9. Chitwan Safari PM

After a busy morning and once dry from the Elephant encounter, we set off to go on our jeep safari. We had to first get in a canoe to cross another crocodile river to get to the jeeps. The jeeps had approx 12 people in, me and Grace were sat on the front which made great views. We went through a mixture of terrains, from Marshland to jungle, grasslands to swamps. Along the way we saw many different deers, about 6 rhino's, peacocks and many colourful birds. The safari was about 4 hours so we covered alot of the park, we were happy to see the working elephants enjoying the grasslands with their keepers also. About half way around the park we stopped to see a Gharial Crocodile Breeding Centre, these crocs are funny looking with a really thin jaw, they only eat fish so pose little threat to humans here. Unfortunately we didn't see any of the 128 Royal Bengal Tigers roaming the park, these are quite rare to see and usually spotted dusk time; we are hoping to see these tomorrow night when we stay deep in the jungle in a treetop house. These tigers are lovely to see but living in such close proximity to humans, they cause quite a commotion with the locals. When the tigers are getting older they are slower and get lazy for meals, that is when livestock and humans become on the menu. They kill roughly 12 people here a year and the crocodiles it's roughly 8 per year.
We have a long walk into the jungle tonight, to get to the tree house. It will take approx 1 hour, seems so strange being able to walk through active jungles, but we have had a training on what to do if we encounter these animals and have a guide with a big stick.... 😬. So all will be fine, apparently we have one of the best houses for viewing as its right next to a river where the animals come to drink and bathe in the evening. We are heading to the house at about 5pm so will have about 3 hours view before it gets dark, then we use a big torch if we hear anything at night. We are super excited!!Læs mere