After our trek we spend a couple of days relaxing in Pokhara, including a very good but slightly painful massage. I feel more bruised the day after than I did from the trek in the first place. We then head to Chitwan National Park for a few more days in chilled out Nepal before heading back to hectic India. Our hotel, in the town of Sauraha, has a garden which runs down to the river which borders the park. After booking a mammoth tour for the next day, we spend most of the first evening sitting in hammocks with sundowners and watching the wildlife.
At 7:00 on our first full day in the park we head down to the river for a canoe trip. The canoe is a wooden dug out and we are sitting below the level of the very shallow water - almost on the river bed if the sound of the scraping rocks is anything to go by. Our guide points out sun-bathing crocodiles (a lot smaller than I had expected) and lots of birds including bright blue kingfishers (much larger than I had expected). After an hour of floating down stream we get off the boat in order to walk a little way through the jungle to the Elephant Breeding Centre.
The center has 25 elephants, including (at the moment) a one month old baby and four year old twins. The centre was established in 1989 when taking elephants out of the wild for training became too expensive and unsustainable. To prevent inbreeding, the females are released into the wild to mate with wild male elephants. Elephants are taught numerous commands such as sit, stand, line up, pick up with your trunk, carry with your tusks, pass to the Mahout (driver) as well as their left and right. Each elephant has the same mahout from birth and they are used for elephant safaris and forest work.
We head back back to our hotel which is located on the strech of the river where the elephants are washed. It is free to watch the elephant bath, but you need to tip mahout 100rs to join in. Joining in includes sitting on ths elephant's back whilst he gives you a shower. To get on, the elephant helpfully lies in the river, but there is still a very big step up. The mahout stands behind us on the elephants's back and shouts a lot as the elephant sprays us (me right in the face) with water from his trunk. The mahout asks if we want the elephant to swim, but I'm not quite sure what he means as the water is far too shallow. It apparently means that the elephant lies down whilst I wonder whether I'm supposed to try and hold on or jump of. I end up half falling, half jumping in the river and trying not to land underneath the elephant. After the long hot jungle walk to the breeding centre I'm feeling a bit sick but, despite (or maybe because of) the massive jet of water out of an elephant's nose and in my face, the water cools me down and I feel much better. Having had our shower we then wash the elephant whilst he lies in the river, his trunk just poking out of the water. This is much more relaxing, for the elephant as well as me, and he seems to enjoy it as much as I do.
In the evening we go back to the breeding centre for an elephant safari. There are five of us on our elephant, including the 'driver'. We sit on a wooden platform (one to each corner) which is tied to the elephant under its tail and around what I suppose would be its chest. The driver sits on the elephant's neck with his feet in stirrups tied to his ears - the elephant's ears, not the driver's. I worry that five will be too heavy, but I see whole familys of seven or eight on some elephants. We set of in a line of about four others, it is very wobbly, especially when the driver urges the elephant into the next gear, which I think is suposssed to be faster, but it isn't really, just more bumpy.
The benefit of an elephant safari is that the elephant masks the scent of humans, meaning it is more likley that you will see other animals, but the families on the other elephants are very noisey, and one child is crying, so I don't expect to see much. However, we soon see peacocks, large sambar deer, spotted deer, monkeys and - best and most surprising of all, one horned rhinos. The five elephants and thirty or so people crowd round and the rhino doesn't bat an eyelid (maybe rhinos don't have eyelids). We later see two more rhinos, one looks at us and walks off, the other stamps his feet a bit, makes a snorting noise and again, walks off. After dinner by the river I go to bed early, trying not to scratch my mosquito bites, in preperation for the seven hour journey to India the next day - next stop, Varanasi!
At 7:00 on our first full day in the park we head down to the river for a canoe trip. The canoe is a wooden dug out and we are sitting below the level of the very shallow water - almost on the river bed if the sound of the scraping rocks is anything to go by. Our guide points out sun-bathing crocodiles (a lot smaller than I had expected) and lots of birds including bright blue kingfishers (much larger than I had expected). After an hour of floating down stream we get off the boat in order to walk a little way through the jungle to the Elephant Breeding Centre.
Above: (very small) crocodiles
The center has 25 elephants, including (at the moment) a one month old baby and four year old twins. The centre was established in 1989 when taking elephants out of the wild for training became too expensive and unsustainable. To prevent inbreeding, the females are released into the wild to mate with wild male elephants. Elephants are taught numerous commands such as sit, stand, line up, pick up with your trunk, carry with your tusks, pass to the Mahout (driver) as well as their left and right. Each elephant has the same mahout from birth and they are used for elephant safaris and forest work.
We head back back to our hotel which is located on the strech of the river where the elephants are washed. It is free to watch the elephant bath, but you need to tip mahout 100rs to join in. Joining in includes sitting on ths elephant's back whilst he gives you a shower. To get on, the elephant helpfully lies in the river, but there is still a very big step up. The mahout stands behind us on the elephants's back and shouts a lot as the elephant sprays us (me right in the face) with water from his trunk. The mahout asks if we want the elephant to swim, but I'm not quite sure what he means as the water is far too shallow. It apparently means that the elephant lies down whilst I wonder whether I'm supposed to try and hold on or jump of. I end up half falling, half jumping in the river and trying not to land underneath the elephant. After the long hot jungle walk to the breeding centre I'm feeling a bit sick but, despite (or maybe because of) the massive jet of water out of an elephant's nose and in my face, the water cools me down and I feel much better. Having had our shower we then wash the elephant whilst he lies in the river, his trunk just poking out of the water. This is much more relaxing, for the elephant as well as me, and he seems to enjoy it as much as I do.
In the evening we go back to the breeding centre for an elephant safari. There are five of us on our elephant, including the 'driver'. We sit on a wooden platform (one to each corner) which is tied to the elephant under its tail and around what I suppose would be its chest. The driver sits on the elephant's neck with his feet in stirrups tied to his ears - the elephant's ears, not the driver's. I worry that five will be too heavy, but I see whole familys of seven or eight on some elephants. We set of in a line of about four others, it is very wobbly, especially when the driver urges the elephant into the next gear, which I think is suposssed to be faster, but it isn't really, just more bumpy.
The benefit of an elephant safari is that the elephant masks the scent of humans, meaning it is more likley that you will see other animals, but the families on the other elephants are very noisey, and one child is crying, so I don't expect to see much. However, we soon see peacocks, large sambar deer, spotted deer, monkeys and - best and most surprising of all, one horned rhinos. The five elephants and thirty or so people crowd round and the rhino doesn't bat an eyelid (maybe rhinos don't have eyelids). We later see two more rhinos, one looks at us and walks off, the other stamps his feet a bit, makes a snorting noise and again, walks off. After dinner by the river I go to bed early, trying not to scratch my mosquito bites, in preperation for the seven hour journey to India the next day - next stop, Varanasi!
No comments:
Post a Comment