Chitwan National Park - 1,000 square kilometres of jungle and grassland, 300-odd one-horned rhinoceros, 100 or so Bengal tigers and untold numbers of deer, monkeys, crocodiles and assorted other wildlife. What did we see - the bottom of a fleeing barking deer, 4 peacocks, one long-legged buzzard, a lot of unidentified birds, several pretty butterflies, the prints of a bear and a tiger in the mud and a lot of elephant grass. Nary a rhino or a tiger.
BUT....we got to ride on an elephant FIVE times!!!!! The very first time was just after we arrived at the river that borders the park. This after a 5 hour ride in the "tourist" bus from Kathmandu - 5 tourists and 40 Nepalese all trying to get home for the annual 10-day Dashain festival. It took 90 minutes to get out of the city cos every Nepali in town was on the same road at the same time all trying to get out.
Anyway, we were met at the bus station in what felt like the middle of nowhere by smiling Chitwan staff who drove us 20 kilometres to where the taxi would take us the rest of the way across the river and into the Chitwan Jungle Resort where we would be staying for the next 3 nights. We could see the taxi as we approached the river - two elephants wading through the water! Yup - our ride to the camp! Fanbloodytastic! After a huge delicious and very late lunch, we just had time to pull on a fresh shirt before we had to rendezvous for the 'next' activity on the schedule - an elephant safari! Off we went with two Englishwoman who had just arrived from Tibet, like us (we later established they had been on the Exodus bus we had seen parked outside our hotel in Nyalam) for a fun ride through the jungle. Didn't see any rhino, but we did get lost and the elephants had to crash their way through the undergrowth - that was, when they weren't busy eating it!
So, rhinoless but exhilerated, we arrived back at camp just in time to grab a beer before the slide show started. That's where we learned about the 300-odd rhino etc. Then, it was dinnertime and then bed since we all had to be up at 5.30 ready for a 6am...wait for it....elephant safari. Still no rhino but lots of birds and butterflies and it was truly gorgeous watching the sun rise over the elephant grass. Back to camp for breakfast and then it was off on a nature walk. That's when we saw the bear and tiger prints. Also heard a mongoose running away from us and spotted a couple of peacocks. Back at the camp and we indulged in beer (Smithy and me), G&T (Dot) and Malibu and Coke (Allison). Being Brisbaneites, Smithy and I are quite accomplished at the lanquid tropical lifestyle - drink beer and do nothing - and Allison found it most alluring. It was all we could do to drag ourselves out of our deckchairs and in for lunch. Bloody hard life, this!
The after-lunch activity was elephant bathing. Smithy duly suited up whilst I bravely volunteered to document the event and off we all went down to the river to wash the elephants. What a lot of fun it was watching from the bank as Smithy and Dot got saturated by sprays from the elephant's trunk! There was also a baby elephant there which was very cute and extremely interested in my camera - tried to take the lens cap for a snack. It's a very odd sensation having an elephant trunk snuffling over you. Like a soft, gentle vacuum cleaner.
We were scheduled to go for a jungle walk in the afternoon, but the director was disappointed that we hadn't seen any rhino so he changed the plans and - darn it - we had to go for another elephant safari! Still no rhino, but we loved the ride through the jungle.
Yesterday morning we had to get up at the crack of dawn (well Smithy and I slept in till 6am instead of going on the nature walk like Dot and Allison) and have brekky before our 7.30am departure when - you guessed it - we had to take the elephant taxi back across the river to the waiting Land Rover that drove us to the bus station for our trip to Pokhara.
If we thought the Kathmandu-Chitwan trip in the tourist bus was long, then the Chitwan-Pokhara local bus was endless. Squashed onto the back bench between a Nepali man and a very big Chinese man and his girlfriend, it was a very long hot journey with our bums rendered numb from the bars under the "cushion". But we were well entertained by the two young men sitting on cane stools in the aisle in front of me as they played and teased two little Israeli brothers and a couple of little Nepalese boys who also squeezed onto their seat.
We were very happy to reach the Pokhara View Hotel and spent the late afternoon sleeping off the beers we had on arrival, straightening out the kinks in our backs and showering off the day's dust. Woke this morning to a wonderful vista of mountains out of the window of our room. We've been for a very leisurely boatride on the lake, done a little retail therapy (gifts for folk back home) and now have the arduous task of deciding where we'll go for lunch.
Gosh...and we have four more days of this. I don't think I can take it!
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