Chitwan and the animals...
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2008
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5
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Trip End
Jun 07, 2008
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Chitwan National Park,
Nepal
Saturday, April 12, 2008
but back to the recent past...
after leaving pokhara - and we found that each and every one of us was sick of the place in just a couple of days, with the overpricing, lying and general tourist malaise that infects so many locals in popular haunts - we took a bus almost directly south to chitwan national park. the most famous non-mountain orientated attraction in nepal is where you can warm up (with temperatures 35C and upwards while we were there), chill out, and for a price (of course) see many animals which are completely unexpected when you think of this country.
we were reluctant to book onto a package deal, partly from the exorbitant prices, but mainly because we didn't want to troop around a 'traditional tribal village, staring and pointing cameras at 'traditional tribal peoples', giving money to tourguides who hand over little or nothing to the villagers themselves - exactly the thing that mirror in thailand is so set against.
so we did it independently - booked bus tickets, got picked up (somewhat cheekily and without much choice) from the bus stop and taken to one of the many 'jungle camp' resorts in the area.
Indian Python... about 3ft away, and not happy
this one was pretty nice though for the price (300 rupees a night for a twin room - approx $5), and was based right on the bank of the rapta river opposite the park itself.the girls did some scouting in the local village (sauraha) and found competitive prices for a jeep safari (much cheaper than our resort offered), which we booked for the following day.
i won't go into the whole day in detail as much was just sitting on the back of a jeep staring into the undergrowth either sides of the dirt track, trying to see animals. but there were a few outstanding moments which i have to share :)
firstly, i noticed the dirt on the track. as we drove along, it was parted by the jeep wheels like water. the dust was so dry and the particles so small, that it seemed that we were on board a speedboat rather than an old banged up 4x4. as the powder parted, it made waves before floating into the air for a few inches and then settling on the track again, as well as coating the bushes and trees either side with a layer of dust which gave the normally green leaves a grey/white pallor.
secondly, let me ask you a question. do peacocks fly? my experience of these birds is limited to ornamental gardens, parks and not much more. i heard plenty of them around the taj mahal in india, but saw very few. here though, within the first hour, i saw maybe two dozen of the males. some of them were doing a convoluted mating dance, with their long beautiful tailfeathers spread out in the characteristic fan to attract females, turning in slow tight circles, showing their colours, and backside, to their potential partners.
Rhino ready to give us what for if we come closer
this was ruined by us barreling through the middle of their courtship play, with presumably irritated birds dashing into the undergrowth. to answer the question though... yes, peacocks fly. a sight which practically dropped my jaw, as it was something i'd never really considered, and was amazed to watch. and as i looked around, i could see individual birds sitting high in trees with their tailfeathers dropping below their branches by as much as four feet. a nice thing to begin the day with.we saw some deer, jungle chickens (we knew they were jungle chickens because they were wearing loincloths and swinging through the trees on vines), a game bird which reminded me of a partridge or a grouse, monkeys, and some wild boar, as well as a large variety of birds in a myriad of wonderful colours. interesting, but not something which is likely to lift you from your seat very far...
...but then our driver, with our guide sitting cross-legged on the roof of the cabin, took us to a point just off the trail. where we watched a couple of rhino watching us in return. this was it. rhino for crying out loud... i'm in africa... how did i get here from nepal??? over the course of the day, we probably saw more than a dozen of these creatures, mostly immobile as they weighed up our potential danger. a small family of them ran across the track in front of our vehicle, and there was one how started to move towards us, as i imagine it viewed us as a threat. the driver took us out of there before anything untoward occurred though.
Young bull elephant about to charge...
most had had their horns removed to deter poachers, although we did see a couple with fully grown, and very sharp looking, points....and then as we drove along part of the track, and i was staring at tracks in mud at the side of the road (we were passing over a large pond, with reeds and lilies obscuring the view of the water), i saw a back. calling to the guide to stop, we backed up a little and jumped out. well, a lad we had befriended called james, and me jumped out. he is very interested in wildlife and loves snakes above everything else. i had seen an indian python. as we approached it, i got photos of its back and head, while james was endeavouring (we discovered afterwards) to pick it up! but the snake was too wily for him, and as we watched, it retreated backwards into the reeds keeping its head realised defensively as it did so. but this was fantastic, i loved that discovery. largely because i'd seen it as we drove along, but also because it wasn't on the list of animals we expected or even hoped to see.
this sight competes with the other highlight of the day. we had eaten lunch by a lake, watching two rhinos cool down in the heat of the day on the other side of the water, and were all getting tired. soon after this we approached one of the many military outposts in the park. i still haven't ascertained what they were there for - they look too comprehensive for being solely concerned with poaching, with defensive perimeters, barbed wire, sentry posts, machine-gun pits and lookout towers - but possibly the proximity of the indian border has an influence. anyway, as we came driving up to it, we saw another jeep safari ahead of us, and they were reversing and waving us back. our driver ignored this and drove up to where they were. about a hundred yards away, a bull elephant, one of many wild elephants in the park, was in a really bad mood for some reason. it was posturing in front of the barbed wire fence and making moves towards it. around this time, it saw us (apparently elephant eyesight is not so hot, so maybe it just smelled us - we hadn't washed for a while so that seems more likely), and then the most hilarious thing happened. imagine a bull elephant - not a small delicate creature - virtually tiptoing quietly from tree to tree, and then hiding behind them to see if we could still see it. it acted like a big game hunter as it circled us over the course of about ten or fifteen minutes, stopping at each tree (with its backside sticking out a mile) to check on our position. once it had reached the road, with the jeeps between us and it (we had retreated to a position next to the main gate of the army post), it bellowed a few times and then made to charge us! i would guess that it probably didn't travel more than a few yards before stopping, but by this tiume the guides had shouted and dived for the safety of the compound. seeing this everyone else followed suit, with legs, arms and cameras flying over, under and through the gate (only annie walking around it with an air of calm, allegedly). from a position of relative safety, we watched as the soldiers and guides beat plates, cups and cutlery, whilst shouting loudly, to deter the young bull from attacking. this was probably a redundant move as the elephant appeared to be happy that it had established its superiority over us. within a few minutes, still being cock 'o' the walk, it strutted back the way it had come, and disappeared into the treeline. the adrenalin had pumped through all of us, and we laughed with excitement, as well as a degree of relief. another thing which we hadn't expected on our day out.
the rest of the day was an anticlimax, and we drooped visibly after the entertainment of the elephant episode had worn off. and although we never got to see the sloth bears, or some of the bengal tigers which populate the park, we felt we had got more than enough fun for our money. and i shall never forget the tiptoing elephant hiding behind those trees.
