Saturday 20^th October

This morning we woke up at 6am in Chitwan National Park.  Chitwan meaning “heart of the Jungle”, is in the area of Nepal called the Central Terai.  It is the biggest tourist draw for this area, and is another World Heritage listed site.  Covering 932 sq. Km it is made up of rivers, sal forest, water marches and grassland.  Today we were embarking on a walking safari with 2 guides from the hotel.  As many of you know Sarah my travelling companion is a fully qualified ranger and has recently come back from working in a private lodge in South Africa, she was in 7^th Heaven, and I was glad I wasn’t the guide about to take her out!!

Dug out canoes

We set off and first had to go up the Naryani river to get into the main reserve and this was achieved with a narrow dugout canoe.  It felt really unstable and sat very low in the water – perfect for the marsh crocodiles that live here!  Propelled by a young lad on the back with a long pole we travelled for about 20 minutes.  On disembarking we set off into the jungle.  The safety instructions were mainly about contact with Rhinos as they were the most likely things we would see, although sightings are rare since the park lost Nepali army protection during the 10 year Maoist uprisings and so poachers were able to take whatever they wanted and the numbers declined.  If we saw a Rhino and if it charges – climb a tree (or hide behind one if you can’t climb!), they have poor eyesight and work mainly by smell.  If we were to see a Sloth Bear which are lethal, huddle in a group whilst the guides bang sticks – men look out as the female bears tend to go for the family jewels! If we see a tiger maintain eye contact and back away slowly, and if we come across a wild elephant – RUN!  The chances of seeing Tigers, Bears or Wild elephants was extremely slim however.



Cotton Bugs

The guide we had was excellent, we saw numerous species of birds much to twitcher Sarah’s delight including Osprey and the first sighting of the season for the Shell-Headed Duck.  Along with Rhesus Macac monkeys, cotton bugs in their hundreds, black and white faced monkeys, spotted and barking deer and centipedes.  The absolute highlight was seeing a Rhino about 15m away – a bit scary actually - particularly when he turned to face us.  At this point we squatted down to hide until he turned away before following him until he disappeared into the bush.  In all the excitement we hadn’t spotted the ever increasing patch of blood that had appeared on the back of Sarah’s shorts.  This was the result of a leech that had filled itself up and then fallen off!  The anticoagulant it puts in means that the bleeding doesn’t stop for quite a while.  Sarah had not felt a thing. 

We continued on and were out for about 4 and ahalf hours in total.  Both the guides also got leeches on their ankles as did Sarah, frankly I felt a bit left out.  We arrived back at the hotel and were settling down for a Fanta when teacher Jen spotted blood on the back of my T-shirt.  As I peeled it back I found the biggest full leech on my right hip, and he had obviously had a good dinner as there were 3 bite marks – you are supposed to burn off leeches with a cigarette, but forget waiting around for that I just flicked it off.  Jen promptly put the chair leg on it to squash it and successfully squirted my blood a foot across the floor of the bar! At this point everyone decided to go back to the rooms to do a full leech inspection!!  We found no more and whilst trying to stem the blood flow, the bell boys arrived to move us into a nicer room.

My squshed leech and blood spurt!!

The room we were moved to was exactly what we had been expecting the day before it was very plush and comfortable.  Radha the hotel manager also appeared here with Dettol and plasters for our bites – above and beyond! Once the bloodshed had stopped we went to lunch.

The afternoon saw us taking a Jeep safari.  We shared our Jeep with a couple from Holland and 2 girls from the school party and Jen their teacher.  I have to tell you a bit about these kids as they repeatedly pop up!  Steph from the UK and Gemwa from Egypt (I think), were lovely girls.  As Jen and Gemwa well know my everlasting impression is one of awe.  I have never met a girl who can talk so much, so constantly, and for the full 4 hours of the trip.  Much of what she had to say was really interesting and insightful, and although she was thinking about becoming a psychiatrist, which we pointed out required an element of listening as well, we actually decided she would be better suited to being a sports commentator.  Despite the volume we still saw various birds, monkeys, crocodiles, and even another Rhino sighting which was really rare.  We visited the gharial crocodile breeding centre which aims to release the animals back into the wild, then continued on in the Jeep.  More birds and butterflies, and a rare mongoose sighting on the way back, and then back across the river to the hotel for dinner a few rounds of cards and bed.