09/05/09 - 11/05/09 - Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Eventually we waved goodbye to Pokhara and we did so in style, in a very unusual form of transport for us - a car none the less (its been so long). But it wasn't to last. We had a puncture within half an hour! But there was a spare. Although the tyre had to be fixed before we went any further as with these bumpy roads another puncture (which was pretty likely) would have meant disaster.

So we arrived in Chitwan which is home to a host of wild beasts, including about 70/80 Bengal Tigers - but we were confident that the smell of Graham's feet would entice them out into the open so we could be the lucky few who get to see them. But Tigers were booked into the schedule for later - Elephants were the first attraction.

We saw 3 month old twin baby elephants at the breeding centre - they were so cute. And not daft either as they knew cookies and mineral water are much tastier than what their keepers give them. Graham even managed to get up close and personal with one of them and got his hand covered in elephant snot - trust him. We were also due to go for a ride through the jungle on an elephant but the Mahout's who look after the elephants are on strike - just our luck. But we're going for a jeep safari tomorrow instead, which apparently takes us deeper into the jungle.

So Day 2 started early with a trip up river in a dug out canoe and we silently floated past a few crocodiles! (the Gharial type). The marshes were also covered with loads of different types of weird and wonderful birds such as storks. It was then time to disembark and get the "dos and don'ts" of the jungle before we started our walk back. However, afterwards I'd be damned if I could remember if you should climb a tree for a Rhino, make a noise for a Sloth Bear, take a detour for an Elephant or s*** your pants for a Tiger! Hopefully somebody would remind me which course of action to take if the need arose.

And sure enough not 10 minutes into the jungle and we saw a big croc (a Mass Mugger) - now he could have been going to rob us of our belongings as his name implies but we didn't enjoy his company for long enough to find this out. We then saw a whole group of Macaq Monkeys, but watching them was short lived as we were accompanied by another rare beast - a lesser spotted lanky legged dutchman whose stealth like movements scared them off (along with everything else in the jungle).

So by this point we were just about giving up hope of seeing any "biggies" - when bingo, we spotted a wild rhino casually enjoying a snack. But like all good jungle stories we had to run for our lives to the safety of the observation tower (which just happened to be nearby) - but to be honest we don't think the Rhino even noticed us. But saying that we did watch a group further up the path having to climb a tree (so I would have needed reminding on what to do after all). It was brilliant to watch the Rhino in the wild before it sauntered off to its watering hole.

We were reliving this encounter when the walk was over but things got better - there just happened to be an Elephant getting washed on our walk back to the hotel. Great - we didn't need to be asked twice, we were changed into our bathing gear and joined the Elephant for a dip! Graham sat on the Elephant and was sprayed clean before being thrown in the water. I mentioned earlier that I can't swim so I just splashed some water on the Elephant from a safe distance. This was great fun - Elephants are such amazing animals (Jennifer you would have been jealous).

After lunch we were back on the road and off on the jeep safari - now we were lucky here (must have been our day), we saw all of these: -muntjacs (barking deer), chitals (spotted deer), jarayos (sambar), guars (wild oxen/bison), rhesus macaque and lanquar (mokeys), peacocks, kingfishers and an Asian Paradise Flycatcher. And......3 more Rhino....and a herd of 10 wild Elephants (even our guide hadn't seen them before).

In the end, we did also see a Bengal Tiger - but she was in a cage. Her mother had been a Man Eater and ate 4 humans in 20 days!

Also, to top things off our jeep broke down - now we weren't confident that the AA would cover us for this, but half a dozen Nepalese men can fix a car no bother and before long we had a new battery connection. Good - we were going back to the hotel in one piece for our dinner - not as dinner!

And finally, bizarrely our dinner was Swiss Raclette as our hotel owner was from Leysin - David and Irene just up the road from you!!