Chitwan National Park
26.09.2010 - 26.09.2010
“Ok everyone, really for the off?” shouted Noel from the drivers seat. There was a click and a buzz, then silence. “Everybody off and start pushing!” – Kristina was a big girl and even with all the staff and the whole group pushing we managed to move her about three feet.
“We need that tractor!” I shouted pointing into the next field. Within 5 minutes it was well and truly commandeered and was dragging Kristina over the rough ground. In a plume of blue smoke she fired up and we were off.
Chitwan National Park was definitely one of the high lights for Sarah and me. There were two main animals to see, the one horned rhino and the Bengal tiger. We knew it was pretty much impossible to see a tiger, a guide that had been in the park everyday for thirty years had only ever seen ten, and so we set our goal to see rhino.
As we drove into the park, the last thing we expected was traffic congestion, but we joined a long queue of the parks most common form of transport; elephants! We eventually over took them and arrived at our lodge accommodation.
We jumped into the back of a 4x4 pickup, then transferred to small dugout canoe and headed to the elephant-breeding centre. 
We were both really excited about seeing it but as we approached the elephant sheds we noticed they were all chained by their ankles, some had their ankles chained together that stop them moving around at all. It was all a little disturbing. The guide explained that it was necessary to stop the elephants wondering into the village and crushing people (apparently this had happened on two occasions) but it still didn’t sit right with us. To be honest we were glad to leave.
We met up with Simon who’d travelled down to meet us after his trek; he managed to bring three girls along with him. We all met in the bar next door. We’d convinced the bar manager to extend his happy hour from 7pm until midnight, so the two-for-ones flowed and no one can remember getting back to the lodge.
Posted by asprey 25.09.2010 23:33 Archived in Nepal
