My luck with the weather finally ran out. I had been skirting around Asia’s monsoon season all through Southeast Asia but the rains finally caught up with me here in Nepal and most forcefully while visiting Royal Chitwan National Park where I was on a 3-day safari.Our canoe ride down the Rapti river was a complete washout. Buckets of rain poured down on me and four Chinese tourists who were wiggling around so much in our already unsteady vessel I thought our dugout canoe was definitely going to go bottoms up- And although I decided to take a little dip into the Nile last year in Uganda, we had seen a crocodile in this river on the previous day and I was not interested in another close encounter.
Our “jungle walk” was more like a jungle swim sloshing through shin deep water in elephant grass that stood 6 feet tall and was swarming with leeches. The highlight of the walk was seeing some Rhino poo-which was extremely exciting as you can imagine. Did you know Rhino’s relieve themselves in the same exact spot and that they drop about 20 kilos every time they have to go! Anyway, we then trudged over to an elephant-breeding center and used cookies to entice a sweet baby elephant to join us cuckoo tourists out in the pouring rain so we could feed him.
My favorite part of the safari was definitely the afternoon elephant ride through the actual national park. The rains eased up enough to make it an enjoyable ride through some pretty intense jungle. It was really amazing watching our elephant “work” as it cleared small trees from the path with ease. We found a sleeping rhino under the brush and our guide steered the elephant directly towards it in order to flush it out into the field for a better view. Being at a safe vantage point from on top of the elephant we were able to get very close to the big male rhino who seemed kind of annoyed we woke him up and soon stormed off, in a full sprint, in the opposite direction. I was really hoping we would spot a tiger on the safari but alas the illusive Bengal remained hidden- we did see some deer, birds and wild boar- but I’m pretty sure the tiger would have been a little more exciting.
Although my safari ended up being sort of a bust the little town of Chitwan was an exceptional place and I really enjoyed just hanging out with the local Tharu’s. I spent some time taking photos of the young boys who were fishing and swimming in the crocodile infested river and befriended some of the teenage girls who proudly showed me their homes made of dirt and cow dung. It’s hard to explain but the town had a very special feeling to it. Women would sift through dried corn on the street as men would ride by in horse drawn wooden carts and at the same time an elephant would come walking down the small dirt street without anyone batting an eyelash. The rains might have kept the animals hidden but discovering the people who live among them was well worth the trip.
