On safari in Chitwan National Park

Chitwan National Park is ideal for a touch of animal spotting, the locals say, so we found a guide and headed out.  Chitwan is pretty much a wildlife 'island,' as the Park is surrounded by rivers.  The river that protects our village from the wild creatures is also home to two species of crocs, so only half reassuring!  Hopping in the dugout canoe (pictured above) with 14 people on board it turned out to be wiggly.  Perhaps the others saw more crocodiles than we did. 

Cruising down river in the foggy half light we spied a ton of exotic birds.  Happy bird songs came from every direction.  We're no ornithologists, but there were mini flittery birds darting around feeding on the wing above us.  Plump bronze and cream birds that looked like big dumplings feeding on the waters edge.  Our guide Dave said every year they take a winter getaway from the Siberian chill ... They'd need to be well insulated dumplings to get over the Himalayas.  

We noticed energetic black and white pied mini birds on the rivers edge.  Dave explained how they make their homes by digging up to 1.5m into the sandy banks, creating a U shape, and then pecking out an exit hole.  The sparrow-sized birds fly straight into their hole in the wall, and disappear.

There were grey-mottled waders.  Long billed white stalks.  Egrets.  Kingfishers.  Minahs.  Brighter than usual peacocks perched right up high on the tip tops of the tallest trees.  

Rising through the mist, the sun finally warmed up the air, and the birds responded with even more volume.  By the time we scrambled out of the dugout, it felt like summer again.

Heading into the trees on the river bank, Dave said he needed a nature stop.  He wandered away, leaving us to fend for ourselves.  We'd heard we were in the territory of rhinos, elephants, tigers, sloth bears, pythons, cobras, and an assortment of spiders.  Hmmm.  We looked at each other, and around to find Dave.  He had the stick after all.  

Turns out Dave had wandered five meters away for a cigarette, and all was fine!  His briefing followed, including these instructions....

"If a rhino charges us, hide behind a tree that is bigger than you.  If you can climb it, then get up two meters or more.  Same with an elephant.  If a sloth bear comes to attack us, stay together and clap and shout, and I'll try to hit him on the snout, they're very sensitive there.  Tigers are shy of people, but if they're hungry they'll attack from the side or the rear.  Just look him in the eye and slowly back away. Any questions?"

And with that we were off!

Stalking through the jungle, we followed pretty closely behind Dave and his midget sized serious-faced sidekick.  Both the men had 1.2 meter bamboo sticks (and eyes to ward off the ferocious tigers).  Before long we were shown 2 meter wide bushwaking 'trails' and Dave candidly said "oh a rhino's been here."  Sure enough, there were trails all through the jungle.  Hide and seek wouldn't be very fun if you were a rhino.

We heard a couple of kids say 'we have rhiiiinosaurs in the park' which sounded like dinosaurs, and at that point we cracked up.

After a lot of walking, and a lot of stopping and tilting of the head to hear sounds around us, we ended up on a jeep trail.  Apparently tigers like to hide in the elephant grass either side, so we stalked them out for a while.  The closest we got to those elusive tigers were these ominously large pawprints.

Our $3 a night hotel (yes you read that right) packed us a lunch, which was well-deserved after such a long spell of walking and stalking.  Fried rice is tricky to eat without a spoon.  The guides scooped up the rice with their fingers, adding spicy tidbits and raw garlic from their locals' lunch package.  As you can see the package was wrapped with a few pages from a book, which is rather novel.

The afternoon sun felt so warm.  But we'd come to see animals and all we'd seen were rhino trails, a million red silkcotton bugs, and the territory-piss-marking of a tiger, those tiger prints we talked about, and all those birds.  We'd been shown elephant poo (they walk along as it comes out), rhino poo (they stop to take a dump), and tiger poo (all the deer hair comes out like furballs).

Just when energy and excitement had started to wane, we came upon a rhino about 40 meters away munching on leaves.  Ooooh!  Finally.  They're big beasts alright.  But their horns are only midget.  The Indian rhinos have only one horn, while their African counterparts sport two.  Apparently their bum skin is so thick that bullets can't get through.  Good if you're being chased for ya horn I guess.  

Speaking about being chased, Dave said that when a boy rhino wants a girlfriend he chases her.  If she outruns him, tough luck, he didn't deserve her anyway.  If she gets tired before him, then the gestation period is 15.7 months and the baby will weigh around 55 kgs.  He'd better be fast though, cos rhinos can run at 55kms or so per hour.

We quietly waited and watched as a rhino waded through swamplands, manging on plants, while half a dozen white egrets bustled about him, catching frogs and fish that tried to escape the incoming tide of the rhino hoof.  They were a happy pairing, neither bothering the other.  Just going about their day.

Hiding under a grassy clump was a scaly 15 cm diameter black python.  We left him to it.

We also saw a couple of hairy black wild boar.  

Midway through the afternoon we were ambling along quietly, when a short deep rumble of a baloo (tiger) stopped us in our tracks.  We heard a few more mini rumbles, but he must've been cat-napping, so we opted not to upset him.  It was striking that this much-loved yet fiersome creature was close enough to know we were about, yet no fences existed.  (I needed to go and 'mark' some territory of my own after that thought!)

A smidge disappointed about not setting our eyes upon the orange striped creature, we took the path towards home.  We'd seen guides and travellers all day long, mostly they had annoyed our mate Dave cos he thought the animals would scamper away from all their noise.  But this last time the travellers in front of us had poised themselves on the edge of the path, with eyes peering into the lush green.

"A rhino" someone whispered, "see him?"  No.  There were only trees and vines.  Dense and verdant.  Before long, the serious faced midget guide put on his brave face and snuck further down the path to see what all the fuss was about.  He disappeared around a few trees, but quickly came back sprinting, bamboo stick bobbing with his strides.  He didn't need to explain, we were hot on his tail and followed him down to the river bank.  

Moments later we hear some bushwacking and the aforementioned rhino came sauntering down our path, along the bank (away from us thankfully) and traversed the river.  Quite delicately he 'minced' his way up the other bank like he was on a catwalk ... which amazed us for the giant beast he was.  And that was our safari.

The next day we took the rickety old jeep on equally rickety gravel roads to The Tower.  The drive there was super pretty, through 'fields of gold' as the paddocks of bright yellow mustard flowers stretched out around us.  Bamboo enforced mud houses were teeming with life.  Women working the water pumps, with the gushing water being absorbed into a basin of washing below.  Children playing in the dirt, with grubby faces and big smiles.  Men gathering around warm cups of masala chai in the late afternoon sun. Dogs scratching.  Chickens and goats getting in the way and being shooed off the crops by nana.  

Kids shouted 'bye bye' as we drove through their village.  At one point we stopped for a few minutes, and it was rather intense fending the kids off Bry's hair, and repeating that we didn't have any chocolate.  

The Tower is set in the Maruni area of the villagers' forest.  There are four rooms which are hired out, plus a deck, and on the very top there is a mini observation deck that can squeeze two bodies in.  We sat so quietly.  For a long time.  We practised the expressions we'd need if we saw tigers.

To save you the hours of suspense and anticipation we experienced, we watched for ages but only saw a big mama bambi, and a cluster of bambini.  A bit sad we didn't spot that tiger, but we hope that means he's safe somewhere else.

Our other days in Chitwan National Park were spent soaking up the sun, reading, and general lazing about.  If you head that way, pop into KC's on the main road for a banana lassi and a decent coffee.  Their hammocks in the sun are pretty good too!