Chitwan National Park

Breakfast at 6:45, departure at 7:30!  We were off with our day packs for a walk through the jungle to a “village stay” overnight. We walked out from the hotel toward the river, passing naturally occurring marijuana plans along the roadside, and got into 2 large dug-out canoes, 7 people per canoe. Very tippy! We even had to breathe straight.

A two hour poled canoe drift later, passing many crocodiles; we landed and left the canoes for a walk in the park, so to speak. We were split into 2 groups, each with 2 excellent guides who knew their birds and wildlife.
It was hot already, and our guides had encouraged us to carry 3 liters of water apiece for the day. I took 2, Dean 3, and we were glad for all of it. The terrain was virtually flat, and vegetated as grassland or open woodland.

The predominant trees, Sal, have large waxy leaves which had fallen to the ground a few months ago for the winter. These leaves are the noisiest leaves on the planet, and getting a group of 7 people to walk quietly under such circumstances was impossible.

We quickly realized that no self-respecting tiger, bison, or elephant would be caught alive or dead anywhere near us, and contented ourselves with interesting birds and insects.

About an hour into the walk, we stopped to eat our hearty boxed lunches furnished by the hotel, and the guides encouraged us to lie down on the crispy dry leaves and take a nap, so we did, and so did they. Remember this for later.

Our group took at least two hours longer to reach our destination village than the other group, and they saw more wildlife! We did see a one-horned rhino all but submerged in a water pond, a couple of monkeys, and several deer. We were SO HOT when we arrived at the village, and were very glad of a nice cold beer on the riverbank overlooking the local floodplain. Some domesticated elephants wandered across our field of view and were doused by their owners in the river to cool off. I suppose they had been taking people for elephant safari earlier in the day.

The hotel accommodation was very basic, just two twin beds with mosquito nets in an otherwise unfurnished room. There was a shower of unheated (but not very cold) water and it was most welcome. We were fed a delicious dinner out of a tiny, primitive kitchen, the kind of thing you are told to avoid when traveling in India, but we all charmed by the candle-light dinner setting and no-one was the worse for it. Breakfast the next morning was porridge with bananas in it…Yum!

The next morning after breakfast, we walked an hour to a crocodile breeding facility and viewed crocs of all sizes and ages, from less than one foot long to about 20 feet in length.





There are two types of crocs here, the Mugger, which is omnivorous and therefore a threat to man, amongst other things, and the Gharial, which has a very long narrow snout and eats pure veg. This latter type is endangered, hence the breeding program.

A further ½-hour walk got us to our pick-up point where two open jeeps were waiting. It was a 1-1/2 hour drive back to the Royal Park hotel, to our luggage, warm showers, another delicious meal AND an elephant ride into another part of the park.

We were 'close packet' (an atomic particle term that applied here) 4 riders to an elephant.  Each of us was sitting with a wooden pole between our legs facing outward with all of our backs together in the middle of the riding platform. 

As the elephant walked we were pitched front-to-back or side-to-side on each step.  VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!!!! 

But we did see a mom rhino with baby in an open field.  I was surprised by mom's lack of concern even after 6 or 7 elephants with riders circled the 2 rhinos.

After all this, we were tired, sore, and very grateful that we did not have to spend another night on the very hard, scantily padded beds of the village.

My second trip (Alison's) to India, and still no tiger sighting, but I am determined that it is possible and look forward to another try in the future. We have seen so many other interesting animals, insects and birds. The tiger sighting is just a dream.