Mr B’s is quite a basic place but the rooms are spacious, comfortable and spotlessly clean. They’re set around lovely gardens that attract a whole host of birds and the entire area is very peaceful. The food we had was very tasty but we feel it’s all rather over-priced but then we’re very much a captive audience. To be honest it’s difficult to judge properly as this is our first port of call in Nepal. The staff have all been helpful and friendly but rather too much so for our liking. They seem to lurk longer than necessary while you’re eating and approach the table one-by-one to ask the same questions.
http://www.mrbsplacebardia.com/
We were too late to get permits for the park today but have booked a full day jeep and walking safari for tomorrow. It’ll cost about the same as Corbett National Park but it sounds like we’ll get much more for our money and at present there’s no talk of strike action. We’ve spent the day enjoying our balcony, catching up with ourselves and wandering the village lanes alongside the park. We’re looking forward to exploring it tomorrow but have decided not to get our hopes up in terms of what we might see.
We were right not to get our hopes up as once again we’ve had a disappointing safari thanks to human intervention. Strikes in Corbett and now animal counting using camera traps; causing much distress to the animals resulting in them moving to a different area of the park. Once again we’ve parted with a lot of money for very little reward. I know that by not coming we’d never have had a chance of spotting tigers and elephants but you can’t help feeling you wish you hadn’t bothered. On a positive note we’re looking at is as our annual contribution to charities – if people didn’t frequent these areas there’d be even fewer animals left. At least our tourist dollars should be going towards protecting their habitats and hopefully allowing animal populations to increase. We decided to do a full day safari that involved driving round in a jeep for the morning and then walking through the park in the afternoon. Amazingly we saw more on foot than from the vehicle but once again all we saw were deer and monkeys, although this time we have hog deer to add to the list. We could hear plenty of birds and even though we spend much time by water we saw very few feathered friends. At one lookout point we were looking out for Gangetic dolphins. The guides told us that the occasional splash that we saw was a dolphin but it wasn’t a conclusive sighting as far as we’re concerned. I happen to know that there are huge catfish in the river too and the splashes could just as easily have been caused by them surfacing. So, were there any highlights? Or am I just going to sign off saying; “At least it was a lovely park”?
I have one brief highlight to report for towards the end of our walk and the end of the time in the park. We were walking alongside the type of pool that the rhinos like to cool off in when we heard a loud rustling in the grass to our left. On gaining a vantage point so we could peer over the tall elephant grass we spied the grey, plated rear and flanks of a one-horned rhino. Unfortunately we didn’t get a good view of its head before it smelled our presence and dashed off. That in itself was an adrenalin pumping moment as we fleetingly thought he was charging in our direction. It had been a long day for 5mins of excitement. Enough wildlife whines; next stop Pokara to start some serious trekking – at least the mountains don’t move. Mind you there’ll be some mountainous moans if we’re walking in thick cloud like we were on the Singalila Trek from Darjeeling!
