Part 83 - Chitwan Safari

My submission to National Geographic

I was in two minds whether to venture to south Nepal to go on a safari, as it involved another long uncomfortable bus journey, a hot and humid climate, and leaving my very pleasant hostel in Pokhara. It ended up that Sam, the guy in the hostel who seemed to work 16 hours a day talked me into buying a three day / two night safari package, simply by letting slip the magic word ... "tigers"  (well, technically he said there's a faint chance of seeing tigers, but I was already sold). Before I knew it, I was handing over $160 and sitting on another "Deluxe Tourist Bus", wondering how they could get away with such lies. Still, at least the aircon worked. 

I realised with the thrill of horror as we approached the town of Sauhara that I didn't actually know what accommodation I was getting for my $160, and I had visions of sleeping in a room of 40 snoring sleep-walkers. Happily, I had my own room, and the jungle lodges turned out to be spacious and comfortable, and while my neighbours had a bit of a screaming fit at some errant cockroaches and spiders that wanted to share their comfort, my room was insect and arachnid free (either that or I was too unobservant to notice them). 

There was even a swimming pool

On the first evening, after taking us to watch a cloudy sunset (number of pictures taken: 0), it was off to watch a "local cultural program", which consisted of a bunch of dancing lassies brandishing sticks, with a few chaps playing some drums and chucking about fire batons.

They even invited us to join in on the last dance

They did have someone to explain what each dance meant, but apart from a dance to ward off tigers (boo) and other local wildlife, I didn't really follow much of it. Still, it was a pleasurable enough way to spend the evening. 

The next morning was the only day when we were actually doing safari-related stuff (so not really a three day safari!). First up was a boat safari, so we hopped on a long boat ...

The water was very shallow so we were in more danger from the crocs than from drowning

... and punted down the river for a few miles. Luckily, I was sitting near the guide who pointed out the different birds we could see. I took photos of lapwings, kingfishers, and wagtails - and none of them were good enough for publication here (and that's a pretty low bar). 

However, what we did get quite close to a gharial crocodile, a critically-endangered critter with a funny snout. 

Next up was a jungle trek. And the highlight of that was the German lassie who had a bad case of durchwal having to dash off into the undergrowth every few minutes, as well as an Israeli couple who talked incessantly for the entire day just to ensure that any potential wildlife gave us a wide berth. 

We did see a few termite hills and even some wee termites running about ...

... and some marshes with lilies growing in them ...

 

. and a tree with vines twisted round it

In fact, pretty much the only wildlife I saw was this tiny yet funky caterpillar that is probably a beautiful yet tiny butterfly by now. 

As we were returned to our transport, we were walked through a place which was most definitely not an elephant sanctuary, and was actually an "elephant breeding and training centre".

It was a pretty sad sight - mother and calf chained up for a good part of the day. I think the mother was resigned to it, but the wee calf kept trying to wander off and couldn't. We asked one of the keepers why weren't they had to be chained up, and he said some of them had escaped in the past and caused damage. Hardly an insurmountable problem in the 21st century you would think. 

Thankfully, everyone in our group had opted to go for the "jeep safari" rather than sitting on an elephant in the afternoon. This ended up being a 4.5 hour trip through Chitwan Safari Park, a 1000km² park home to 68 mammal species, a vast majority of which must have heard us coming and hidden. The shy species included, tigers, sloth bears, pangolins, leopards, jackals, and otters. 

However, we did still spot quite a lot of wildlife, although most of it was too inconsiderate to get close to the camera and pose, so you'll just have to imagine what some of these creatures look like (or just Google them). Animals we spotted (or rather, our eagle-eyed guide spotted) included wild boars, deer (spotted, barking, and Sambar), a lost turtle (who nearly got run over), several types of monkey, 

Included these gray langurs

Indian rhinos (here's a couple of orphaned ones going for a walk)...

... a few peacocks that looked a little out of place, and a couple of marsh mugger crocodiles, which go by the far more exciting name of a man-eating crocodiles. 

And that was pretty much it. There had been vague rumours amongst the guides about tigers being spotted, but given that each tiger covers about 25km² of park and blend in quite well with their surroundings, it wasn't surprising we didn't see any of them. 

The itinerary of the third day of the safari was succinct ... "0630: Breakfast ... 0730: Leave". I had three days left in Nepal before my next adventure and considered spending them down in Sauhara / Chitwan, but given the heat - and the fact that there wasn't a great deal else to do in the town apart from watch sad elephants transport logs and tourists around, I decided to get the bouncy bus back to Kathmandu...