10th Oct Sauraha - Chitwan National Park
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2007
1
9
21
Trip End
Mar 20, 2008
Sauraha, Nepal
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
We hired mountain bikes and cycles to the breeding centre in the afternoon. To finally reach the site we had to cross the river in dug out canoes (very dicey). The Elephant are allowed to roam in the forest during the day but return by 3pm. I had mixed feeling about the centre as the Elephants were chained up to stop them harming the babies and prevent them wandering off in the night into the hands of poachers. They are not bred for re-introduction to the wild but rather to work in the tourist trade. There is allegedly only one wild elephant in the park.
In the night I was sick again, boo hoo, and with the two day jungle trek in the morning I was pretty annoyed. I managed to drag myself out of bed and Jeed insisted I would be coming; although I felt like crap. Well the Jungle was about 35 degrees and about 100% humidity, but some how I dragged myself round, even managing a sprint when the guides spotted rhino's. We didn't expect this at all as the Elephant grass has got out of control (2metres +) in the park due to the large amount of rain hence visibility was minimal.
In the evening we stayed at a beautiful spot on the river Rapti in a tiny settlement. It was Jeeds birthday so we had bought a large amount of his favourite royal challenge whisky. The host performed a Nepalese ceremony where we all bless him, and they slaughtered two ducks for the feast. Great night and the sunset was amazing.
More trekking followed and we were fortunate enough to see a sloth bear and crocs in the river, before going to the Gharial breeding centre. Gharials are freshwater crocs with very thin snouts they were endangered but are on the come back thanks to this programme. There was also a captive tigers whose mother was a man eater, but the enclosure was far too small which was a bit sad.
In the evening there was a Maoist recruitment event / festival / ranting session. There was stage erected in the centre of town and the locals watched on as the Maoist did some amateurish dancing in there fatigues, bizarre! Back at the hotel a local clan performed Nepali stick dancing; the best description of this I can come up with is Morris dancing on speed. At the end we all joined in, which separated those with rhythm from the embarrassing fools.
I am writing this in Kathmandu after watching the Rugby last night in a bar with a load of Frenchies; GET IN.
Tomorrow I set off to base camp so will be off line for at 18 days. All I can say is COME ON ENGLAND, you can do it boys; please I have to go to Oz in December!!
