In the Jungle

We leave pokhara after a lazy catch up day. I drink himalayan yetii cocktails and check out the cultural dancers. Good moves with an eclectic mix of Thai style subtlety, whirling dervishes, a touch of European folk and a bit of bollywood. One last call to my favourite jeweller. This time he's pulling out expensive collector items but I'm happy with some garnets and taurmaline at a good price if I promise to bring back some nz jade when we come back.
Its a 5 hour bus trip to chitwan national park. 100sqkm of protected rainforest and home to elephants, tiger, rhino, bear, monkeys and a multitude of birds. We have a guided walk through the village and to the river which forms the natural boundary of the park. A floating log is really a crocodile and domesticated elephants wander the streets. We watch sunset from the riverbank. A burnt orange orb descends in to a grey haze. It can't compare to our spectacular coromandel sunsets but then again I don't have to dodge elephant dung while walking home in coromandel.
It's a 6am start for our jungle jeep safari. While we wait for a canoe to take us across the river a lone elephant is silhouetted against the sunrise ponderously swinging his way in to the jungle.
I've never been on a safari before and seeing animals in the wild takes time,patience and luck. The early morning bird life is loud and colourful. Brilliant turquoise peacocks flapping past like dragons with their small heads and ungainly bodies,silver flycatchers,a brooding eagle,stocks and egrets and many more. We spy our first rhino with his shrek like ears out for a morning stroll. The deer are so well camouflaged in the dappled light of the undergrowth that it's like one of these seeing eye pictures, if you loose focus they disappear. I especially like the samber - a deer with gigantic mouse like ears.
Suddenly we descend in to a flock of multihued humans. We're now 25 km in to the jungle and a mass of people in their brightest and best clothes is a bit of a shock. It's a Hindi festival day, the new year 2071, and this is where they come to show devotion and sacrifice goats. We join the festival crowd to see the long nosed crocodile breeding centre.
Our last rhino siting is the best. The armour plated giant is very close and casually eating watercress in the river while we watch from the road above.
No tigers but a very exciting morning nonetheless.
Our next excursion is in a dugout canoe. We watched a whole canoe full of people topple in to the river on our way back this morning so I'm glad that the long nosed crocs apparently only eat fish.

Namaste Sandy