Chitwan

Chitwan.

Chitwan is a 300km area of national park on the terai - the flat plains down on the border with India. The altitude is 100m above sea level. There is a resort town on the edge of the park and then many ways that you can get into the park in the hope of seeing wildlife such as wild elephants, tigers, bison, white horned rhino, deer, pigs, sloth bear and thousands of birds....

typical terai towns

We stayed in a lodge right on the edge of the river that divides the town from the park. The lodge provided a very experienced guide who came with us on all our expeditions. They provided all our food and lodging so it was all so easy. We arrived by bus and were taken straight to the dining room to have lunch. While eating we looked up and there was a mongoose - we were getting very excited about what the next few days were going to hold.

Then we were just getting settled in our room and we were called to see a few pythons. While I am still terrified of them they do have the most amazing features on their skin.

We walked around the corner and there are camels! They have been bought up from India so don't naturally live here but still. Next thing we know we were on the back of a camel and off for a ride!

Arriving back at the lodge only to see elephants coming out of the jungle and into the river for a wash. There are whild elephants and trained, domesticated elephants. The domesticed elephants have a rider (mahout) for life. They sleep in the town but are taken to the jungle twice a day for food and to bring more food back for them.

Our guide then took us on a jungle walk in an area next to the park but not in the park. The first thing we came across was rhino poo! Check out it's size. Our guide was amazing at seeking out where the poo was, footprints were, where animals were by sound and smell and then track them down. And his knowledge of birds was incredible.

rhino footprints...

We're going on a bear hunt... We're not scared....

Well, it isn't a bear but it is a croc. This gharial croc had a net over his nose so wasn't as reactive as it should've been. Our guide was going to report this to the ranger so that they could remove it.

The government elephants after a days work. They burn the poo around them to give the elephants a dust bath and ward away mosquitos.

And we found our first rhino! Out taking a bath. We sat and watched him for about half an hour while the sun went down. We were pretty excited. If that was the first day and we weren't even in the park what else were we going to see!

The next day dawned clear and we had breakfast by the river...

as elephants went out for a walk!!!

We then got into a canoe and paddled down the river for about an hour looking at wildlife and getting into the area of the jungle where we started a walk through the jungle. Off on a bear hunt - we're not scared....

There were lots of different types of kingfishers. This is one of them!

And a marshy crocodile

And storks...

Apparently they like sleeping with their mouth open as it helps them breathe.

No sooner had we got in the jungle than we could hear rhino. The first rhino were in an area of jungle that we couldn't se them but then we found a different one. The guide smelt this one out!!

Yes, that grey rock is a rhino. The guide then made a noise to see the temperament of it. It stood up and rocked so he told us to run as it was a grumpy one and may charge us!

This photos was taken just as we were told to run! The net two were a blur as I did just that!

rhesus monkeys....

However, sometimes this jungle walking gets hard! Actually, particulary for the guide it was really tiring as you are so alert for animals and also the possibility of being attacked.

There were lots of bugs everywhere and they were amazing colours.

peacocks...

We had a great day. In the end we saw crocs, lots of birds, 2 rhinos, deer, monkeys and evidence of tiger, bear and wild elephants, and finished it off with a beer watching the sunset from the lawn of the lodge!

The next day we got up really early and took a jeep through the forest. I thought the animals would ignore the jeep but leaving early in the morning did allow us to see animals and also get deeper into the forest. The highlight of the trip was seeing a bison - the guide got really excited about this as they are very rare. They are like really big cows with big horns and they can run!

This is my jigsaw puzzle picture!! These deer were on the road ahead of the jeep!

That is a peacock in the tree. There were a lot of peacocks to be seen.

This is a termite mound. This is what the sloth bear eats (brave thing to put his hand in there!)

wild pig....

It isn't clear but there are 8 crocs all lined up in the sun in this photo...

Our guide looking for wildlife from one of the stands. The jungle is a mixture of tall trees, really tall grass (20m high) and thick scrubby jungle. A lot of the grass was being burnt down while we were there as it allows really good green shoots to take away.

We got back from the jeep ride just in time for elephant bathing.

We are hoping to post a video of this next week. Mark and I jumped in with one of the elephants. We sat on the back and got to give it a good scrub while it put water in it's trunk and sprayed us and then rolled in the water and tipped us off. It was a most incredible experience to be on an elephant and stroking it.

The afternoon started off no qutie so good - it was the 22 Feb and Mark and I had gone into the bazaar to be told by a nepali abotu a big earthquake in NZ where people had died. We hurried to the internet and thankfully found out that our family was OK but with saddness in our hearts we went to ride elephants!

Our elephant was 33 years old and the rider told us that she hasn't had children yet as she hasn't got married! Our rider was determined to find us wildlife so kinda went jungle at times. The dexterity of the truck and the ability of the elephant to move away the leaves and walk past trees was amazing.

However, the most amazing thing was how close we got to the wildlife. The wildlife doesn't blink an eyelid at elephants and so we had deer 5m away from us, crocs really close and......

YES - mother and baby rhino 5 m away from us! This was such an answer to prayer! This is 300kg of rhino similar to the one that had tried to charge us the day before 5 meters away! And there were 55 people on the back of elephants watching them!

When we reached the end we were really sad as it was an amazing experience although we were quite glad to get out of the cage on the elephant as our legs had gone to sleep!

 

This is the peacock dance! There was someone in the custome. The locals worship the peacock cos it chases snakes away.

The day finished with a cultural dance show. Ally was a good sport and got up and danced for us!!

Our final day in Chitwan and our final activity was a trip to the elephant breeding centre. This centre has the first ever known set of twins that have survived. They were out feeding while we were there but we did talk to the other elephants.

We shoke hands with the elephant - that trunk is SOOO strong - 40,000 ms in it. It is an incredible organ but at times did need a tissue, and sometimes it does get very heavy.

Then, with saddness we got on the back on a bus and went to chaotic Kathmandu. We had a fabulous time there and am looking forward to going again with Jo's parents in Sept!!!!

Don't you think buses and truck in NZ should look like this!