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Published: October 17th 2008
We got a bus from Pokhara to the national park (very hot and very long). We then got a Jeep and boat to the Island Jungle Resort.
The resort was brilliant, lots of wooden lodges nestled in the jungle and on the banks of a river. After settling in, we went on a Jungle walk. We were given a safety briefing first, which was really scary. It went:
Rhino - Hide behind a BIG tree (if possible)/Climb that tree/if no tree run as fast as you can in a zig zag
Tiger - don't run/get in a group and stare it out (not sure about this one)
Sloth Bear (very aggressive and likes eating faces and eyes) - don't run/get in group & shout & clap
We were suitabley scared and for the first 15 minutes, every crack of a twig made us very nervous. The walk was great fun, although unfortunately we didn't see any of the animals above.
After the walk we went back to our lodge, which we shared with 3 spiders, a cockroach and a frog. Before dinner we watched a local Stick Dance, which was pretty good.
Day 2
We got woken up at 5.30 and after some tea, we went on an elephant ride through the jungle - on the hunt for the one horned rhino. It was brillant. The elephant was making up our route - we were going through trees and bushes, and when there was a tree in the way, the driver made the elephant knock it down by stepping on it - it just snapped them like twigs. We got a lot of bugs and branches in our faces.
After breakfast, our second activity of the day was another nature walk and boat trip. Unfortunately still no sight of anything hardcore. We saw a leg of a monkey, a tortoise and a deer. We had a boat ride down the river that was supposed to have crocs in it, but again we didn't see anything. Still good fun though.
By far, one of the highlights of the trip was elephant bathing. The guides brought two elephants down to the river and let us climb all over them. Glenn went first and had to try to stay on the elephant while the driver made the elephant try to shake him off. Think
Chitwan National Park
Jungle walk on the first dayelephant rodeo. Didn't do great first time, but on his second go he stayed on the longest and got a cheer when he eventually came off. I sat on the elephant and it squirted me with water from its trunk, which was awesome.
Before dinner we went for a third jungle walk in an attempt to find a rhino. Still nothing, but this time the walk was more interesting, as we went off the trails a bit.
Day 3
Up at 5.30 again for our fourth and final jungle walk (we decided to try again, instead of going bird watching)
This time the walk was very hardcore - we barely stuck to a trail. We were tracking the rhinos footprints through thick bushes, as it had been spotted about one hour before. We got eaten by a few leeches, but still no rhino. 😞 Our guide tried really hard for us, and tracking the rhino was really good fun.
We then got a bus to the border to start our India adventure. Bye bye Nepal.
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