Chitwan National Park

Hi Again

I spent 2 days in Chitwan national park. 900 sq Km of Rhino and Tiger sanctury. It’s quite expensive there so I didn’t stick around too long. On the first day we crossed the river into the park proper with a guide and did a 3 hour walk through the forest. One of the first things we found was some tiger prints we followed to the river and where there was some blood and obviously some thing had been dragged into the undergrowth. We went in to investigate and found a huge deer (the biggest I’ve ever seen) half eaten. The tiger will likely come back for more in the evening. We saw a few other small spotted deer (like Bambi*) and lots of insects and interesting plants, but not a lot else.

In the afternoon we did a 5 hour jeep ride when you get deep into the jungle where there are lots of vines and things you half expect to see Tarzan swing across the road. Sadly we saw nothing bigger than a kingfisher early on, but there are some really pretty birds there, over 500 species in total, including the wild jungle foul, or chicken to you and I. Was stopped at a Gharial crocodile conservation center. They’re pretty awesome beasts. On the way back we saw a few troops of monkeys, a peacock doing a dance and finally, with in site of the river to cross back a huge stag. It was much bigger than anything we have in the uk, it was almost as tall as me standing up in the jeep and not at all bothered by us being there.

We crossed back, it’d been a nice day in the park but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed not to see a Rhino (Tiger sightings are really rare). We sat outside a bar on some loungers on the river bank chatted about the day and watched the sun set, and then with no warning a rhino just trotted passed on the other side of the river. It was still a long way away but pretty cool to see one in wild. It had a stand off with a man riding an elephant for a minute and then ran along the beach/shore and into the long grass.

(the photos of the Rhino didn't really come out)

The next day I had a long overdue lie in and got up in time to join in with the park elephants bathing at the river, which basically turned into elephant rodeo.

All good fun. I spent the afternoon in the community forest or buffer zone around the park reading and watching the world go by. There’s been a few rhino sightings there but I just saw the locals at work with elephants collecting a few logs.

Also i'm not sure about the cocktails in Chitwan...

(see monkey gland and nightlife)

Yesterday I had the long bus ride to Kathmandu, where I’m beginning to find my bearings and am sat in the tom an jerry pub right now as recommended by Ms Wilkinson (cheers Charlie)

Let you all know how drunk I get soon.

*Indecently Bambi’s parents were two different species of deer, both found in the park, thanks Disney for confusing generations.

Rafting

Hi Again
A couple of days before I left pokhara I went and stayed up at the guest house Robbie is building with Druba and his family and finally saw a proper sarangkot sunrise over the Himalaya. As you can see its pretty spectacular.

Then yesterday morning we headed off rafting. There were 5 of us on the raft, the guide, a german girl, an ozzie couple and myself, plus a kiwi in a kayak and 2 safety kayakers.
Most of the rapids were pretty tame but there was the odd challenging moment and the ozzies fell out once, but there was not really enough water.

It was really nice floating past the scenery and tiny villages of 3 or 4 wooden dwellings high on the banks, often on stilts, all the kids shouting from the banks "Namaste", "hello", "goodbye" and even at one point "I love you" to Anna (the german girl). The river was really warm (and weather scorching) so we did a lot of swimming.

On the first day we came across another raft of mischievous French and Spaniards containing my neighbors from pokhara. This led to lots of splashing each other that continued all day when we were close.
At about 5 we joined up with a big group of kayakers on a 3 day trip and setup camp on the river beach. Was a really nice evening.

Today we rafted till about 3 then caught a bus to a small village outside Chitwan national park. We all found a nice guesthouse and I am now typing from a hammock and watching the sunset.
Tomorrow into the park to try to spot some rhinos and tigers and other dangerous animals (humm do ozzies count).
-Dan

More Pokhara

It’s been a couple of weeks since I got back from my trek and I’m still here.

Not really done much except playing chess and drinking.

But why go anywhere when you can get an all you can eat meal like this for less than £1.50

And have a balcony like this to enjoy on my £3.50 per night room

There has been a thunder storm almost every afternoon, but it has made for some amazing sunsets.

Went sailing on the lake one day and got caught out in a sudden storm. We managed to beach the boat and get the sails down just in time. Two other boats on the lake capsized. Was quite exciting.

I also have been to Davi’s falls. A very odd water falls where the river goes from ground level straight down through successive holes it has dug. Its done is such a small space you can’t even see the bottom. Although there is also a cave with a temple in that comes out bottom of the hole the falls have dug deep under ground. All pretty cool.

Two days ago 3 of us hired bikes and went on a mission to get to Panchase which is only about 10km from here as the crow flies.

We’d heard rumors that there was now a road that was passable on bikes. The problem was no one seemed to know where it was. We headed off on one guys advice and after an hour got to a dead end in a village. There we met a chap who was the English teacher at the local school. He told us that we could hike for about 5 hours from there or come all the way back through pokhara and out the other side to get there by bike. We stopped for a chai with him and his mother, tea grown them selves with there own buffalo milk two. twas really nice.

So off we headed back to Pokhara, out the other side the road got progressively worse, we forded a few rivers and then started going up on a loose stone and sand track. It was tricky to say the least. Luis, who has ridden dirt bikes his whole life, was amazed I managed to get up some bits. I was a bit slower than the other two guys so I kept going when they stopped for a smoke. I was in the village before panchase and within sight of it when I got a call from the other guys saying Luis bike had sprung a fuel leak. So I turned around and started heading down again. At this point it started to rain. Now this is where my biking inexperience showed, I was on a steep down, tight, gravely bend doing only about 5km/h and I used the front not rear brake and found my self on the ground a little bit broken, as was the bike. Luckily it was just a few scrapes so I carried on and caught the others up. (Luis had fixed his leak with a stone).

By now we were in a real thunder storm, it even hailed for a bit so the rest of the ride back wasn’t so nice, we barely dared go above 20km/h even when we found some tarmac.

To add a final piece of drama to the day Robbie’s brakes failed on a bend above a cliff. His only option was to bin it and luckily managed not to go over the edge, He’s hired his bike for 6 months and it really is a bit ropey.

In two days time I finally leave here and go to chitwan national park. Seeing as I am now even more scared of Nepal's roads my chosen method of transport is … two days white water rafting ☺

Catch you on the flip side

-Dan

Trek Days 10, 11 and Holi

Day 10 was another hard slog, 500m down 700m up and another 200m down to get to Ghandruk. All day we were in the cloud so it was very soggy. Nice forests tho...

It rained for the last hour and the guest house we were heading for was full so we ended up in a really run down place.
Ghandruk is by far the largest place I’ve ever been that has no road to it. Over 4000 people.

On the morning of day 11 the weather was much better and we realized it was Holi (the hindu festival of colour, the second biggest in the hindu calendar) as a couple of lads where preparing there paint as we had breakfast in the guest house garden. We let them paint a bit on our faces and headed off. It was a long 5 hour walk but all down hill. Really nice to see all the kids coming the other way covered in paint and often trying to cover us.

Even the man at the national park check post was covered...

I was lucky enough to be in Hampi for Holi in 2002 and the people here seem, for the most part, a bit more polite about painting strangers. Although there still pretty insistent.
We finally reached a road and got a taxi the 40Km (2hours on these roads) back to Pokhara. We had to keep shutting the windows as kids were throwing paint water at the passing cars. As we got closer to the city there were big gangs of paint covered motorcyclist roaming around.

Was all pretty mad to come back too.
I got a new room (pretty plush with balcony and wifi, £3.50 per night) and rested up.
Today I ache a lot.

Trek Days 8 & 9

Yesterday we descended 1400m!! and covered as much distance as 2¼ days up. The temperature went from about -5°C to +25°C.
Today was harder with much more up and down, but we made it back the Chhomrung.
Have just been watching the news on TV for the first time in months. So many terrible things happening with the Japan earthquake and the North Africa / Middle East troubles.
Makes blogging seem a bit insignificant. I feel like going back up the mountain to hide away from it all.
Anyway I’m in a cozy room with windows on 2 sides that would have amazing views if the cloud cleared.
We’ve chosen a longer route back to see another town so tomorrow will be hard work.

Trek Day 7

2 Canadian lads have been trekking about the same pace as us so we got to know them a bit. They pushed on to ABC yesterday with what I’m told is a pretty ancient tent. When I started the trek it was 30°C. Just 2 days ago it was well above 20°C but up at ABC it often drops to -15°C or lower at night. Around 7 in the eve one of the porters realized his people hadn’t arrived and headed down the valley in the dark to find his wards, 3 Canadian girls trying to get up and back in 5 days. Dangerous with altitude sickness (which some of them already had the symptoms of), not to mention the risks of being lost on a dark mountain.
This morning was incredibly windy. The german weather meteorological station behind the guest house lost its roof, and it was a solid looking building.

Anyways we got up to find these Canadians had headed up the hill in this blizzard. Even there porter was staying put this time. So we have 5 people lost on the mountain in a storm all Canadian. I’m beginning to understand why its such a sparsely populated country.
Eventually one came back, them all having been separated. A second followed an hour or so later having fallen. For some reason the satellite phone was out so we had no way of knowing if the third had made it.
Eventually the storm eased and we headed up the mountain ourselves. We passed the third Canadian, she’d actually made it and was on her way back, and heard tell the campers had found a guest house in the middle of the night.
There were still gusts of wind that pelted us with snow blown off the mountain, but we slowly made it through.

When we arrived we hid in a guest house for a bit as the weather worsened once more and I celebrated with a beer at 4130 meters above sea level.

It’s really stunning up there but we had to make the decent to MBC again when we had a break in the weather.
Tomorrow I descend to warmer climbs in my very wet shoes.

Trek Day 6

3700m, Machhapuchhre base camp (MBC).
Only 3 hours today 500m more to acclimatize too. We started at 8.30 and crossed a small glassier and eventually the snow line. Initially the snow made it easier, leveling the trail and had plenty of grip. But as the sun hit it and the trail got steeper it became very slippy, Often climbing 45° on pack ice.
Spent the rest of the day eating and playing cards and chess in the dining hall. Roberto and I had an epic match that resulted in a draw. Seeing as chess is apparently a sport we’re considering this altitude training. For dinner I had Dal Baat (Nepali Thali) and upon asking for a knife and fork I recived 4 knives, trying to explain only resulted in me getting 4 forks as well. Tomorrow the final push to ABC.