Chitwan National Park and Sauraha

We had a knock on the door early in the morning by our guide who said there was a rhino down by the shore. We got dressed and went out onto the terrace to watch the huge animal wander up and down. It was finally chased off by one of the villagers to the other side of the river. Once it reached the other side it was chased again and then it chased someone into the water. After the early excitement we had breakfast, David had Catriona's bread rolls, and a banana and apple from the packed lunch the day before and Catriona had a banana and a cup of chai.

We caught the canoe ferry back over to the park and had a half hour walk to the crocodile breading centre. Gharial crocodiles are fish eating crocodiles with a long thin snout and are almost extinct. It was interesting to see the different stages of development of these crocs as well as the breeding sized animals. We had a 20 minute walk to the jeeps and we had a 2 hour jeep ride back to Sauraha and the hotel. We did see a few spotted deer and some large storks but not much else. The group behind us were lucky enough to see a leopard.

We had lunch at a garden restaurant with Alisha, Prue, Mary and Phillip and it was very good. We had free time in the afternoon so we wandered the streets, Catriona tried to update the blog but the internet connection was not very good. In the evening we watched the locals do some stick dancing which was interesting and afterwards we headed off to dinner at a rooftop restaurant we had visited the last time we were in the village before setting off on the safari. We shared a vegetarian mousaka and David had a few beers and Catriona a couple of gin and tonics. After dinner the group took over the music system using their ipods or iphones. We both had a great time until catriona pulled a muscle in her left calf and was unable to continue dancing. David got some ice from the bar and Catriona spent the next 20 minutes with her leg up. Luckilly we had been eating dinner on cushions on the floor. Catriona headed off to bed after the pain got too bad and David followed about 10 minutes later.