Jackals aren’t exactly the most courageous of the animals of the wild and in particular, I have always thought, perhaps to my detriment that they have a huge respect for humans, including the hominid gang crew. However the crew paid the price the hard way for making this assumption. The first two nights camping out in area 123 to the south of the base camp, were uneventful. The crew had got itself a good camping place and were out working with geologist Dr. Chris Lepre of the University of Columbia in the US.

Jackals had paid the crew a visit on two occasions but they were hanging out in the outskirts of the camp waiting for the night. However after two nights of unsuccessful forays, the poor animals may have got too hungry to wait and the result was chewing of the crews sandals! The jackals seemed to have also got a rather kind heart within themselves because then they collected the sandals pieces and put them together.

the aftermath of one of the sandals after the infamous visit

the store tent after the mess