Royal Chitwan National Park: 12-14th March.

Our next stop, which required another lengthy bus journey, was Chitwan. A few hours into the bus ride, we were halted abruptly by a roadblock. This was due to political unrest caused by Maoist rebels. Huge political problems in Nepal at the moment, and what doesn’t help is that a couple of years ago the King and several members of the Royal family were shot dead at a dinner party by the King’s brother, who then crowned himself King and who’s face now grimaces at you every time you open your wallet, from the notes! Anyhow, we had to wait at this Road block for an hour to be escorted by police for the majority of the rest of the journey.

Awaiting escort!

On arrival we dumped our bags in gorgeous little cottages, and Armelle was in awe of the slate clad bathroom, loving outdoor décor in, and all that…anyway…The thirteen of us jumped on a selection of tin-can bicycles-Armelle’s had no brakes, and Jess’ gave her bum-ache for the next 3 days! Having said this, the ride to the elephant breeding centre was some much appreciated exercise, as we felt as though we’d been sitting down for ever, and the ride there was spectacular- we wound our way through rural nepali villages, with children shouting ‘namaste’ (hello) at every opportunity, steering through hoardes of buffalo will never be forgotten, and it was so nice to see children playing together too and not begging, it seems that country air doing people good is a universal truth. After admiring the baby elephants, we cycled back as the sun set, and came across a herd of elephants taking over a street heading toward the river, which were potentially more difficult to navigate than the buffalo!

The drift from our bikes over to the breeding centre.

That evening, we had went out for a little tipple, Armelle overdid it on the Everest Beer, while Jess paid far too much for a warm and tasteless ‘tiger’ cocktail. Armelle thought she was ridiculous for ordering a warm cocktail in the first place…The next day, after a night of thunder and torrential rain, we got up bright and early ready for our day’s trekking, and gratefully drew out our breakfast for a few hours to allow the minor flooding to subside. In two groups, we unsteadily boarded our runner-bean shaped boats, to drift downstream to reach the heart of the jungle. En route, we observed many of nature’s wonders, including floating cabbages, many a kingfisher, and the odd dead dog. Which again, Jess didn’t notice, but which Armelle found interesting as it had no head! We then split into two groups, Armelle’s stumbled upon two rhinos, and a quick uphill escape was required, but the crazy guide decided to approach the rhino, climb a tree and proceed to nearly fall out of it. Jess’ rhino encounter was along the same lines, except that her group ran to hide behind trees, and I don’t think the guide was very impressed when they all ran for the same one. After another four hours of trekking at 6km/hr, (or so it felt), we arrived exhausted but exhilarated, at our huts for the night.

We had both seen so much vegetation and wildlife so far removed from British countryside. The huts themselves were so incredibly basic- nothing more than mud huts with bamboo beds complete with four-poster mosi nets and thatched roofs. They were very clean, dry and cosy all the same.

That evening we celebrated Roberto’s 32nd birthday, which involved more beer, dahl, and a CD of the Venga Boys with a little bit of Shakira thrown in for good measure, on repeat, due to a selection of 1 CD. (The next day we had a whirlwind of thoughts about the Venga Bus being back in town). It was a really brilliant evening, with everyone getting into the spirit, drinking and dancing, surprisingly the Nepali men were more up for the dancing than the Western men, shame on them…you know who you are… It was late to bed for everyone, especially Armelle who attempted to wear sunglasses throughout the whole of the next day, but after tripping up on several occasions decided she would have to face the sun’s rays! On this day we visited the crocodile breeding centre after a few hours of uneasy trekking, we then got into jeeps to head back to the hotel where we spent the first night in Chitwan. Despite sore heads and off road driving, Armelle still managed to fall asleep, but the landscape was gorgeous.

That afternoon we each opted for two different elephant activities. Armelle chose elephant bathing, one of the most comedic moments of the trip so far, it was a picture. Basically the elephant rolled it’s trunk to act as a launch pad to climb onto its head, except that the trunk receded rather quickly, leaving Armelle hanging with two men pushing her bum to give her a much needed push. The elephant would then submerge itself under water, causing her to slip off, considerably concerned for leg trappage.

Once on the elephant it would squirt water directly in her face! Hee hee, brilliant fun! Jess opted for the elephant jungle ride, and was very grateful that she was on an elephant, when they happened upon a pair of rhinos having a little dispute over mating rights.

That evening we had a group dinner by the river, where we said our farewells to Wibeke and Richard, unaware that we would meet them again by chance later on. But that’s another story.