It rained hard in Hanoi on Thursday night so we weren’t surprised – disappointed but not surprised – when it was raining this morning. We packed some essentials in our day packs and a laundry bag and left our luggage at Lucky 2. Kxuyen, our guide, and a driver picked us up around eight for the 3 ½ hour drive to Cuc Phuong National Park. The rice paddies were filled to overflowing and light showers alternated with heavy downpours.
As we neared the park we were optimistic about the weather; it seemed to be getting brighter. We joined six others for a visit to the adjacent Endangered Primate Rescue Center, home to 100 or so rare or endangered monkeys, mostly langurs, lorises, and gibbons, all of which come in a variety of flavors. They were all new to us. They have either been confiscated from the illegal pet trade or bred in captivity. Whenever possible they are released into their native environments or semi-wild protected areas. The center was obviously designed with the monkeys, not tourists, in mind. It isn’t very conducive to photographs and the brick trails were as slick as ice but it was interesting to see some new species. Maybe we will see some in the wild later on.
We selected Cuc Phuong so we could do some birding and we hoped to stay in the park center rather than in the lodging at the entrance. The other groups turned back when their small Toyota taxis encountered the flooded jungle roads but we had a high-clearance 4WD Ford and forged on. But when we reached the park center we were advised to around or we could be stranded for several days. It was good advice since the streams had overflowed their banks even more in only half an hour. We were the only guests at the park entrance, the others having retreated all the way to Ninh Binh.
With the heavy downpours hiking was out of the question and fogged up lenses would have made birding difficult even if the birds hadn’t been taking shelter. Connie still managed to find 6 or 8 new species including the crimson sunbird.
