ROYAL CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK (Day 16)

At dawn, we left with Mahendra and another guide, Sysin, on a walking tour of the park. We waited at the riverbank until a small wooden canoe arrived to carry us to the other side. The water came right up to the top edge of the boat, which would every now and then rock so drastically that I wondered how water didn't flood over the sides. The air was alive with huge clouds of mist that hovered on the water's surface. The only sounds were of the gentle warm water as it swept quickly by or the occasional scraping sound as the boat briefly dragged across the bottom of the river.

Crossing the Rapti River

The sun was just starting to get warm when we reached the checkpoint on the far bank. We were told the park is divided into three major sections: the wet jungle, the grassy plains and the sal jungle (the sal or shala tree is native to the area). Just before we entered, Mahendra warned us that walking in the park was a life-risking experience and that he couldn't guarantee anything. Since the animals are protected, the guides are not allowed to bring guns, only large wooden sticks. And with that, we quietly set off into the dark wet jungle, following our dark ly clad guides as they crept under branches and through the leaves.

Water dripped from everywhere, hence the name, and the brown leaves that carpeted the floor crunched underfoot. The dappled sunlight made it possible to see the many monkeys that filled the tree tops. Clearly we were seen as predators as there was lots of screaming and tree jumping. There were two types: the small brown half -tailed makaka and the larger common langur monkey with its grey body, black face and long tail. At one point during our walk, we were suddenly attacked by two very large langur monkeys who ran at us screaming. Fortunately they were easily scared of with a stick. Throughout the jungle was lots of evidence of bears... holes in the ground where they dug for termites and huge claw marks on a tree where they climbed for honey.

A view into the dark jungle

We followed the river for a while, seeing many different kinds of birds as well as several small mugger crocodiles.. fortunately always on the far bank. When we asked about this, we were told that the path we were on was a standard tourist path and the crocodiles know this. But they knew the prized sunning spots on our bank... and sure enough we encountered quite a large one just a few feet off the path. Our guides felt the need to disturb it by prodding it with their staffs. With a loud snort and a lightning fast movement, the animal bolted into the very murky dark green water and disappeared, leaving a trail of stirred sand beneath the water.

A crocodile on the far bank... and very near!

Out in the grasslands it was very bright and hot. This was a very different view than from atop an elephant! We walked out to a tall wooden observation tower, from which we could view the entire grassland all the way back to the forest. We ate our lunch quickly in our excitement to search for animals in the tall grass. We once saw something large move, but couldn't tell what it was.

A view from the observation tower

After a while, we were ready to go but our guides had fallen asleep. So we waited and looked some more. Suddenly we heard a very odd noise, a sort of crackling and popping sound... fire! We then spotted rather large orange flames at the edge of the grassland near the trees. We looked around us and realized there were several more... four in total. After Mahendra awoke a bit later, he explained they were set by the elephant drivers in order to get rid of the dry grass so that the new grass can grow through faster. Ok, fine.. but did they have to do it while we were there??

We hiked back through the tall, thick reed grass back, carefully avoiding stepping in the knee-deep rhino droppings, to a part the sal forest known for its high tiger density. Local water buffalo often wander in so the tigers have learned to hang out here.

We walked single-file down the relatively narrow path and stopped to learn about another tree. Suddenly Mahendra yelled! He had just seen a tiger run across the path about 30 feet ahead of us. I turned around and started to leave in the opposite direction, but our guides signaled us to move quietly forward in the direction it had fled. Slowly and quietly we we moved forward until we reached the point where he had seen it. We stood there for several minutes, thoroughly searching the area. Finally Mahendra decided that it was gone and started to speak, but he only got out a couple of words when there was a huge explosion in the grass thicket directly to left of us. A large shape went crashing through the grass at lightning speed and bounded away. The tiger had been sitting there, watching us the entire time! Mahendra said it was very unlikely that it would have attacked because they are relatively shy beasts when it comes to unknown things, not to mention there were four of us. But it was still unnerving to realize we were right next to it, KNOWING it was there, but still couldn't see it.

Looking for the tiger... A large paw print!

We continued on and sat by a lake for a bit, recovering from our harrowing adventure on the grassy bank of the calm water. We then continued on. Suddenly I almost got knocked over as our guides, in their frantic haste, ran and shoved us back down the path. They had just seen a huge rhino by the side of the path and felt we were FAR too close. We were told that rhinos will definitely charge if anything enters a 30 foot radius of them... and we had been in it. Lucky for us, the rhino was hungry and more interested in food. We decided to retrace our steps and take another way through the jungle.

We entered a village with about 8,000 inhabitants. Technically it is located inside the park. It's from here that the water buffalo wander into the tiger area. It's also not unheard for a villager to disappear... usually while drunk, stumbling home alone in the middle of the night.

It was almost sunset when the canoe arrived to ferry us back. We'd covered some 10 miles in about 10 hours. When we arrived back at the resort, we were quite glad to call in an early night.

return • continue