Subhash & Naresh (my program organisers) took me on a trip on Friday night to Souraha, a nearby tourist area which borders the Chitwan National Park. Since its the tourist off season, there were no more than 50 tourists in town! We ended up staying at the Rhino Lodge, where we met another group of volunteers who were taking a day off from their teaching & building project. It turned out that they are based only a few km from me in Patihani. And i was thinking i was the only westerner for miles around!! ;)
We found a restaurant which served pizza for dinner too - a good change from the staple rice & curry (dal bhat) diet ive been subsisting on since i arrived in india almost a month ago!
Saturday morning was time for my jungle safari, riding on an Elephant. It meant a pretty early start, but i guess thats when its easiest to find the wild animals. It didnt take long either until we spotted first some wild pigs scurrying away, then a couple of deer searching for breakfast amongst the trees. But the real highlight was seeing the 3 Rhinos. They were each taking their morning bath (in different pools) and didnt seem too worried about a passing elephant and its camera-toting passenger. My Elephant 'driver' decided to make one of the Rhinos move around a bit for me by throwing some small sticks at it. This tactic succeeded in getting the animal to raise its body out of the water and turn its head towards me, but thankfully it didnt get angry at us :) The horns on the Rhinos (they have 1 each) didnt seem all that long either. Maybe they're different to the African ones i wouldve seen in documentaries? My host father told me that there is still some poaching going on in the park too, and recently 3 Rhinos were killed for their horns, while another 2 escaped with injuries. Just not enough rangers to stop it completely i guess :(
Ive got a few photos from Nepal online here
