Nature Uncovered - Travel tales

Nature Uncovered- My Dream House

After three weeks in Goa, I wanted to stay longer. The cheaper option was to rent a house rather than a ​hotel. I wanted space and freedom and after days of searching, the choice came down to a beautiful apartment or an old traditional Portuguese, Goan house surrounded by palm trees and garden, with a sandy path leading down to the beach. “Go for the traditional house, they told me. Everyone wants the real Goa experience, they said”. A snap decision was made to take the huge old house with its high-pitched airy beamed roof, making it cooler through the months ahead. I had wanted more nature and beach, so it was perfect. I was up for this new experience!
The first night, a number of geckos congregated around the lights for evening tea, bugs that I had yet to identify swarmed around the huge room. I retreated to my mosquito net. I heard loud rustling noises coming from inside the house, but I daren’t leave the safety of the net to find out what it was. After many nights of imaginary scenarios, I finally gathered the courage to get up and find out. As I watched palm leaves being dragged in through the roof, I discovered that squirrels were nesting above my kitchen sink! Even the toilet wasn’t safe, the resident frog lived there and no matter how many times I danced around with the broom to flick him outside, he was insistent that he liked it there. No fun when you need the bathroom at 2 am! The nights were filled with strange animal calls and sounds of the wild. The rafters were the extension of outside, mice ran across the top, squirrels scurried along the walls. Geckos would often fall from the rafters with a splat and the frogs also dropped in through the airy gaps, making their way to the bathroom.
As I sat on the floor cushions of my traditional Goan dream house, brushing my arms of insects traversing cushion mountain, I was on the edge, nowhere was safe or bug-free, I felt itchy. As mosquitos buzzed around my ears and ants of all sizes went about their organised business, I started to question the comfortability of the dream. As I tucked my net around me, I wondered if my decision was the right one. How was I going to cope for three months? It was true that I had wanted more nature, I recalled as I peered through my netted cage, it was one of the reasons I came here. As I looked around, it was clear that Nature had responded, softly blowing her message through the breeze that cooled the room. “Here I am, she had replied, delivered right inside your home”.