After the trek we headed from Pokhara down to Chitwan
National Park where we did a 2 day jungle safari walk. With 2 local guides we
headed off in a canoe to the national park and before long were watching Gharial
crocodiles bathing on the banks of the river. Then we set off into the jungle a
bit unsure what to expect. Our guides had given us a prep talk about how there
were lots of aggressive animals in the jungle and we needed to be alert at all
times – slightly worrying when your guide is armed with nothing but a bamboo
stick to fight off the wild elephants, tigers and rhinos!!
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| Gharial |
Luckily the closest
they came to using their sticks was at lunch time when they suddenly leapt up with
their sticks and ordered us to climb down into a nearby ditch – adrenaline
pumping Mike and I were about to leap into the ditch head first when the two
fighting rhinos stampeded past just metres from the patch where we had seconds
earlier been enjoying our lunch! Apparently when rhinos are fighting their
instinct to fight and kill everything is so strong that your only option if you
do happen to find yourself in the path of a raging rhino is to hide and hope
they haven’t seen you or climb a very thick tree. It was only about an hour
later that we again found ourselves in this unfortunate predicament and this
time had to do the latter. To be honest after the second scare I really didn’t
want to see any more rhinos but it felt like every corner we turned there was
another one.
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| One Horned Rhino |
Unfortunately despite spending 3 hours at a lookout point we
didn’t get to see a tiger or a bear, but we did manage to see loads of
different birds, three types of deer, a family of wild boars, a monitor lizard
plus the aforementioned crocodiles and rhinos so all in a very successful trip!
Next stop… India!!
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| Indian Pied Hornbill |
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| Sambal Deer |
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| One Horned Rhino |
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| Wild Boar |
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