I love elephants

Our Intrepid tour continued from India to Nepal. In Lumbini we visited the birthplace of Buddha (632 BC), a beautiful spot visited by pilgrims. The ruins date from 3-7^th century BC. It became a religious centre until the Moghuls attacked it and it fell into disuse. It has now been partly restored by the United Nations, and is a World Heritage Site.

Then onto a bus – Nepali buses have two drivers, one to steer and one on the other side to tell the driver if he is going to hit someone/something/fall off a precipice. I felt great affection for both.

We saw the landscape change around us into forest and our first hills came into view – quite scarily big when Rob and I think we are going to be walking in them soon. Ever onwards we drove over bumpy roads until after many twists and turns and narrowing lanes we arrived at Gatgai.  

We were soon off on our next adventure, across the river in a dugout canoe and a trek at a fair old clip through the steaming jungle, sweat pouring forth, our clothes sticking to us. We were told what to do if we saw rhinos – in the forest you do a zigzag run and hide behind a tree, in the grass plains you yell. I’m not sure how much I trusted this advice.  We did see Great one-horned rhinos in the river which caused great excitement, especially when they lumbered out of the river – lucky for us on the other side or we would have had to put that running and yelling into practice. We heard rhinos roaring, saw wild cat and elephant prints, and a number of birds – Rob and I were with Suk, one of the guides, at the back, and we kept stopping to look at birds, which meant we had to run to catch up to the others. Exhausting!

We visited the Gharial Crocodile breeding farm – gharials have long narrow snouts. At the farm a sad tiger languished in a cage – its mother had fed it human flesh so it wasn’t allowed to roam free.

We traipsed through 20 foot high jungle grass and many different types of forest. I saw my first elephant – a working one – and as you can imagine for an elephant lover like me, that was a huge thrill.

Back at the hotel none of us could do justice to the dinner, but we were all enthralled by the wonderful fireflies flitting around us in the magical evening.

Next morning Rob and I got up 5.15 am so Suk could take us out bird spotting -that was a bit special. Our peaceful jaunt was followed by several hours of bumping around in a truck to Chitwan National Park and our gorgeous resort, Royal Park on the edge of the village Sauhara. En route we saw pretty deer and the gigantic lesser adjutant stork, and a serpent-eater eagle at close quarters.

Now I must be naive, I really thought we were going to wash elephants – we went down to the river where we climbed aboard and they washed us. It felt so high up – and the elephant walked out into the river and promptly knelt down and wham, we were all in the water. It was great fun, I found it hard to stay on anyway without these shenanigans. Our mahout got us all back on, only to have us all end up back in the water, then we had a go climbing up the trunk. The elephant next to us looked absolutely enormous looking up at it from the water. The elephant’s skin was quite soft but tough and hairy and the ears were really thick and strong.

More elephants: this time a ride through the jungle sitting atop an elephant in a basic wooden frame.  It was just fantastic, lurching through the jungle high up on these wondrous beasts that tread so carefully and gently. We fed them bananas while they fed on vegetation along the way. We saw 2 rhinos wallowing in mud – they took no more than a passing interest in us although we had been warned they could be dangerous – and some lovely little deer. It was very peaceful trundling along, and pleasantly cool.
 

We journeyed in tippy dugout canoes down the river and watched still more elephants parade across the water. A flash of bright blue turned out to be a kingfisher, and we saw storks and alligators. Afterwards, we watched the sunset and by way of complete contrast watched two poor dogs stuck together in an intimate embrace. At the hotel we were invited to join in with an Indian dance troupe, then we dined on a rooftop and retired to bed to sleep like logs. 

Next day we rode bicycles, then glided across the river in dugouts to the Elephant Breeding Centre. The elephants were so beautiful – 9 month old twins (a first in captivity), lots of young ones, a mum with a 3 year old who was looking after her 4 month old baby. Each elephant has 3 keepers who take them into the jungle every day to forage, and make them fifty parcels each per day of grass, molasses, salt and grain.

The keepers live in very basic accommodation and all seemed very young.

Suk led Rob and I back along a different route, looking for birds and I spotted a gorgeous kingfisher above the river. We visited a bird education centre which focuses mainly on teaching local famers the perils of pesticides. They produce organic manure from elephant dung – how sensible – and sell it to help finance their programs. We are going to try and donate $100.00 to them – easier said than done. Suk is a lovely man, he looked after our interests so well. Both fell asleep on our return, both have dodgy tummies. We struggled out to find a light lunch without success and ended up eating a stodgy pancake and both felt worse.

At an internet café we got bad news emails. The internet crashed while trying to send replies and we gave up on local technology. To cheer up I bought 2 lovely handmade elephants - carved from the Sal wood found in the jungle here. One is carved from a single piece of wood and has a baby inside, the other has babies around it. It seemed only fitting to have an elephant or two as a memento. 

After a rest we joined the others down at the riverside for a drink, and attempted to eat dinner at a rooftop restaurant. Both of us gave up before our meals even arrived and we headed back to try and pack, both feeling awful. We suffered all night and we were not looking forward to the coming long travelling day to Kathmandu.