Chitwan National Park

The temperature is pushing 37degrees, the humidity is in the high 90s and I’m riding down a dirt road to the  small tourist town on the edge of the Chitwan national park in southern Nepal.

On the horizon the dark grey clouds are building and I’m excited to find a hotel and get settled in before the rain arrives.

As the grassland on the far river bank descends into twilight the rain begins. At first a just a thin pattering of drops hit the rivers slow moving surface. Sipping my beer in one of the small riverside huts I’m prepared to wait it out, then the first ominous signs, larger splashed begin, hail stones the size of golfballs are now pelting the river and punching holes through the straw above my head. Five seconds later the thatch roof is torn off and thrown 30m down river as the wind reached hurricane speeds.

Watching the only protection I had from the rain, wind and hail, it crossed my mind that maybe I should seek a shelter that wasn’t made of straw and bamboo..

Bolting for the sanctuary of a near by Bar, I’m forced to cross an open stretch of grass. Hail pummels my head, back and shins, next to me a 4m by 3m sign for a local jeep tour explodes as a violent gust of wind catch the large flat surface.

Barrelling through the bar door I come face to face with ten other tourists all sheltering from the sudden, and unexpected weather. The ever hospitable Nepali barman is handing out popcorn and beer, while simultaneously lighting the hundreds of candles dotted around his small shack. Aside from being a bar it is quite clearly also his home.

For the next thirty minutes we all sit, drink, eat and laugh as the rain, hail and wind pounds the tin roof, emerging to find the river bank a disaster zone.

My First 4 hours in Chitwan has been eventful.

Day 2

The sun is shining although large fluffy clouds, tinged with some slight grey, float by as an reminder of last nights storm. It’s early, about 6:15am, as I pack my bags ready to head down the road to my new hotel and start my safari. I eat a lovely breakfast overlooking the river and watch as locals rebuild the trashed thatched huts and erect a new sign.

Today I’ll be seeing the elephant breeding centre and a cultural program, not the most exciting but I’m assured tomorrow will be filled with animals.

As I prepare to head out to the Elephant breeding centre my guide, Pino, a short round Nepalese man who speaks English with a slightly Scottish accent, is struggling to start his motorbike. I offer to take mine and within minutes I’m bouncing down a badly built road on a bike designed primarily for going in a strait line.

The Elephant breeding centre, a government run place that ensure wild elephants are left in peace to graze and generally be large mammals, is on the edge of the national park. Being on the other side of the river I’m reminded by Pino that I’m to be careful and that rhinos have been see around lately. My large smile and childlike glint of the eye is not the response he was expecting.

As we enter the large grey and slightly pink trunked Indian elephants are chained to their enclosures. Smaller than their African cousins, they still stand three to four meters high, dwarfing the Manchu, their riders, that stand near by.

The first pen holds a mother and her twin calves. All chained to different post the two young elephants fight over which get milk first, then proceed to fight over who gets the muddy looking mix. It’s hard to call elephants cute, mainly because they’re the size of a small family car, but there’s something very beautiful about them.

I’m told the older the Elephant the more pink the trunk and face, as we stroll down the walkway this becomes clear as the larger elephants come into sight.

Day 3 – Safari!

It’s an early start, 5am, and I haul myself out of bed just in time to watch the sun rise over the park. Today is packed with opportunities to see the many wild and quite scary animals.

Gathering on the riverbank with some British and a French tourist, I’m happy to be part of a group again. The canoe we’re heading down river in is a single carved tree trunk, it’s shallow bottom and thin sides give it little in the way of stability. This isn’t helped by the French tourist who insists on leaning over the side every three seconds to peer into the murky water.

As we float with the current birds, bugs and even a crocodile swim past the canoe.  Being the token Aussie I’m asked to do my best Steve Irwin, I oblige of course!

The canoe ride ends at a lowly piece of mud 4km down from the village. It’s time to take a jungle walk and hopefully see some wildlife I can’t see at home. Sadly after 2 hours I emerge from the grasslands having seen a couple of deer, some bugs and a hell of a lot of rhino dung. To tell the truth the animals where there, you could smell them, but the grass was nearly 4m high so I could have been standing 2f from a Rhino and not known it.

The mornings canoe and walk, although they didn’t produce any sightings, were fun none the less.

Sitting down for a well needed drink by the river, I had arrived just in time to watch the daily Elephant washing begin. This spectacle, put on for the tourists, give the elephants a well needed break from the heat as well as actually giving them a clean ready for the afternoon jungle walks. The other great thing about the elephant baths is you can join in, so I did.

It took all of ‘do you want….’ before I was shoeless, shirtless and down on the river bank jumping on an elephant’s back.

For the next 15mins I was drenched by trunk-loads of water, dunked into the river by a swimming elephant and thanked with a pat on the head from a my new pachyderm friend. I wasn’t the only one. Dozens of tourist, some wearing very inappropriate clothing I’m looking at you German woman in white shorts and top with no underwear, for the task, all got involved.

Elephant Ride!

The back of the safari transport is packed with about 20 tourist all on our way to the elephant safari. A two hour ride through the jungle on elephant back with the greatest chance of seeing a rhino, bear and even a tiger.

I’m not going to call the small wooden platform on the elephants back comfortable, in-fact it was quite the opposite but it did give a wonderful as the large beast lumbered through the undergrowth. My elephant, a 15y/o female, seemed more interested in the plant life and it’s taste than walking but none the less we slowly plodded through. We saw more deer, some monkeys, Kingfishers and some bugs that I can only describe as bright red and rather scary.

Suddenly there was some frantic calls from other elephant riders as someone spotted a Rhino. I wouldn’t call it a run but the elephant went from snail to rabbit in no time flat. We smashed through the edge of the rainforest out into the grass lands, there in the distance was a grey blob, hidden among the elephant grass. The elephant slowed as we neared what I thought was just a rock, that was until it turned around revealing a single horn and sharp beak-like face. Then from out of a clump of bushes came a smaller rock, a baby rhino!

I don’t think I’ve ever retrieved my camera as fast as I did at that moment.

Now Rhinos are a strange looking creature, their thick skin looks almost metallic as it hang from their bodies. The baby rhino, about the size of golf cart, uses its mother as a sheild before running off into the long grass.

The rest of the ride is uneventful and we plod along back to the jeep.

Sunrise Walk

My last day in Chitwan starts, once again, at 5am. I’m up and out on a nature walk along the river bank. There is a few birds and some of the safari  elephants but all in all the constant human activity keeps any of the major animals deep in the forest.

After lunch my ‘tour’ came to an end and I spent the rest of the day drinking beer, eating curry and relaxing in the 34degree heat. Tomorrow would be a long ride back to Kathmandu.

I may not have seen a tiger, but the rhino was pretty cool.

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