Royal Chitwan National Park- Elephant Day

  Sauraha, Nepal
Friday, December 14, 2007

Royal Chitwan National Park

Elephants are my new favourite animal. There's just something about these gentle giants that is hard to fully describe. First of all, they always look that they are smiling. Secondly, their trunks are probably the most manouverable limb ever given to a creature, Thirdly they are among the strongest mammals on earth yet once trained they can be also among the gentlest of domesticated animals. Well, actually I was counting on the fact that they are gentle creatures since today a couple of our main activities would center on elephants.

Our day started off with an elephant trek. Even though we hadn't been in the park for a full day yet we had seen some of these lumbering beasts around the village or walking on one of the few roads around the area. These elephants looked magnificent and many were painted on the ears, forehead and trunk areas making look even more interesting. So I was quite looking forward to this.

Our transport

Our elephant

We arrived at the "elephant station", for lack of a better term, and our elephant was already there waiting for us. Tharu Khan was was our driver (or mahout as they call them here). I can't remember the elephant's name exactly but if I were to come up with a way to pronounce it in English it would sound something like "Pinekelli". In any case she was a beautiful creature. I don't know how much she weighed but I believe Asian elephants such as these weigh about 5 tonnes.

We climbed up the stairs of the mounting platform and stepped on the "saddle" that was strapped to the back of the elephant and took our seats facing frontwards. It's actually more of a platform than a saddle as it is simply a flat wooden apparatus with wooden bars in the corners and a wood railing around so that one may rest there arms on it while sitting down. It was about as uncomfortable as it sounds and the elephant wasn't even moving yet.

Into the Jungle

Wildlife

I was impressed by these beasts before but when we started to make our way down the main road I was truly intrigued. It was an indescribable feeling being about 3 metres high on the backs of these powerful mammals as our mahout commanded and steered Pinekelli onwards on the road. For once our vantage point was from tree-top level, in fact, we were swiped by many a tree branch along the way. In addition to being truly intrigued, I was truly uncomfortable. Even though I admired the gracefulness of these animals while I was on the ground, now that I was riding on top of one I realized that the gracefulness is something I could only appreciate on the ground. Their steps are just so big and with every pair of steps you feel the drop and then the rise making for a bumpy ride. And this all wood platform was ass-numbing. But you know, some how the thrill of the ride itself over-powered the feelings of discomfort after only a few minutes and I was very much enjoying the experience of being on an elephant trek.

Peacock

River Crossing

At one point, when it appeared we were being challenged by other competing elephant trekkers, Tharu Kahn coaxed Pinekelli to break into a light run. Apparently last year Tharu Kahn with Pinekelli had done very well in this past year's elephant races and after overtaking the other elephants on the road there was no doubt left in my mind as to who was the fastest.

Almost immediately after picking up two others to fill up our four-person platform, we ventured into the forest. The first thing I noticed, and wsa grateful for, was how much smoother the ride was once we had entered the forest. Initially we were close to the other tourists and although it was a really gorgeous scene watching the other elephant trekkers lumbering around near us, we welcomed distance between us as it grew.

The first thing we saw was deer. It's a bit hard for me to get excited over deer but yet three I was snapping some pictures. I think I was secretly hoping for a tiger to pounce on them.

Rhino and her Calf

The Calf

A common thing to see here are birds, and we were seeing quite a few during this elephant trek, but one of the most interesting were the peacocks. Apparently it is the males that possess the brilliant feathers. Actually, not to sound like Cliff Claven or anything...but it's a little known fact that generally the birds are supposed to be called peafowl with males being called peacocks and the females called peahens. Makes sense but I hadn't thought of it before. Anyways, spectacular birds.

Along the river banks we caught sight of many crocodiles. Quite a few were large although apparently they can grow to be 4m. Another type of crocodile "cousin" that we saw was called the gharial. The distinct physical character about this creature was that it had a unusual looking narrow snout that is known to be very effective in catching fish.

Mother Rhino

Crocodile

The animal that we saw that interested me most today was the one-horned Indian rhinocerous. They are endangered but still we were fortunate enough to see two. They looked like a mother and child team as one was definitely younger. The mother rhino no longer had her horn. Tharu Khan stated that it was likely lost as a result of a battle with another rhino. In any case, there was blood dribbling down from where the horn should have been.

We approached the rhinos closer that what I think we should have and at one point the mother stood up in a defensive manner and her gaze was fixed intently on us. Her young stood up as well and carefully walked towards the mother for protection. We spooked them enough so Tharu Kahn had Pinekelli move away from them.

Itchy

Climbing Onboard

Not much was seen towards the end of the trek but at one point Tharu Khan pointed at some birds on the ground and told us they were wild chickens. Of course I was thinking to myself: "Did he just say wild chickens?". Later on we clarified it to mean wild fowl which made a lot more sense to me some how.

I was really amazed at the bond between driver and beast as the elephant understood a variety of commands and gestures. Actually the bond is quite strong because the driver has the same elephant for as long as the elephant lives.

On an Elephant Head

Mazen Driving

It was really a wonderful way to trek through the forest and we did see a variety of different animals. Our two hour tour went by so rapidly. Tharu Khan was very gracious, in fact, he let both myself and Mazen "steer" his elephant. First Mazen took the driver's seat on the back of the neck of the elephant and then I had my turn immediately after. I was amazed at how tough their skin felt, it was like it was impenetrable. And the scarce hair on here head was black and coarse.

Me Driving

Bye Elephant

Our elephant trek ended back where we had started but we expected to see them again shortly as we would make our way down to the river for elephant bath time!

What exactly is an elephant bath anyways? That was a question that I had asked myself. We met a guy during the Everest Trek saying that it was a wicked experience although he didn't describe. In any case we were now at the river looking for Tharu Khan and Pinekelli.

Unfortunately we could not find Tharu Khan so we arranged this with another mahout and his elephant. With a little bit of trouble Mazen climbed on the elephant a sat behind the mahout and I followed. The wooden sitting platform had been removed so we were basically just sitting directly on the elephant's back.

Bathing elephants1

Bathing elephants2

Once we were as stable as we could be, the elephant simply walked into the river. We got to a water depth deep enough so that the elephant's eye was just above the water when all of a sudden I found myself swimming. I had slipped off the back of the elephant and was now completely in the water! I wasn't sure quite how that happened but with the help of the mahout (as Mazen was too busy laughing at me) I climbed back aboard.

Hardly a few seconds went by when suddenly this time both myself and Mazen were in the water. Ah, now I think I am starting to understand what this elephant bath thing is all about except Mazen and I were apparently the ones taking the bath!

Bathing elephants3

Bathing elephants5

This is basically how it went on for a few minutes. Either the elephant would lower her hind legs thereby we would slip off or better still she would literally shake her body from side to side and we would just get flung off into the waiting water surrounding us. Essentially we were performing a rodeo on an elephant and much to the amusement of the spectators on the river bank, we were losing.

Once I figured out the game I was trying my damndest to stay on but it always ended the same way. What chance do we have against a 5-tonne animal after all? We were tired, people were chuckling at us, and I had swallowed more river water than I care to think about but you know I what? I was thoroughly enjoying this. Although I have to admit I was exhausted as a result of this medley of us getting thrown off and having to swim back and climb back onboard.

Elephant Bath8

Elephant Bath14

At last the carnage was over. At this point the mahout got the elephant to sit down in the water so that on her head was showing and then guided each of us to stand on the top of here head and take a dive into the water from there! I was truly wondering what the elephant must be thinking of all of this.

After our dives we climbed back on board as the elephant waded into shallower waters and then she started giving herself a bath by spraying water from her trunk onto her back. Of course with us sitting on her back we got the full force of the water spray directly at us. But hey it was all good fun. Once we had a good few trunkfuls of water showered on us, we were let off the elephant as the elephant bath was now over.

Elephant Bath16

Elephant Bath22

What a fascinating experience that was and just a tonne of fun. I could hardly believe we had had these amazing experiences and it was still early in the day as we had yet to eat lunch.

At that point we actually did head back to our lodge for lunch and early on in the afternoon we were whisked away to another part of the river by jeep. From here we would be part of a canoe ride down this jungle river. The canoes were basically hollowed out trees with room for about 4 or 5 passengers. The canoe itself was driven by a person who would stand at the back of the boat and he would power and steer it with a long thin pole. Reminded me of a jungle version of a boat one would see in Venice actually.

Interesting Bird

In a Boat

We had been joined today at the lodge by a group of 8 people all from China so we would be doing the remainder of today's activities with them. So we all piled into two boats and were soon floating down the river.

There were many crocodiles scattered throughout but we also observed some monkeys on low lying branches overhanging the river. There were a plethora of different birds flying here and there but it was hard to pick them all out although our guide had little trouble instantly naming them all and decribing their key characteristics. We saw some more peacocks but the other bird that really intrigued me was the kingfisher species. There is something very elegant about this small bird. Unfortunately it was next to impossible to take a picture of one as they don't seem to stand still for very long.

Hungry Crocodile

Monkeys!

Many times it felt like the canoe was very close to taking on water. We were quick to blame the tourist at the very front of the boat with the large camera as he seemed to get over-excitied about every spec of wildlife that he saw. So much so that he would be leaning this way and that way and trying to capture every angle. But it could have been just the boat driver that was making the canoe unsteady. In any case, because of this, I think I was appreciative when the ride was over. It actually wasn't very long anyways.

From here we would trek into the jungle. It would actually only be a 2 hour trek so we wouldn't go very deep. Moreover, it didn't seem likely that we would see much as there were 12 of us stomping around. The most we saw besides birds were deer. Our guide/facilitator Jog, whom we hadn't seen much of today, realized that we were not enjoying being part of this larger group so we immediately accepted when he asked us if we wanted to break off from the group. So the two of us went off with one of the other guides but we really didn't see much more.

Reflection

Hiking

It was only two hours so even though we hadn't seen much it was still an enjoyable enough walk in the woods. Besides, even with only the elephant trek and the elephant bath it felt like we had a full day already. Anything else was just bonus. I took more pictures today than any other day if that is any sort of measure. I couldn't even fit them all here with the text but they are all available in the "View all Photos" link.

Only one full day left in the park tomorrow and we negotiated with Jog so that we would go on a full day of trekking into the woods. I was excited and apprehensive all at the same time with regards to this trek. There was something about the stories about tigers attacking people in this park and places just like it that was definitely keeping me on edge. Either way I would be camera-ready.

Pristine Forest and Water