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Published: October 6th 2011
Chitwan National Park – Rhino spotting, elephant riding and being attacked by leaches, just another normal day at the office really.
Although I may have spoken rather negatively about Kathmandu and Pokhara in my last blog my time in Chitwan National Park was a totally different experience. After a 5 hour bus journey from Kathmandu I reached the national park gates and was greeted by my guide in his flame red open back pickup truck. Several of us piled in and we headed to our hotel on some very bumpy dirt tracks. It was a very strange experience because the vast majority of the traffic on the roads inside the national park were that well known automotive brand from back home…… the elephant! It was the most bizarre thing I’ve seen, elephants were almost replacing taxi’s! I would love to see this catch on in Norwich.
Once I reached my hotel there was just enough time for a quick shower then we were off out for the first of our activities. We were heading to a centre where the domestic elephants are trained and cared for. The elephants here are used by the military to patrol the jungle and
once they reach an age where they are no longer capable of being fit for the military they become either general working elephants or “tourist” elephants. It appeared that the elephants were very well cared for and each had its own dedicated trainer who looked out for its every need. Of course they are still a tamed wild animal and many people will not agree with the principle of this but at least they are still in their natural environment on a daily basis and they appeared to be treated very well which is far more preferable than a zoo.
Following our visit to the training centre we went on a walk through the jungle to watch the most perfect sunset across the river, during our walk we saw all manner of random, and not to mention bloody scary insects and crocodiles along the way. It was going to be an interesting few days for me because I’m not great when it comes to mother nature’s little darling’s crawling all over me, I’m the first to reach for a can of fly spray back home but here there was going to be no choice other than to “man up!”
Day two arrived with an early start, a canoe trip down the river. We were blessed with seeing so many wild birds including many king-fisher’s catching their breakfast in front of us, sadly my camera skills were not good enough to capture this but the imagine was breath taking. Several crocodiles and local indigenous families later we commenced on a 2 hour jungle trek. I thought this would simply be a case of a 2 hour walk on a pre-beaten path, oh how wrong I was proved within about 5 minutes of the trek beginning. Our guides stopped us and said “please listen to what I have to say because this could save your life” I was thinking, sh*t this is a bit serious or are they just being over dramatic for added thrill factor?? When he proceed to list the following potential dangers complete with the recommended actions to aid survival I soon realised he was being very serious and unlike a safety demonstration on an aeroplane I decided to listen for once…. And I’m glad I did.
This is the summary of what he told us.
1.) Leeches – You will get these on
you, don’t panic. If they are over half full let them finish, if not you can try and pull them off but you might not succeed!
2.) Wild elephants - Stay clam a look for your nearest large tree and hide behind it.
3.) Rhino’s – Zig zag run, if this doesn’t work hide behind a big tree and run in circles round the tree, if there are two Rhino’s you need god on your side.
4.) Bears – Stand tall and try and intimidate them, wtf!!
5.) Tigers – I have no suggestions, you are on your own at this point, good luck.
As you can see it was more a case of let’s hope we are not in the same confined space as any of them. Following this briefing we set off and it was like something out of a Ray Mears survival program, our 3 guides were touching all visible foot prints to determine how fresh they were. They were also looking at possible exit strategies and generally watching for any signs of movement in the distance. Everything seemed ok until our guide put his hand up, which meant we all stood still. He then pointed
in the distance and to my surprise, shock and horror there were two Rhino’s stood by the river looking right at us. Needless to say we all froze….. After sometime our guide motioned for us to retreat very slowly and to not make any noise, the two Rhino’s were a mother and daughter and he later explained that if the mother felt any form of threat she would charge at us. Thankfully we moved away to a safe distance and viewed them from a far. It was a sight to behold but one I was more comfortable with from about 200m rather than 20m. The rest of the trek was thankfully less eventful apart from all our group including me ending up with at least 4 leeches on us. I had to let two of mine fill themselves up and drop off naturally which was quite frankly disgusting but I was trying to pull them off (no punt intended) but they wouldn’t let go. Note to self, any future jungle treks get the right equipment, or go in an air conditioned 4x4.
The final day at the park was spent bathing with an elephants and going on a trek
through the jungle on an elephants back. Both experiences were brilliant fun and the elephants are such gentle giants when they are tame. Although having said this after 2 hours on the back of an elephant I was very pleased to get off because my back and butt were killing me, they really need to look into suspension for them! On the elephant safari after making our way through 6m tall grass and some very deep rivers we did see two more wild Rhino’s and because they are scared of the elephants we actually got to get very close to them and get some great photos. Being on the back of an elephant certainly made you feel like king of the jungle that’s for sure.
My first experience of a jungle has been a real eye opener, it taught me that I could never survive in one and that I’m more at home in Africa Alive in Norfolk than I could ever be in a real jungle. Some of the animals and insects look like they could kill with just one bite and when you have no clue what anything is or how dangerous it could be you just
Chitwan National Park - Elephant Protection Cemtre
One of the team brining back the food for the day.never relax. But all that said I had a great time and would love to go a bit further into the jungle next time to explore even deeper providing I have all the right gear with me. The only question I’m left with now is do I think a Panda is cooler than an Elephant of vice versa…. I just can’t make my mind up.
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