Welcome to the jungle

Near the Indian border you find Chitwan National Park, a nature reserve of 900 sqkm.

It's called jungle, but not matching my idea of jungle. It's a lot of grassland and open forests.

You can see rhinos, crocodiles, elephants, tigers and much more less dangerous animals. The typical way to explore is taking a walking tour, everything between half day and seven days is possible. Or you can go in by Jeep, also it's possible to go by elephant. Problem is only that the elephants are not treated good so the more responsible thinking agencies don't recommend doing that anymore.

I did a one day walking tour, which starts with a 2 hour canoe ride, the canoe made from a single tree trunk. Lots of birds, crocodiles, even a rhino standing next to the river. Very nice, relaxed.

Then the walking starts, which after all is 7 hours walking, covering almost 20km.

And if you ask me for my recommendation: take the Jeep tour. It's not about the walking, just the feeling that it's a bit too risky for what you actually see. It might sound good to see wild elephants and rhinos. Problem is only they are very aggressive... So the walk started with running away from a rhino. Then long time birds and deer. Then, when we had a break, about 40 meters ahead suddenly an elephant came out of the jungle. The guides just shouted run run... The elephant followed a bit but luckily not much. 45 minutes later we ran from the same elephant again...

Actually an Indian tourist has been killed by that elephant last month, she couldn't run away...

Later we saw some rhinos bathing, also a mother and baby rhino eating. That was cool, and they were not very far away but far enough.

My feeling is that they are not taking it serious enough. You can only with two guides but you cannot avoid dangerous situations. Also I saw a group with a disabled man who could not walk properly. So no chance for him to run....

Oh, and when you go to a restaurant at night better take a flashlight. And if you see a big animal on the street you better hide until it has left....Leggi altro