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Published: March 26th 2011
Our riverside campsite.
This is where we camped on the first night of rafting.I have just got back from four adventure filled days, which were amazing, if extremely tiring!!
Last Tuesday we set off early on a bus which would drop us at the starting point for some white water rafting along the Trisuli river on our way to Chitwan in the south of Nepal. We spent Tuesday afternoon rafting, then camped over night on the river beach, and then rafted again for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning. It was really really really fun - I definitely want to do it again one day!! The rapids weren't particularly big or dangerous, but considering that none of us were very experienced, they were big enough. Two people in my boat fell in during one of the rapids and they were absolutely fine - in fact it was more funny than dangerous. Between rapids we were able to jump out of the boats (or get pulled out by the guy in the safety canoe!) and let ourselves get carried along by the currents - it was surprising how fast we went). The water was lovely and cool - very refreshing in the now pretty hot temperatures (while waiting for the rafting to begin I
The view down the river from the campsite.
This was taken the evening we arrived after an afternoon of rafting. was sweating just standing still!)
The camping on the river side was also lovely - the guides made us some excellent food, and it was so peaceful to sit by the huge camp fire on the soft sand and watch the stars and fireflies. I also slept surprisingly well in the tent - the only bad thing was the toilet tent, which was very smelly and full of flies...
Anyway, after finishing the rafting on Wednesday morning we got on a bus that would take us the rest of the way to Chitwan. As we got nearer the temperatures increased noticeably, and the landscape became much flatter and the number of rice fields increased. Horse drawn carts also started to drive by which I haven't seen anywhere else. When we finally arrived, we were pleasantly surprised by the luxury of our lodge!! We had really really soft pillows, and they served us lovely food. It was also quite strange as as we were sitting eating we saw an elephant just walk down the street outside - we soon realised that this was a regular occurance, as the elephants are a big tourist attraction in the area - you can bath
with them and ride them on a safari (I did both - it was great - an amazing experience!)
We did so many activities during the two days we were there - it could have filled at least three days. On the first day after arriving we were taken on a tour of a nearby Tharu village and then went on to visit the elephant breeding centre. Although visiting the village was very interesting I did find it quite odd, as people were still living there so I felt a bit like I was invading their homes - there were children doing homework and women washing clothes. The elephant breeding centre was also not the best experience - I felt really bad for the elephants who were chained by their legs. They looked so sad and bored, and I couldn't help but imagine how different their life would be if they had been living in the wild. That evening we went to a Tharu cultural show to see some of their traditional dances. Some were really amazing (there was a really complex stick dance) and some were just weird (somebody came on dressed on as a peacock and strutted around).
The next day we started off by doing a ride down the river in a dug out canoe, and did some bird watching on the way. Then we did a jungle walk safari (we saw a rhino!!) and bathed with the elephants - all before lunch. After lunch we went on a four hour jeep safari on which we saw a tiger (they're really rare!!), another rhino, lots of deer, and a peacock. It was amazing.
On our final morning, we ended our visit with an elephant back safari, which was an amazing experience - if not the most comfortable! We didn't see so much wildlife - just some deer and wild boar - but it was still something worth doing.
Then we got back on the sweaty bus for the 7 hour journey back to Kathmandu, and arrived completely exhausted!
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Wildlife
All the wildlife you are seeing (and bathing with) there will make Devon animals seem very tame and boring! We don't run to tigers only small stripy cats. Trip sounds wonderful, keep up the blogs, we are enjoying them.