8.30am and we boarded a minibus for our 5 hour journey to Chitwan. It started out foggy and we noticed an improvement in the roads and the fact there were much less people compared to India. The vegetation changed to jungle/rainforest as we ascended into the mountains. We stopped at a roadside restaurant to use the facilities. The views from the back of the restaurant were lovely and Alisha managed to get a great photo of an old man sitting in the restaurant next door.
We arrived at the hotel, which is set in lovely garden, at 1.30pm and had lunch that we had phoned through the order for on our way. After lunch we had a bicycle ride through surrounding villages. The direction we took was changed from the usual as they had reports of a sighting of a rhino. We left our bikes outside the elephant breeding centre and walked to where the rhino had been spotted. We were told that if the rhino charged we were to run zigzag and try to find a large tree to hide behind or climb if possible. It was an amazing site to see a rhino so close. It was just grazing on the grass and eventually moved down to the river where we were only 10 metres away from it, luckily though we were on an embankment and were safe. We managed to see another smaller rhino as well which is very rare as two male rhinos do not usually tolerate each other. The story goes that the older one was once the dominant male in the area but was getting old and had been beaten, the younger one had been orphaned and so the older one looked after the younger one. Now as the younger one is getting older they graze further apart, probably about 50 to 100 meters.
We stopped off at the elephant breeding centre on our way back to the bikes and watched them being fed. We also saw a man making up the little parcels of grain wrapped in grass that they fed to the elephants. We finished off our ride through pretty fields of mustard and villages of mud brick / straw and tile homes. After the ride we went shopping and Catriona bought a beanie and a shirt and we also bought a Nepalese flag and some presents. We enjoyed an Everest beer and a gin and tonic at the garden bar before heading out for dinner in the town.
We had another early start with breakfast before heading off on our canoe ride into the national park. We saw many birds, a muggar crocodile and a gharial crocodile as well as a spotted dear.
After the canoe trip we had a jungle walk for the rest of the day. We were advised what to do in the event we came across different animals before we set off into the jungle. We saw lots of evidence of wild animals such as tiger prints, rhino poo, sloth bear scratch marks and poo and a hog dear. At around 4.30 we arrived at the river bank and caught a canoe ferry to the other side where our hotel was. We enjoyed a few drinks watching the sun set and were lucky enough to see some locals taking their elephants down to the river for a wash. We went down for a closer look but they were already on their way back. They did stop for us to take photos and also let us touch them. The one we touched was a very old female and her handler got her to lift her trunk up to say Namaste before they left.
We enjoyed a delicious dinner and afterwards had a few drinks and sat around a fire while one of the locals played a guitar and some people sang along.
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