Nepal: Royal Chitwan National Park (23-25 Dec)
Sold on a visit to the Royal Chitwan Nat Park by our enterprising trekking guide, we caught a local Nepali bus to the closest town -Sauraha- on 23 Dec. Had a generally good 3 days there, small downer being that poor Aditi fell a little ill which dampened our enjoyment of the outdoors. And we know we shouldn't compare the safaris in Asia to Africa (no comparison!), but we couldn't help being at times underwhelmed.
Highlights included a jungle walk: not for any wildlife seen, but the adrenalin rush of being accompanied -not by guides with guns to ward off aggressive animals- but porters with novelty-sized bamboo sticks with which to beat a hasty retreat from the prowling Indian rhinos, Bengal tigers, Black bears & other voracious animals! Didn't see anything bigger than a jungle fowl, though.
The real winner was an safari on elephant back on Christmas morning. Just magical - lurching from side to side through the dense, misty forests & wading through rivers atop the behemoth of an Indian elephant (smaller, but barely by a whisker, than the African). We had immense luck in seeing herds of antelope & about a half dozen Indian rhinos - including a cute, tiny baby!
A very sad counter point to the elephant safari was an earlier visit to the government run & sponsored elephant breeding centre. Here about two dozen elephant matriarchs are chained to stumps like dogs for 16 hours a day in stables (basically four poles with an iron roof) and impregnated by bull elephants as often as possible. They churn out a calf around every two years. Some of them looked quite stir crazy: rocking back & forth, eyes glazed & groaning. Terribly sad & a sad example of what level of conservation can be achieved in a developing country.
[NB Most of the elephants were not used as rides for tourists -few white, majority Indian, but sold to farmers for working in forests.]
Highlights included a jungle walk: not for any wildlife seen, but the adrenalin rush of being accompanied -not by guides with guns to ward off aggressive animals- but porters with novelty-sized bamboo sticks with which to beat a hasty retreat from the prowling Indian rhinos, Bengal tigers, Black bears & other voracious animals! Didn't see anything bigger than a jungle fowl, though.
The real winner was an safari on elephant back on Christmas morning. Just magical - lurching from side to side through the dense, misty forests & wading through rivers atop the behemoth of an Indian elephant (smaller, but barely by a whisker, than the African). We had immense luck in seeing herds of antelope & about a half dozen Indian rhinos - including a cute, tiny baby!
A very sad counter point to the elephant safari was an earlier visit to the government run & sponsored elephant breeding centre. Here about two dozen elephant matriarchs are chained to stumps like dogs for 16 hours a day in stables (basically four poles with an iron roof) and impregnated by bull elephants as often as possible. They churn out a calf around every two years. Some of them looked quite stir crazy: rocking back & forth, eyes glazed & groaning. Terribly sad & a sad example of what level of conservation can be achieved in a developing country.
[NB Most of the elephants were not used as rides for tourists -few white, majority Indian, but sold to farmers for working in forests.]
posted by Aditi & Brent at 11:56 am
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