“Mekong” Mick O’Shea–Where Is He? Just Ask His Mum: Last month, TWC wrote about adventurer Mick O’Shea, who had trekked to the headwaters of the Mekong River and was about to set off in a kayak to try to make the first descent ever of the 3,000 mile “Mother Of Waters,” the twelfth longest river in the world. O’Shea posted a great, fact-filled dispatch on May 7, after he had arrived in the Tibetan headwaters region. The Wetass world waited eagerly for his next report, from the wilds of the river. But, nothing. Mekong Mick had gone offline. Readers wrote in asking where he was. TWC had no idea. But yesterday, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from Mekong Mick’s Mum (say that 10 times fast), who had bet her thrill-seeking son that by the time he was off the river someone, somewhere would have dubbed him “Mekong” Mick (glad to oblige ma’am). Anyhow, I asked Mekong Mick’s Mum–her friends call her Lynley–where her bouncing baby was. And she replied that she had, in fact, just received an update from him, which she was kind enough to forward. Seems Mekong Mick had run into sponsor trouble and had to do some scrambling before he jumped into the Mekong. But he’s finally on the river, after some hair-raising escapades among the yak herders of Tibet. It’s an extremely colorful report (read the whole thing here), which is to be expected if you take an Australian of Irish descent and give him a pen. It picks up Mick’s story as he closes in on the headwaters and features Mick’s, umm, interesting encounter with a massive and vicious mastiff dog, owned by a yak-herder family with whom he spends the night:

“The following morning I discreetly snuck out of the tent to make a nature call. There was really nowhere that was out of sight of the camp so I chose a small hill nearby and began to attend to business. I was 3 quarters done when I heard a dreadful growl and bark. I looked down the hill to see Coujo [as Mick has nick-named the monster] bounding up towards me. Someone had obviously taken him off the chain during the night to look after the yaks that were standing in a large group nearby. Mist exploded from his mouth with each bark . He looked like the meant business and was closing in quick so there was not much time to react. I had time to either pull up my pants or reach for some rocks. I stood up and pelted a fist sized rock towards Coujo as a deterrent and rather than slow him down this seemed to inspire a more rapid attack.

I quickly reached for another rock and with my pants around my ankles flung it at him several seconds before he would have been upon me. It hit him solidly on the left shoulder and he let out a semi bark/yelp and hesitated for a moment before closing into within two meters. I screamed at him as aggressively as I could and faked throwing another rock as he snapped toward my hand. This close range stand off with me screaming and him snapping went on for a further 2 or 3 seconds that seemed like an eternity before I heard a yell from down near the tent. The headman was running up the hill towards me and numerous bodies began emerging from the tent flaps to see what was going on. Coujo looked visibly concerned and backed off a few steps. A couple of seconds later a hail of rocks rained down in the vicinity of Coujo and me as the whole family came to my rescue. Coujo was now in full flight and with him out of my face I reached down to grab some more rocks just in case. It was then that I realized that my parts were still around my ankles and modesty took over from malice as the family looked on in concern. By the time my pants were back up the entire family burst out in laughter and I kind of wished that I could disappear.”

Whew. And Mick thought the Mekong would be dangerous…