Chitwan is an amazing place. Last time I was here, the oppressive heat and humidity overwhelmed my experience. This time, I am free to appreciate the beauty. It is so different than the mountains. We are on the flatlands here, near the Indian border.
Our lodge consists of two long buildings facing each other across a lovely garden, with trees, flowers, stone walkways and shaded palapas. A tree in the garden provides oranges for Meg's fruit lassis. After the rigors of our trip, we have all been glad to take some down time. Our rooms are fairly simple, but seem luxurious to us, with nice bedding, attached bathrooms, hot water and towels. Each bed has a fancy princess canopy, otherwise known as a mosquito net, to protect us from the handful of mosquitos we've seen. Out back are two resident elephants.
Yesterday morning, after much research and soul searching, we took a ride on the government elephants. They cost more than the private elephants, and are treated a bit better. The fees are also used to combat rhino poaching. So I hope it was an ethical choice. I was glad to share the experience with Wendy and Adam. The four of us perched on top of our elephant, at the four corners of the "saddle" as our elephant plodded his way through grasslands and forest. It was a misty morning, but we still caught glimpses of deer, monkeys, birds, and one sleepy rhino.
After lunch, we took a four hour jeep ride through the park. I had my doubts - four more hours bumping along sounded a bit like torture. But even with the bumping, I loved it. We were constantly scanning the trees, grasses and woods for animal spottings. The grasses are quite tall this time of year (they are burned back in March) but we felt very satisfied by the glimpses we got of three kinds of deer, peacocks, black-faced monkeys, termite mounds, wild boar, crocodiles and one rhino. There is a crocodile breeding center that raises and releases cut little baby gariel crocodiles. Beware swimming here! We ended the day with an amazing jungle sunset.
This afternoon we took a leisurely trip down river in a traditional flat bottom "canoe" made of one single log. We saw birds and tons of crocodiles (both gariel and the more dangerous mugger) at every turn. Good thing we didn't tip over!
Then we took a 3 hour jungle walk. It was nice to be up close and personal with the forest, after the elephant, canoe and jeep. But things got exciting when we came an elephant grazing ahead of us. We edged closer to get a look until our guides realized that we were seeing the female. The male was likely nearby, watching over her, and ready to protect her. After telling us to hide in the ditch if he charged, we edged through the forest to give them a wide berth.
The adventures weren't over! Very fresh bear scat (which I did not photograph) kept us on the lookout for the dangerous sloth bear. The tiger tracks we saw weren't as new, but our guide told us all about getting raked by a tiger in this area just six months ago. But all we actually saw were a pair of jackals slinking toward a herd of spotted deer.
Tomorrow we begin the very long journey home: 5 minute jeep ride, 7 hours on bus, overnight in Kathmandu, 20 minute taxi, 9 hour flight, overnight in Istanbul, 12 hour flight, then finally a 6 hour drive (Wendy and Meg) or a final 1 1/2 hour flight (Toby and Adam). Nepal is a long way from Minnesota!
-Toby
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