Heart of the Jungle

Our next and final stop in Nepal was Chitwan. Nepal was for us an interesting mix: the “big city” of Kathmandu and nearby spiritual temples,, the open beautiful mountains of the Himalayas and Chitwan would now offer up a jungle. In fact, Chitwan literally translates to “heart of the jungle.”

We took an 8 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Chitwan in a large tourist bus. It was all right, as we had our own seat and we were at least assured that our luggage sat safely under the bus. We were warned about bumpy roads and narrow turns, but compared to Kenya this ride was a breeze. I actually managed to catch up on some sleep.

We arrived in the late afternoon and someone from our hostel was there to meet us with an open pick up truck. As we were driving through the town, we noticed how laid back this place was. We noticed most people preferred to get around by “push bike” rather than by loud motor bike and occasionally we would see locals riding atop their elephants to get to where they were going. Such a different way of life from the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu. I immediately liked it.

Local just taking a ride on his elephant

We knew when we were there we had to take part in the various jungle and animal activities that seemed unique to this area: A jungle walk (will explain), bathing elephants, swimming with elephants and taking an elephant safari.

Jungle Walk:

Sounds casual right? Well actually a jungle walk is quite dangerous. It is basically a safari where you “hunt” for the one-horned Rhinos and sloth bears, some of the world’s most dangerous animals, on foot. I was up for it, but Aaron required more convincing, you know, because he’s the practical one. We signed up without too much worry and without knowing just a few days before a guide was killed while protecting his group from a charging rhino. The rhino’s only predator is the human and they have been hunted down to almost extinction for sport or their horn and, therefore they are quite aggressive towards people.

But, there we went deep into the jungle, through the thick brush and trees, trying to find a rhino, basically seeking out DANGER. An extra plus we found out along the way, in order to get to the jungle we had to canoe through crocodile infested waters. CRAZY.

The river on a tiny canoe

A crocodile not far on the banks

We had two guides, one for each of us, however they didn’t give me much relief as I was probably bigger than both them. They did however, carry a big stick, in case of danger and a handy way to push back the bush as we walked. For me, the walk was the hardest part. I was ready to go back into the high elevation of the Himalayas than walk through the jungle after about an hour. The jungle was muddy, sticky, prickly, etc. Brush and trees would whip my face as I tried to push through and I found that my exposed calves got sliced and cut. My arms were also exposed and my body was scratched and just stung all over. It was also a million degrees. I love heat, but this was hot. We would try and seek out shade in raised look out huts, under and in trees and even crouching under the bush.

The tall bush

Trying to pass through

Pushing through more forest

Spotted: a wild buck

Watch out! Thorns.

Guide and his stick

More jungle

More sticky, scratchy, swampy, grasslands

Finding shade in the tall grass while a wild pig runs by

Finding shade in a look out hunting hut

Finding shade in a tree

Just a bit muddy/dirty

But all of that was worth the thrill we got when we realized we may have tracked down a rhino. For six hours we had been walking, investigating fresh rhino droppings and foot prints and it had finally paid off. We heard the sound of a baby rhino behind the bush in the small river bank. The excitement was on. Aaron and I hid behind the bush, looking through the tall grass witnessing a family of rhino in their natural habitat. We were scared and that rush of fear was all in part of the thrill. We were spotted by the rhino after a few minutes. As they looked at us, we ducked and they decided to leave their watering hole. Phew. We were going to be okay and we had a successful walk. Little did we know how lucky we were. As we got into our canoe to head back we connected with a group who didn’t see a rhino all day. We had seen 3 Thank goodness I wasn’t scratched from head to toe for nothing.

A rhino footprint

Crouched behind the bush to get a peek at the rhinos – very Discovery Channel

Our guide gets closer than us

Aaron freaking out

The one horned rhinos!

Bathing Elephants
Elephants have some rough skin, as we found out when we scrubbed them down in the river with pumice rocks. They are sweet creatures with small eyes and big ears and it was so awesome to connect with them so intimately. We massaged their heads and scrubbed their backs. In exchange for bathing them, they gave us a shower. It was so cool.

Scrub a dub dub

Playing and Swimming with Elephants
We also managed to get on the backs of these huge animals. We rode them, stood on them, jumped off them, commanded them in Napalese, and fell down into the water with them. It was so much fun, we decided to go a second round.

Elephant Safari

Just when you thought that we had done enough safaris, we were signing up for a new one. But this time the goal wasn’t to FIND elephants but to rather RIDE them. We were told it was particularly safe to seek rhino on the backs of elephants because rhinos have such poor eye sight and hearing they depend on their sense of smell to “see” and because the elephant smell is so strong, the rhino would only smell the elephants and not detect us humans. This came in handy when our group spotted and got particularly close to a mother rhino and her baby. Parent animals are the most aggressive kind when their young is with them so this was a big treat. The baby rhino was only 3 weeks old and the cutest thing ever – no horn yet. Our safari lead us deep into the jungle and our elephant brushed us up against high trees and branches and lead us into watered and muddy ponds. It was an awesome advantage point to see the jungle from above as we had felt swallowed up the day before on the trek. And major plus not walking through all that mud and sticky jungle myself.

Our crew atop the elephant

Through the open grass

Through the jungle

Rhino spotting, so close

Baby is so cute

My feet hanging by the head, Aaron’s at the rear

After the safari, we got back into the hostel’s pick up truck and headed back to the hostel. In the morning we would leave for India. The elephants gave us terrific send off…thanks Nepal!

Bye babe