Our second adventure of the week was all about the wildlife! And there was entry to see.
We arrived at our lodge in the late afternoon. Our first activity was a local village walk, but I was feeling a bit ill so I gave it a miss to recover a little bit. After dinner we all headed a few streets away to enjoy a cultural dance show by a local community group of Tharu people. The stick dances were amazing and Sophie and Laura got up on stage with the dancers for the final act. They're drama and dance students, what did I expect!
The next day started early with a ride down-river in a dug-out canoe for some wildlife spotting. Amongst the highlights were the endangered long-nosed crocodile (I forget it's actual name) that eats fish and a number of incredible birds, including ducks that had flown all the way from Siberia! It was a very relaxed few hours on the water and seeing so much wildlife close up was very special.
A long-nosed crocodile
After our boat ride we landed on a beach a little way down and headed into the jungle on a safari walk. Almost immediately we were seeing fresh Rhino and even a few tiger prints! Around 40 minutes in we had a very close (and lucky!) encounter with one of the park's main attractions, a wild Rhino! We were about 20 meters away but I'd didn't feel worried, there was a big tree to hide behind nearby! The rest of our walk was relatively uneventful, with only a few monkeys and some crocodiles to see. The heat crept up all morning and by the time we got back to the lodge it was roasting!
Down in the jungle.......
The rhino we encountered on our jungle walk :)
After a few hours break we got to the highlight of our time in Chitwan, an elephant-back safari! The group divided onto two elephants and we set off into the jungle, our elephants happily snacking on the way. After an encounter with a rather large deer blocking the path we came up close (the girls especially so!) with another rhino. Being that closed made me a feel a little uncomfortable but the Rhino happily let us get on our way after some great pictures. We finished our safari just as the sun was setting and we were soon back at the lodge enjoying our last night in Chitwan. We had to be up early the next day though, the bus to our final destination of the week, the chilled-out lakeside town of Pokhara 4 hours northwest of Chitwan, left at 7am!
The girls get up close and personal with a rhino on our elephant safari
My elephant towards the end of the safari, check out my beard!
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