Indian Forest

I don't think I have any readers on this blog, but if there are any lurkers, you may have noticed that the last six entries have been old dreams pulled from my archive. The reason for this is that I've been too busy to write them down lately. I've dreamt about a giant moth fluttering at the patio doors, monstrous creatures (including mutant bats and a werewolf with a fleshy sac erupting from its chest) laying siege to my house, and a fair amount of Brighton ambulatory excursions. My latest dream took place in the sweltering forests of India.

The forest seemed more like a British wood, for having never explored a real tropical jungle (at least not in recent memory), my unconscious mind could not paint the appropriate canvas. There were sweaty ferns, swarms of midges and the vastness that one might expect be found in a genuine jungle, but most of the trees and plants were of a variety found closer to home. Whilst I was aware of the presence of exotic animals such as Indian rhinos, Asiatic black bears, and tigers, I did not see any of them. Nonetheless, the thrill of knowing that these exciting and dangerous animals were around kept the hairs on the back of my neck sufficiently tingled. 

I was with a group of people and we were camping out in the jungle, which I'm now tempted to call 'woods'. When darkness fell, we had to rely on our torches for light, and the primal fears began to kick in. The torch battery was only good for brief bursts of light, a few seconds at most, but we had also been instructed to save the battery for another reason, namely that prolonged illumination might attract unwanted predators. With this in mind, I was still eager to explore and see what animals might come out at night, so I went for a walk around camp.

Intermittently flashing the torch upwards towards the tree canopy, I was unsettled to discover that we were surrounded by a huge number of monkeys. The beam did not stay on long enough to discern what species they might be, but they were various, of all shapes and sizes. With some few exceptions, monkeys are by nature diurnal animals, and this is the second time this year I've dreamt about them being active at night. I write 'active', and yet for the most part they simply sat, squatted, hung and perched amongst the branches and vines overhead, albeit ominously. I became very conscious that at any moment I could be hit by a stream of urine, or worse, faecal matter. I returned to camp heavy with fear and foreboding.