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Indian Rhinoceros
This rare one-horned Indian rhino let us get very close - we were on the back of an elephant when this shot was taken.Our last stop in Nepal was the Royal Chitwan National Park, home to the endangered one horned Indian Rhino and the regal and rarely seen Bengal tiger. The National Park is in the Terai district of Nepal and is believed to be Nepal's third most popular tourist attraction. The reserve preserves 932 square kilometres of sal forest, water marshes and rippling grassland.
We were supposed to stay at a lodge inside the park, but due to a government strike going on we were forced to stay in the nearby village of Sauraha. On arrival at the almost abandoned hotel (tourism is down due to the Maoist activities that continue to go on in the area though we saw no sign of trouble) we settled in before heading out for a brief visit to the Tharu village of Bachauli.
After a brief look at the way the Tharu villagers lived prior to the arrival of the highlanders (the Tharu had Chitwan to themselves for decades because of their natural resistance to malaria) we wandered down to the bank of the Rapti River to watch sunset and have a few drinks.
The next morning we headed into the national park
Roadside Buzz
The "good stuff" grows freely by the side of the road in this part of Nepal...no wonder everyone looks so happy and friendly! where we had our first safari on elephant back - this was quite a unique experience as it allows you to get extremely close to the wildlife as they consider the elephants to be part of their normal environment. We were lucky to see several of the very rare, one horned Indian rhinos, of which there are only 2000 left in the world.
That afternoon we headed back into the park, but this time were in search of tigers in an old Russian army jeep. While we did see one Bengal Tiger, we cheated a bit as it was one that had been captured in the park as it had become a 'man eater' and was terrorizing the nearby villages. Nevertheless, it was a great safari and we were lucky to see a couple more rhinos and a peacock strutting his stuff with full plumage (something I'd never seen before).
Our last venture into the park was in the form of a river safari in a very dodgy looking dugout canoe - this was fine after the first few nervous minutes until about 3/4's through the trip when we spied a very large (6-7 metres) marsh mugger (crocodile)
Elephant Riding
Bathing the elephant in the river was an awesome experience - a bit cold though! sunning itself on a nearby bank - that was a bit scary!!
Then it was back to Sauraha to keep an appointment with an Elephant that needed a bath!! I had the honour of riding a local elephant into the brisk waters of the Rapti River so that he could have his weekly wash. This was a fantastic experience though sitting astride an elephant bareback is a bit like sitting on top of a massive, moving doormat - they are extremely spiky!! After our wash in the river, I got to ride all the way down the main street of town to our hotel - this was a bit nerve wracking as you're many feet above the tarred road surrounded by cars and motorcycles in a pretty unstable position - after making it back in one piece there was just time to get washed and cleaned up myself before heading back to the beguiling city of Kathmandu (which I covered in a previous entry).
That was it for Nepal - next we were off to Thailand to commence our tour of Indo-China!!
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Dad
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Smaller elephants
As you are in Italy writing this account I trust you will discover there were miniature elephants (well documented in fossils) in that part of Europe as well as woolly mammoths. You must be having a full experience enjoying the wine and food in those parts to be so far behind in your travelogue. But your audience can wait. Keep on enjoying yourselves.