WEATHER: Hot and 27C
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing the Rhino
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not seeing a tiger
WORD OF THE DAY: Bird paradise
ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Red wattle lapwing, river lapwing,
herons, winter visitor birds, little egrets, swallow birds, small parking
fisher, blue stroke fisher, large egrets, love birds, marabou storks, black
abbeys, peacocks, cormorants, open billed storks, common greensands, rhino,
flying fish, crocodiles, wag tails, data birds, ospreys, temple monkeys, red
painted bull bulls, eagles, parakeets, butterflies and a dead green pea
viper.
So this was officially the third last day of the
trip. Time has gone so quick and I am
really looking forward to getting home and spending time with my friends but I
am a little stressed out about the shipping container issue, getting things
organized for Africa and more keen than ever to get there and see which
direction my life will take. That is a
BIG thing for me-I am a planner and to not have a job, or a house or even
people I know is a BIG deal for me but it all feels right and I know that it
will all work out, I just don’t know the how, where and when.
We were up at 6.30am, breakfast at 7am and then we were
on our way at 7.50am. We only had to
walk 5 minutes to where the canoes were sitting waiting for us. A few days ago when Satiya mentioned canoes I
checked with him whether I would fit into one.
I know it sounds like a funny question, but some of the ‘traditional’ canoes
that are made out of trees aren’t always that wide and I wanted to make sure I
would be able to get into one. Well when
I saw the long wooden boats, it looked okay.
They reminded me of the mokoro canoes that we travelled in on the
Okavango Delta but longer. We were to
have 6 of us in each canoe and we also had 3 guides and Satiya for the trip. When we arrived we were given life jackets
and then with an appraisal of weight distribution we were loaded in. By the time we were ready to board there were
locals all standing around watching us.
Well looking more at me I think and again it is my size that seems to
appeal to the looks. I hate unwanted attention
at the best of times and I KNOW I have to get used to it, but it doesn’t make
it any easier. I think they may have
been waiting for one of us to fall out of the boat. They are not the most stable to get on and
off, well for people that don’t use them every day and you really have to have
your balance and with you when you get on.
So with a hand up onto the bow, I was positioned in the middle and they
also had these small wooden chairs, without legs, so there was something that
we could lean back on and once I sat down (not so lady like) I was happy I
hadn’t fallen out and I after arranging my backpack, pulling out my camera and
my notebook I was ready for a few hours floating down the river in the Chitwan
National Park.
Chitwan
National Park is the first national park in Nepal.
Formerly called Royal Chitwan National Park it was established in 1973 and granted
the status of a World Heritage Site in 1984. It covers an area of
932 km2 and is
located in the subtropical Inner Terai lowlands of south-central Nepal in the Chitwan District. In altitude it ranges from about 100 meters
in the river valleys to 815 meters. Since
the end of the 19th century Chitwan - Heart of the Jungle – used to be a favorite hunting ground
for Nepal’s ruling class during the winter seasons. Until the 1950s, the
journey from Kathmandu to
Nepal’s South was arduous as the area could only be reached by foot. Thus, in
an area known as Four Mile Forest comfortable camps
were set up for the feudal big game hunters and their entourage, where they stayed for a couple of
months shooting hundreds of tigers, rhinoceroses, leopards and sloth bears.
In 1950, Chitwan’s forest and
grasslands extended over more than 2,600 km2 and was home to
about 800 rhinos. When poor farmers from the mid-hills moved to the Chitwan Valley in
search of arable land, the area was subsequently opened for settlement, and
poaching of wildlife became
rampant. In 1957, the country's first conservation law inured to the protection
of rhinos and their habitat. By the end of the 1960s, 70% of Chitwan’s jungles
were cleared using DDT,
thousands of people had settled there, and only 95 rhinos remained. The
dramatic decline of the rhino population and the extent of poaching prompted
the government to institute the Gaida Gasti– a rhino reconnaissance
patrol of 130 armed men and a network of guard posts all over Chitwan. To
prevent the extinction of rhinos the Chitwan National Park was gazetted in
December 1970, with borders delineated the following year and established in
1973, initially encompassing an area of 544 km2.
So
with our pole-er at the back and our guide in the front we set off on the Rapti
River. It was so peaceful out there and
the mornings mist was just starting to life and get burned off by the sun. It was 8.15am and leaning back in my chair-I
was wondering what people would be doing back home today as I got pole-ed down
this amazing river, in the amazing country of Nepal. There were a lot of birds on the water and I
wrote the names down of every single bird we saw over the next 2 hours. I felt a little like David Attenborough with
my pen poised and my camera raised trying to get some good shots of the
birds. The beauty of the canoes is there
is no motor, which means no noise and no fumes and you can really enjoy what is
happening around you.
50
minutes after leaving we spotted out first rhino. Well we didn’t see it from where we were, but
there were a couple on the side of the river and then any time that people stop
when you are on safari generally means there is something to see and we were
told that it was a rhino. We pulled the
canoe up to the pebbly beach and we all got out and the first sighting of the
rhino happened to be his butt in the bushes that would have been 400m
away. So it wasn’t much to start with,
but then there were some guys in the jungle that were trying to ‘flush’ the
rhino out so that we could get a better photo.
It is a difficult position to be in as you do want to get a good photo,
but I am sure that Intrepid as a responsible travel company (and me) wouldn’t
condone the ‘shooing’ of the animal for us to get a better view. We were told to be on the lookout as they
were hoping the rhino would come running out and we wanted to make sure that we
weren’t going to be in the firing line.
I didn’t think the rhino would come out but after 15 minutes he came
running out of the trees only about 150m in front of us, splashed in the water,
stopped, had a look around and then crossed the river and then disappeared over
the river bank. He didn’t look too
concerned with our presence, especially after getting chased out of the jungle,
but then he is pretty close to civilization, so he would be used to seeing
humans. But wow what a rush and a great
way to start our day.
Back in the canoes for some more bird watching and
now we were also seeing the crocodiles of the park. They have 2 species here the mugger
crocodile, which look like the ones in Australia and the gharial crocodile
which as the snout that looks like a bread knife. The mugger crocodile literally meaning "crocodile of the marsh"
is found throughout the Indian subcontinent and the surrounding countries. The name "mugger" is a corruption
of the Urdu word magar which means "water monster". The gharial is a crocodilian of
the family Gavialidae that
is native to the Indian subcontinent and also called gavial and fish-eating
crocodile. As the species has undergone both chronic long term and a rapid
short-term declines it is listed as a Critically Endangered by IUCN. The gharial is one of three crocodilians
native to India,
apart from the mugger crocodile and the saltwater crocodile and it
is one of the longest of all living crocodilians. We saw a lot of them during the course of the
morning and some of these guys were MASSIVE!!!! I am sure if they wanted to
have a go they could tip the canoe quite easily, especially with 8 petrified
tourists all flapping about, I would think we would be easy prey for these animals.
I
have become an amateur bird watcher.
They are also called Twitchers in the bird world. I was always a scoffer when people said they
watch birds, I would think that there would be nothing more boring than
watching these creatures with wings fly around.
But after my first visit to Ethiopia last year and having 2 old ducks in
my car for 2 weeks who were Twitchers, I learned a lot and had a bit more
respect for the hobby. Ethiopia was also
a great place to start as they have a lot of birdlife throughout the country
and a lot of endemic birds that can only be found in the country. I am going to see if I can buy a book on
birds in Ethiopia and cross them off as I see them and get photos. I will also need to get a set of
binoculars. I’ll speak to Padama about
that as he has a pretty good pair that he has let us use over the course of the
trip. Yes people I think I may be a very
early entrant for a new hobby of…bird watching.
It brings a smile to my face-I like bird watching!!! Hilarious.
I would also like to point out that I am not bagging bird watches but it
really hasn’t been a part of my travels thus far and never really even been a
thought in the brain. Bernie the
birdwatcher. HA. It was great to see the birds here. They flew in flocks low over the water, some
sat on tree stumps in the middle of the river, some to the side and others on
the river banks. Every year dedicated bird watchers and conservationists
survey bird species occurring all over the country. In 2006 they recorded 543
species in the Chitwan National Park, much more than in any other protected
area in Nepal and about two-thirds of Nepal's globally threatened species.
We
were lucky and saw another rhino. He was
standing on the river bed and had a few drinks as we glided past. He had recently been in a fight as he had a
massive cut on his rear leg but he didn’t seem too concerned with our presence
and we would have been within 100m of these magnificent animals. The last time I was that close to rhino was
when we visited Gumboots in Matopo National Park in Zimbabwe.
The one horned Rhinoceros
population since 1973has recovered well and increased to 544 animals around the
turn of the century. To ensure the survival of the endangered species in case of epidemics animals are
translocated annually from Chitwan to the Bardia National Park and the Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve since 1986. However, the population
has repeatedly been jeopardized by poaching: in 2002 alone, poachers have
killed 37 animals cruelly in order to saw off and sell their valuable horns. It is sad as they kill the animal to get the
horn which they don’t need to do.
We landed on terra firma again at
10.30am. I enjoyed the canoe ride and as
much as I say I hate small boats, once I am on them I am generally okay. The water wasn’t even that deep, if you had
of fallen out you could have stood up, but I think it is more of what is in the
water and also my camera rather than the fear of the actual falling out
bit. Once we were all out safely we had
to walk along the river back to get to a section that was low enough for us all
to climb over. This is where we saw our
first, and only, tiger mark, his footprint in the mud. It was cool to see and it was a perfect
impression. As much as we all want to
see a tiger, we were on foot, I am not sure if I would want to see one when I
didn’t have the safety of a vehicle to hid in.
We were given all the rules on what to do should we see an elephant, a
rhino, a tiger or a sloth bear but when you are staring at an animal that is
within 100m of you, you really wonder if you are going to remember all the
‘rules’. I hope I will as it would
probably save your life, but who knows until you come face to face with one of
them. The Chitwan National Park is home
to at least 43 species of mammals.
The "King of the Jungle" is the Bengal Tiger. The alluvial floodplain habitat of the Terai is
one of the best tiger habitats anywhere in the world. Since the establishment
of Chitwan National Park the initially small population of about 25 individuals
has increased to 125. In some years this
population has declined due to poaching and floods. In a long-term study
carried out from 1995–2002 tiger researchers identified a relative abundance of
82 breeding tigers and a density of 6 females per 100 km2. After two years research, the researchers
announced in 2012 that Bengal Tigers made adaptation to be nocturnal to
avoid contact with humans. So it was
very unlikely we would see any based on that fact alone which was disappointing
and re-assuring all at the same time.
So we now started our walk that
would take up the rest of the day. As we
split into 2 groups to reduce the noise level and nothing to with fast and slow
walkers, we were warned about leeches. We
had been told to wear long pants, which I didn’t have, so I had on ¾ length
walking pants and just hoped that I wouldn’t get attacked by any during the
day. We walked through the jungle in
hope of spotting some wildlife, but it seemed doubtful after the first hour
that we would see anything at all. The
national park is quite flat, so it wasn’t strenuous, but it was hot and there
was a bit of ducking under branches, watching where you walked to not trip over
tree roots and there were some small dips we had to go over a few bridges and a
few streams with stepping stones. We
stopped for a pre-packed lunch that the hotel had given us before we left this
morning and it was nice to chill out by a small river to rest in the shade of
the tree. We didn’t see any additional wildlife and by
2.30pm I had reached my threshold which was just as well as we were ready to
head to our accommodation for the night.
I like walking, but I do like to have a destination, something that will
be at the end, to walk the tracks to just ‘walk’ is a little frustrating for me
and thank goodness we saw the rhinos this morning to have made it worthwhile. I know you are never guaranteed to see
animals when you are game viewing but walking around in a jungle for 4 hours is
not my ideal of a great day-it’s not my cup of tea but I am glad I came along
for the ride, I enjoyed the canoe section.
We were offered to walk further to a turtle conservation sanctuary BUT
it was an additional 2 hours walk and for people that know me know what’s
coming next ‘F*@k that’ and luckily I wasn’t the only one, everyone had had
enough and we all decided to just travel the 30 minutes to our accommodation
for the night.
We had to cross the river again
in another canoe and these boats looked a little ‘thinner’ than the last ones
we had used in the morning. I was tired
and it was a little bit of an effort for me to sit down-it would have made a
great video. I was like a dog that walks
around in a circle to get the right spot before he sits down, I didn’t have
enough ‘butt’ room for the sit and ended up having to fall to my knees to then
try and swing my legs out in front of me.
Total embarrassment but I finally got seated and we were canoe’d
directly to the other side, a minute away if that and then we walked over a
flat section of plain to walk up some steps to our accommodation. There were cold drinks at the ready when we
arrived and I had a coke and it has to be one of the best cokes I have EVER had
in my life. I was thirsty, tired and the
coke was COLD. It hit the spot and the
last time that happened was after our bike ride in Sri Lanka-now that is up
there with the best drink in the world. Again
Satiya had painted a pretty basic picture of what to expect for our beds for
the night and we were pleasantly surprised.
We had our own bathrooms that had a SHOWER and the beds, even though
were hard as nails, they were comfy. We
had 2 hours before dinner was ready so we had some free time. The guys pulled out a pack of cards and played
a few card games with a few cold beers.
I decided to play solitaire on my IPod and I also had internet on my
phone that the others didn’t…. The one
thing I didn’t bring in my day pack was a charger, so my phone was on its last
power legs but I was able to check-in on the world. Jess, Kalps and I also went back down to the
river to watch a beautiful sunset. A
MASSIVE red fiery ball as the last of the locals made their way home. It was a great way to end an exhausting day,
well for me. It was probably a walk in
the park for my Roomy Jess, but for a non-mass walker, it was a BIG day for
me.
There was commotion outside
before dinner and we found out that Aaron had a leech inside his sock and didn’t
know it was there till he took his boots off at the end of the day and it was
HUGE. He had been sucking on Aaron since
just after lunch-ugh. Our guide bought
it into our room to show us and they certainly wouldn’t win any beauty awards,
they are an ugly looking thing. We also
found out that Mari-Anne also had one in her boot and she also had one stuck on
her stomach that she also didn’t know about. Yuck. How the hell did it get on her tummy? I am so glad I didn’t get any on me. Dinner was Dahl Baht and unfortunately I am
totally over it so it wasn’t the best meal I’ve ever had but I ate the rice and
a little of the curry (still makes me cringe at the thought) and then it was
off to bed for this black duck. Jess and
I talked for a little while and as sad as it sounds we were in bed at 7pm and
the light was off at 7.30pm. In our
defence it doesn’t help when it is pitch black at 7pm, and there were a lot of
rather large mozzies flying around, so it was a great option based on all
that. Jessica’s fancy phone gadget said
that we had come 20.8km today, but also includes the 2.5 hour canoe journey and
it felt like it. I knew I would sleep
well tonight and I could have been on a bed of nails and I still would have had
a great sleep. I am just thankful that
we don’t go back the same way tomorrow.
We are getting a ride back in the truck, trying to see some more animals
in the morning before getting back to our hotel before lunch time with a free
afternoon. Ahhh that sounds like music
to my ears…..
Goodnight from Chitwan National
Park.
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