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!

We used to be confused as to/ in what time-frame these strips appeared… There would be evidence of newer technology, like cameras with memory cards, alongside cars without seatbelts and head restraints…  Not to mention the “timeless” nature of the clothing and hairstyles…  But just like when Mark had to put down that awful pipe at some point, we are now embracing the internet and social media in a way that has never happened before in the Trailverse.

As for the “Mekong Marauder,” this is a direct ripoff of a River Monsters episode from Animal Planet…  a 2015 episode entitled “The Mekong Mutilator.”  I like this guy, Jeremy Wade.  Just a touch sensational, but at the same time educational…  I’d be a little more careful, James Allen.  This seems to go beyond “Fair Use.”

Funny!  We have seen in past strips how Mark pouts when the trolls go after his articles on line…  I think there is a real world parallel to this…

Whatever that is in the foreground is sure getting a kick out of it!

It’s at this point that my brain starts to glaze over…

…and we settle in for the haul.  But it appears that “The Magazine” still has the resources to foot the bill on extravagant assignments…

Yea, we get it.  Nepal has many different environs… featuring a wide range of fauna… including Bengal tigers.

Better get out your spell checker, James.  That’s ‘Tumlingtar,’ not ‘Tumligtar.’   You are missing an ‘n’ there…

Well played, James Allen.  Getting me to do actual research based on today’s installment…

The Greater One-Horned Rhino is found in Southern Nepal, along the Indian border, likely in the Chitwan National Park.  This means that the plane headed south before turning east to Tumlingtar:

Good thing they are flying…  it’s a good 14 hour drive otherwise.

Clearly, Mark has come prepared… done a bit of Googling before his assignment…

If Mark isn’t careful, he’s going to end up getting tossed… without a parachute!

Mark, lacking any shred of empathy or self-awareness, continues to get under the skin of Dr. camel…

…and is this what we have to look forward to?  Weeks of bickering over whether Yeti exist?

Not to mention the Bumble from the Rankin-Bass Classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!  I mean,  if reindeer can fly, then certainly The Abominable Snowman exists!!

Clearly, judging by the expression on her face, Genie has heard this laugh before, and she knows that it means nothing good…

Num?  It’s a place, all right…  a place where it’s best to bring your Range Rover…

Funny…  The picture from the space station (yesterday must be from the other side… as it made it appear that Makalu was to the west of Everest…  Apparently not…

All these stories start out innocently enough…

How about Mountain Climbing??  Makalu, as seen from the International Space Station…

The fifth highest peak in the world, just to the left of Everest.  Let’s see how high they go…

Ah, Kathmandu…  a mix of the new and the old…  The “transport” arranged by Genie turned out to be a dude on a bicycle rickshaw…  reminiscent of an old Seinfeld episode.   Good Lord, could we even make that show today??

“Ah! We’ve Arrived??” Like you couldn’t see the plane and hanger from (literally) a mile off?

A beard!  I knew it!  Dr. Camel has a beard!  But what self-respecting academic prowling the Northern Steppe would leave home without one?  Of course, Mark has no facial hair and could never sport such a prodigious Jaw-mane…

You can tell by the last scene that Dr. Camel is accustomed to “selling” people on his belief systems…  as this is where he makes his living!  Science?  Pshaw!  It’s a matter of getting people hooked on the possibility of meeting Squatch.  And oh, buy the way… If it’s not Beef Jerky, now it’s Soap…  Who has the rights to this anyway?

Good for you, Mark.  Let’s get some things on the table…

The Indian Army?  One footprint?  Felt?  I can’t even begin to count the number of ways that sentence is flawed.  Science is not based on feelings, for starters.  It’s based on hypotheses (proven or not) and is open to new ideas and credible challenges all the time.  OK, but what choice to be have but to follow Mark and Genie as they are conveyed in a bicycle rickshaw trundling through what appears to be an industrial park?

As with probably most of us , Mark needs to get out of his own head and back yard…

It would seem that Genie is the unofficial spokesperson for Nepal…  Or Kathmandu at least…  Mark is still looking on with distrust in his eyes…  So we get a close up of the lovely Genie putting him in his place.  Remember, Mark has already dismissed Dr. Camel as a crackpot- a Yeti chaser, if you will.  He has his journalist hat on.  He’ll have to be shown the proof!

…the multiple potential strips showing the outside of an airplane with voice bubbles coming out of it…

…and the fact that this is a 3 day journey with multiple stops, Marks looks pretty fresh…

Don’t you mean flights?  With an ‘s’?   Nice pink shirt, Trail.  Love the sign calling for ‘Mark Trail…’  I mean, isn’t he famous?  Wouldn’t anyone recognize him?  Did Mark not know with whom or on what he was going to make a move once he landed in Kathmandu?

Of course there is the cute-as-a-bug Assistant.  She Looks like a ‘Becky’ but I guess we’ll call her ‘Genie.’  Because that’s her name.  And apparently, one gets to Tumlingtar on YETI Airlines!  How Appropriate!

Boy, have we been here before… but I guess even in a world that now can be explored without ever leaving your front porch, walking in the actual footsteps of your quarry still counts for a lot.  Funny word, quarry.  Prey?  Hole in the ground?  You get to pick…

So buck up, Lassie.  There’s no crying in the Tailverse!