Welcome to the Jungle

For our final final day in Kathmandu we washed our trekking clothes (much needed) and headed to see the Monkey Temple which provided nice views over the city with the resident monkeys providing additional entertainment. I could then put off my first hair cut no longer and was ushered into the most narrow booth imaginable by the elderly barber. Brandishing the largest pair of metal shears the city could provide he proceeded to lop off handfuls of hair. I started to worry when halfway through he reached for a pair of glasses but after the cut-throat razor had tidied up the edges I emerged both looking smarter and unscathed! The tourist bus that took us to Chitwan National Park was a much more comfortable affair and after avoiding the elephants lumbering down the street we booked our activities for the following couple of days. We were up early to start a day and a half jungle walk, accompanied by 2 guides each armed with trusty bits of hardened bamboo. A dug out canoe took us down river for an hour before dropping us off. We were given a safety briefing: "If rhino climb tree at least 7 foot or hide behind. If no tree then run zig-zag very fast. If bear no climb tree or run. Get in big group and make much noise and shouting. If tiger, get in big group, stare in eyes, slowly back away, say "Namaste" and continue walk". After such an inspiring introduction we were quite happy not to see anything larger than an insect for the first few hours. After 4 hours fighting our way through 20 foot elephant grass we emerged by the river to see a crocodile, the bizarre looking Gharial, and get a chance to remove some of the many leaches. I ended up with 10 in total com paired to Amy's none! Our first "proper" animal spotted and we were on a role coming across a 1 horned Indian Rhino cooling down in a small stream, a troupe of Langur monkeys swinging in the treetops and then breaking for lunch in a spotting tower. It was here that we were privileged to see 3 more rhinos, including one of around 18 months, grazing on the long grass. We were able to creep up fairly close to appreciate the size of these prehistoric animals, made even more exciting by being on foot. The rest of the walk was more of the same with dense jungle vegetation interspersed with regular sightings of monkey, deer and a plethora of bird life to give us a fantastic experience. Our final stop was at the elephant breeding centre whose current main draw is the 11 month old twins, only the 4th known to be born, which certainly seemed to be double the trouble. The afternoon of our return we took to elephant back for a two hour amble through the forest where we were able to get unbelievably close to more rhino and deer, all animals ignoring our presence, though it did not have quite the excitement of walking. Our 3rd and final day in the area was spent relaxing, but not before we joined in with the daily elephant bathing. This mostly involved sitting on its back while being hosed with trunk-fulls of wonderfully cool river water on voice command of the trainer. We had intended to do a 4 day beginner kayaking course in Pokara but having got the bus there the heavens promptly opened, giving us our first full days rain since we left the UK, the rivers rose and it was decided that the rivers had become a bit too wild to run the course. Rather than stick around, we headed for India to give us a few extra days before starting work in Pushkar.