Chitwan National Park: rhinos but no tiger

April 7, 2016

"Doing laundry is strictly forbidden" Patrick says as Rachel is finishing washing 3 shirts. There is a sign on the back of the door with the house rules including no laundry and no outside food. She finishes the rest of the laundry and hangs it on the bikes outside the room on a patio and Patrick goes out to a shop for beer.

We've signed up for a Jeep safari. Meeting at the river after lunch, the group is loaded in a dugout canoe to get to the other side where the safari jeeps are parked. Then we are off for a four hour tour through forest and grasslands. The guide says there are 600 rhinos in the park. We see three, one being very close-up and was way cool to watch. He says there are 100 tigers in the park. No luck for us today to see one. He also said there are 45 wild elephants, no luck of the safari there either. We also saw troops of monkeys, wild boar, and crocodiles in the river

Back at 5 PM, we go for dinner at a nearby restaurant. There is an american gal from the tour also there so we sit with her. We each have a beef mushroom burger...the bun was American style even with sesame seeds on top...but no mushrooms. Delicious but leaves us still missing the Highlands (Harrison) Hollow High Mountain Mushroom burger.

Kathmandu is 3 or 4 day ride. We'll decide after reaching Hetauda whether to take another rest day or continue on to Daman. This stretch goes from 200 meters to 2500 meters with a spectacular view of the Himalayas.

Crossing the river from Sauraha to the National Park in a dugout canoe.

Most of Chitwan NP is a floodplain with tall elephant grass and trees. In the monsoon season much of this land floods.

The main reason for coming here is to see the Asian Rhino. We see two off in the tall grass, but this one makes our day. No tigers or wild elephants though.....

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