After a pitstop in Kathmandu's polluted air we decided to return back to nature, to tropical Chitwan National Park. The bustrip took "only" 7 hours with a lot of hairspin curves and serpentine roads. We saw only one accident with a bus (not ours) and a local decorated truck (luckily neither of vehicles had dropped from the road to a valley below.)
Arriving to flatland village Sauraha was chaotic, when you step out of the bus there is immediately dozens of locals surrounding you shouting over eachothers their hotels names. We ended up taking a free jeep-ride through grasslands and paddyfields to a nice cheapie guest house called Butterfly.
Sauraha itself is not much more than a few dusty streets (with elephants!), many hotels, few restaurants, kiosks and travel agents.
The weather is tropical and at night permanently over +25 degrees going up to +40 at daytime. This means a lot of sweating and lack of motivation for longer trekking. We have our own veranda in the garden full of fruittrees, red chilly plants and tropical birds, looking out over farmland.
On 29-4 we went for a halfday jungle trek with canoe / walking, together with 5 other tourists and 4 young boys that would guide us. Canoeing was a bit disappointing as we did not see any of "promised" crocodiles nor marsh muggers in the water, just some nice tropical birds.
The actual trekking part was more rewarding as we actually saw some wild animals. Beforehand the guides told us to be silent and taught us a few different escape-manouvres in case of an attack by a Bengal tiger, a leopart, a slothbear or a one-horned Indian rhino. After this realitycheck we started moving, a bit nervous but mainly excited, following the guide who disappeared into the 2m high grass.
We walked through 3 kinds of vegetation and we spotted lots of colored butterflies, insects and medicational herbs. Our guides, 2 in thefront 2 in the back, were true actors creating tensions, climbing trees to look out and sharing their knowledge about the nature we were in. At one moment we saw a jumping rhesus monkey and later 2 types of deer.
When we were supposed to take a rest in a watchtower Jaakko and I decided to leave the group with 2 of the guides. We thought to have a much better chance to spot any of the wilder animals with less people. A lot more hiding, kneeling and sweating was worthwile! We spotted a rhino couple behind some bushes (and they spotted us too)! Then, a bit nervous but with lots of laughs, our guides urged us to climb in a tree for our safety. Unfortunately these cute-eared cuddly rhinos decided to flee while we were climbing rather then come to petting distance.
The next day we went for an elephantsafari, as that is the most natural way to make your way through the park as a human, with a chance to get closest to wild animals without disturbing them. Unfortunately this seemed more like a visit to an amusement park than a real safari. There were about 20 elephants, all having 4 tourists strapped on their backs with a driver.
Our ride was a 20 year old Indian mother elephant. We cruised around in a fleet spotting more or less stationary animals - some shy deer, a confused wild boar family and a rhino mom taking a bath with her baby. This all would have been exiting if there wouldn't have been a dozen other tourist-elephants surrounding the spotted poor wildlife. Though the rhinos were a beautiful sight...especially when you realize that there are only a few hundred of them left in the World...
After these adventures we watched the elephant bathing. The safari elephants all go for a nice cooldown in the river along the main bazar. For a little tip you can go in with them, sit on their back and get splashed wet and get thrown off as your 'hathi' drops herself sideways under water.
Furthermore we concentrated on lazing around, drinking liters of water and having cold showers, in this tropical heat with only a few hours of electricity per day.
Arriving to flatland village Sauraha was chaotic, when you step out of the bus there is immediately dozens of locals surrounding you shouting over eachothers their hotels names. We ended up taking a free jeep-ride through grasslands and paddyfields to a nice cheapie guest house called Butterfly.
Sauraha itself is not much more than a few dusty streets (with elephants!), many hotels, few restaurants, kiosks and travel agents.
The weather is tropical and at night permanently over +25 degrees going up to +40 at daytime. This means a lot of sweating and lack of motivation for longer trekking. We have our own veranda in the garden full of fruittrees, red chilly plants and tropical birds, looking out over farmland.
On 29-4 we went for a halfday jungle trek with canoe / walking, together with 5 other tourists and 4 young boys that would guide us. Canoeing was a bit disappointing as we did not see any of "promised" crocodiles nor marsh muggers in the water, just some nice tropical birds.
The actual trekking part was more rewarding as we actually saw some wild animals. Beforehand the guides told us to be silent and taught us a few different escape-manouvres in case of an attack by a Bengal tiger, a leopart, a slothbear or a one-horned Indian rhino. After this realitycheck we started moving, a bit nervous but mainly excited, following the guide who disappeared into the 2m high grass.
We walked through 3 kinds of vegetation and we spotted lots of colored butterflies, insects and medicational herbs. Our guides, 2 in thefront 2 in the back, were true actors creating tensions, climbing trees to look out and sharing their knowledge about the nature we were in. At one moment we saw a jumping rhesus monkey and later 2 types of deer.
When we were supposed to take a rest in a watchtower Jaakko and I decided to leave the group with 2 of the guides. We thought to have a much better chance to spot any of the wilder animals with less people. A lot more hiding, kneeling and sweating was worthwile! We spotted a rhino couple behind some bushes (and they spotted us too)! Then, a bit nervous but with lots of laughs, our guides urged us to climb in a tree for our safety. Unfortunately these cute-eared cuddly rhinos decided to flee while we were climbing rather then come to petting distance.
The next day we went for an elephantsafari, as that is the most natural way to make your way through the park as a human, with a chance to get closest to wild animals without disturbing them. Unfortunately this seemed more like a visit to an amusement park than a real safari. There were about 20 elephants, all having 4 tourists strapped on their backs with a driver.
Our ride was a 20 year old Indian mother elephant. We cruised around in a fleet spotting more or less stationary animals - some shy deer, a confused wild boar family and a rhino mom taking a bath with her baby. This all would have been exiting if there wouldn't have been a dozen other tourist-elephants surrounding the spotted poor wildlife. Though the rhinos were a beautiful sight...especially when you realize that there are only a few hundred of them left in the World...
After these adventures we watched the elephant bathing. The safari elephants all go for a nice cooldown in the river along the main bazar. For a little tip you can go in with them, sit on their back and get splashed wet and get thrown off as your 'hathi' drops herself sideways under water.
Furthermore we concentrated on lazing around, drinking liters of water and having cold showers, in this tropical heat with only a few hours of electricity per day.
