Chitwan national park, Nepal

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Driving the Elephant

Royal Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal, is home to an impressive array of wildlife. Birds, deer and boar are joined by tigers, rhinos, bears and crocodiles and seeing it all from the comfort of an elephant is pretty exhilarating. My resort was quite simply the most amazingly comfortable and luxurious place in the World. In reality, it was probably just “very good”, but after several weeks of eating only Dhal Bhaat every day and a cold dribble of water for a shower, I was suitably impressed. With the promise of exciting jungle safaris and wild animals then, I promptly had a HOT SHOWER! This memorable event taking place a full 51 days after my last. Immensely pleased then, I soon met the rest of the guests at the resort - namely Roger and Jean from Plymouth… My motorbike escapade through the road blocks it seems, was the only successful attempt by any guest to actually get to the resort. This then resulted in a rather surreal few days as Roger and Jean made their escape the next morning, thus leaving me as the only guest for the rest of my stay, in peak season!

Whilst perhaps a little lonely, I did get waited on hand and foot by 25 staff, I got to chat to the guides all day every day, and I got exclusive use of a Jeep, 2 canoes and 2 elephants. I quickly finished all the planned activities, and with no-one else to distract the guides, got to do them all again! By my last day, my stay was taking on the feel of a full scale expedition as I canoed down the river with 3 guides, a Jeep driver, and 2 chefs!

I enjoyed 2 elephant safaris, and as the only passenger, got to sit behind her ears and drive us home on both occasions. Learning Hindi for “Go” and “Stop” didn’t prove too difficult, and left and right consisted of an appropriately placed smack with a stick (painless apparently!). I was relieved however, to find the elephant appeared to have some sort of automatic reverse which proved useful on a couple of occasions. Jeep safaris then took me past rhino, whilst canoe trips took me a little too close to many a grumpy looking crocodile. I saw only a caged Bengal Tiger, who unfortunately had developed a taste for people so now spent her days behind flimsy looking planks of wood whilst her bait peered nervously through the gaps, trying to get a photo whilst shaking considerably.

My impressively knowledgeable guide Ghopal led me throughout, and also took me on perhaps a dubious “jungle walk”. Leaving the resort he picked up a large stick - “In case we meet rhino” he grinned. Again, I was nervous. “If rhino charges you must run quickly and zig zag” he continued. “It is dangerous, but you know, jungle is jungle” and off he walked. I followed, very closely. Soon we came across something large and white on the ground. “Cattle skull, Tiger kill!” shouted Ghopal. Suddenly I forgot all about the rhinos. We walked on but the rhino remained elusive. “We will go to watering hole, very dangerous” decided Ghopal. So we did, but again found no rhinos. “Please, hold the stick, I need toilet” announced Ghopal, and ran off into the undergrowth. So there I stood, alone in the jungle, by a watering hole, next to enormous rhino footprints as night was drawing in. “At least I have the big stick” I thought. Soon Ghopal returned and we made our way home, our quest unsuccessful. On the walk back I asked him what would be more dangerous, an encounter with a rhino, or a tiger. “Hmmm, they are both dangerous” he replied, “but not the most… that is sloth bear. If we meet him it is always big trouble…”. “Jungle is jungle” I thought.

Canoe Sunset

Lother

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