Royal Chitwan National Park was founded in 1973 as the first national park in Nepal.  It covers 392 sq. km. in the southern Terai region of the country.  It is home to numerous endangered species including the Indian one-horned rhino, bengal tiger, and gangetic dolphin.  On our first full day in the area we were able to go on several safaris through the park.  We woke up in the morning at 5:30, had some breakfast and headed towards the park.  We met our guides by the Rati river that runs along as the northern border of the park.  We climbed into a long wooden canoe that had been made by hollowing out one large tree trunk and set off down the river with our guide.  It was a very peaceful trip in the early morning as we passed by a few Tharu villages with people net fishing in the river or harvesting grass on the edge of the park.  We mostly just came across birds but we did see an alligator on the bank and an elephant way off in the distance.  We floated down for about 45 minutes before being dropped off deeper into the jungle to hike back to town.  It was an exhilirating walk back through the jungle as we spent some of the time on larger established trails and the rest making our own way through the jungle undergrowth.  Every once in a while we would halt at the edge of a clearing and our guide would quickly scale a tree to see if he could spot any wildlife.  Unfortunately we came across nothing more then tracks, but the afternoon proved to be much more successful.

One of the most exciting parts of our trip came when we returned from our jungle trek.  We all quickly changed into our bathing suits and ran back down to the river where the trained elephants in the park were getting bathed.  We were able to climb on with 4 people per elephant and hang on as the elephant waded into the middle of the river and then upon command from its driver fall over onto its side sending us sailing into the water.  We spent about half an hour playing in the river with the elephants.  They would let us crawl right up their trunk and onto their back where they would squirt water up at us before throwing us back into the water.  It was an amazing feeling to be around such powerful and enormous animals.

After bath time we had a few hours for some lunch, soccer, and a bit of rest before we took off into the jungle again, this time from the back of our new friends the elephants.  The backs of the elephants offered a totally different vantage point of the jungle as we could see over the undergrowth and really get a sense for how thick and dense the jungle really is.  This safari also proved much more successful as we saw about 8 one-horned rhinos and even two babies.  Being on the elephants allowed us to walk right up within twenty feet of the rhinos as they seemed very at ease being around each other.  We weaved our way through the jungle for an hour and a half catching sight of Rhinos and deer as we went along.  Our driver even let me switch places with him on the elephant's neck and steer us around the jungle for a while.

After the safari we spent the afternoon back at the camp with some more soccer and dinner.  In the evening we went into town to the Tharu cultural center for a performance by a group of boys from the local Tharu village.  It was a very touristy event but it was an entertaining show with lots of local dances.  It was a good end to a long, full day in Chitwan.

Bryan