Pokhora to Chitwan

We woke up to clear skies from the fog over the last 4 days. We finally got to see more of the Himalayas from our hotel rooftop and the local park. We have a 4-5 hour ride to the Chitwan to start our safari portion of our trip. The ride is always interesting. There is a lot of construction leaving Pokhora and then later on we went through lots of landslide areas which is where a few busloads of people were washed over into the river below. Lots of landslide cleanup on some newer roads.
We arrived in the Chitwan which is very close to the border of India. We met our guide, Gopal, had lunch and then Gopal took us for a walkabout to get our bearings and watch the sunset. We saw the domestic elephants at feeding time. They are chained for feeding time, but then they are released and the guides take them back I to the jungle until morning. They gather grass during the day for the elephants and the park rangers ride them to patrol. They are treated well. We walked to the river and saw 3 typed of alligator, 2 of which are critically endangered ( needle-nosed). We saw a rhino from quite a distance so even w binoculars it was hard to see all of it in the grass. We had a drink by the river and listened to the deer come out in herds and their calls to warn of tigers. It was a beautiful evening. Our full day jeep safari is tomorrow.Read more