, this is more than a simple blow out…  Axle, tie rods, strut, everything has come unstowed on this vehicle… without much in the way of a back-up.  Don’t these trips usually involve a caravan of sorts?  Well, perhaps they have a way to communicate… if Camel is all he says he is on social media, then they shouldn’t have to wait terribly long for someone or something to come to their aid.  Perhaps one of the thousands of couch-riding “slackers” will hop-to!  Maybe SIRI is listening and they will suddenly be overwhelmed by offers of alignment services!

OK, we’re back… with Dr. Camel Schooling Mark on the Internet, Social Media and the banal nature of “ordinary” people’s lives…

OK, what is that thing, now flying on their starboard side?  Why it’s the Great/ Giant Hornbill!  Brilliant!

But back to the story…

Mark, it seems, does not agree with Dr. Camel’s assessment, despite his own run-ins with humanity.  The people Mark deals with are generally active and nefarious creatures, looking to scam someone or something…

Hey!  Wait a minute!  I just got back from the beach…  The Florida Gulf Coast to be exact, where we paddled amongst the Alligators, Manatees and Anhinga!  Let’s hope the Greater One-Horned Rhino, waiting around the bend, gives them a little excitement!