Chitwan National Park
Chitwan NP, Nepal, 2014-02-10 07:04 by Laerke
Lured by the warmer climate of the lowland Terai and of the possibility of seeing Rhinos in the national park we journeyed south from Kathmandu. In Kathmandu we heard that the busride would take anywhere in between four and seven hours. We hopped on board at 7am and hoped for the best. Luckily we were seated on the right side of the bus which meant we had fantastic views all the way! From Kathmandu we quickly started climbing up some mountains, and after a while we were driving alongside the Trisuli river, the landscape was really beautiful and I tried my best to capture it through the window of the bus. We had a few masala chai stops along the way and we had a great thali for lunch. At around 13.30-14.00 we arrived just outside the little town of Sauraha, here we were met by a horde of hotel touts, having tried much worse in India we took it all in with smiles and eventually picked a guy that came from a hotel we had read good things about online. We jumped in a little open jeep and drove a few kilometers into town. A few minutes later we arrived at Crocodile Safari Lodge and Camp. The room we were shown has a double bed as well as a single bed, mosquito nets, blankets, an attached bathroom with a sit-down toilet and out front is a little terrace with chairs to sit a take in the cute little garden. All of this for 400rs! That is 22dkk or a little less than 4 US dollars. That is the cheapest room we have had in years. I’m writing this now sitting here on the terrace soaking up the sunshine. It gets cold here as soon as the sun goes down and for dinner I’m wearing my down jacket, but during the day when the sun is high in the sky it is lovely here – around 25C.


Above: the Rapti river, left: our guesthouse’s garden, right: the guesthouse’s sign.

Sauraha is located on the banks of the Rapti river which acts as the boundary for the national park. It is a bit of an odd town as many tourist towns are. It is very much geared to travelers with loads of “Information Offices” that sells tours in the park, restaurants for travelers and souvenir shops. The only thing missing are actual travelers! Of course there are some here but not nearly enough to fill the restaurants and employ all the many guides. At most times there are more elephants in the streets than there are tourists.


All the elephants are definitely my favorite thing about Sauraha.

We booked a canoe tour down the river where we’ll go downstream for an hour and then walk back through the park for about two hours. The canoe is a fantastic looking dug-out that lies pretty low in the water, it reminds me of photos I’ve seen from Botswana where they use these for water based safaris.



We set off down the river with our guide Mhyes, a national park guide and a young canoe man. They pointed of various birds to us, and we spotted both kinds of crocodiles that live in the park, the gharial and the mugger.



Suddenly there is an excited exchange in Nepali between the men in our canoe – and then everybody is pointing and whispering “Rhino! Rhino!” and just a little further up the river is a rhino! The very reason we came to Chitwan. It was a little nerve-racking as the rhino has placed itself right where the river divided into two with a small island in between and we had to go the other way round the little island and thus lost it out of sight for a minute or two – it felt like 10 minutes! We were so worried it would wander back into the forest but luckily it was still grassing right at the edge of the river when we came round the other side!



The guides assured us that we were very lucky to see a rhino on a canoe trip, though I’ve heard of other people who’ve also seen a rhino on a canoe trip – but we did feel lucky! There are about 500 rhinos in this large park, though during the maoist fighting the numbers dipped dangerously low as the army did not have the resources to protect the park from poachers. Luckily now the poaching seems to be under control again and the rhinos are again thriving in Chitwan. This park is one of the last places where you can still see the rare one-horned Indian rhino, it is estimated that there are only 3000 individuals left in the world. So yes, we did feel lucky. A little further down the river a women was carrying a load of grass down the bank, our guides shouted to her about the rhino in her path a little further up and she promptly turned around! Rhinos are quite aggressive and kill people every year in and around the park.



A little later a couple of working elephants crossed the river in front of our canoe, I never tire of watching these magnificent creatures. Too soon our hour on the river was up and we disembarked and headed into the forest, almost instantly one of the guides pointed a tiger paw print in the soft sand, and then a little later a rhino foot print. It was a little unnerving knowing that these giant and very deadly animals had stood in this very place not too long ago. We did not run into any dangerous animals though. We saw some spotted deer and birds, in one place we waited in a viewing tower for a bit as people had seen a bear in that spot yesterday, it did not show up now though.

Back in town we saw the sunset over the river and enjoyed watching a mahout leading his elephant down to the river for a drink.




The next day before lunch we headed down to the river again to see the elephants getting their morning bath. We imagined that the mahouts would be scrubbing their elephants but when we got there we saw that the tourists were very much encouraged to participate – we were not dressed for this. A guy came over and asked if we wanted to bathe with the elephant, I of course wanted to and just waded into the river in my long pants. I got to sit on the elephants back and the mahout got the elephant to splash us with water. It was so much fun!



It was only 100rs and it turned out to be the highlight of Chitwan for me – closely followed by the canoe trip spotting the rhino :) The water was not as cold as I had expected and the sun was nice and warm. There was a great mood on the bank and the other travelers were all laughing when the elephants emptied the trunks onto the squealing tourist on their back.