Tigers & Rhinos & Muggers, Oh My!

It seems everyone in our group felt a let-down once our 6 days of trekking were over & we were headed to Chitwan National Park.  However, that mood improved markedly shortly after we arrived at the posh Kasara Jungle Resort.  We given just enough time to visit our open-air, modernist & minimalist rooms to freshen up.  Then we were whisked off for an elephant ride.

Ram, our bus driver, with our bus transport

Eric & Helen climbing atop their elephant

Our first encounter with a one horned rhino 

Spotted deer 

Grass as high as an elephant's eye

Endangered gharial crocs at breeding sanctuary

A "wolverine" about to get soaked

Now Kate's turn

Setting off our our dugout canoe ride

Our two other dugouts sliding down the Rapti River

Sunset on the Rapti River in Chitwan National Park

The group was ferried by jeep to a staging area where we saw 4 large elephants and a baby elephant.   Each adult elephant was "saddled" with a small deck-like structure.  Four people at a time climbed a tall wooden structure then stepped onto the  foam padded box with rails perched atop "our"  elephant. Then the handler urged the elephant forward and she  lumbered off, followed by the calf.   Within minutes we saw our first animals, spotted deer, then a one-horned rhinoceros grazing in 10-12 foot tall elephant grass!  During the nearly 2-hour ride, we saw a mother rhino & her calf, many wild boars, hog deer, monkeys, and birds.

Saturday morning we had another opportunity to view wildlife when we took a jeep safari ride.   During the drive, we saw 20+ species of birds & 2 crocodiles.  This type of croc, we were told is called a mugger.

We saw another kind of crocodile when  we visited a breeding sanctuary for endangered gharials.  Gharials are odd looking reptiles.  These crocs have a long skinny, almost stick like,  snout with a bulb at the end and hundreds of spiny teeth!  During our tour we heard a Bengal tiger roaring loudly.
After a sumptuous buffet lunch we walked down a dusty dirt road outside the park to visit a traditional Tharu village (the 3rd largest of the 40 ethnic groups in Nepal).   As we toured, we learned about these people, their history & a bit about their daily  life.

Then we boarded dugout canoes, carved from magnolia trees, for a quiet, peaceful float down the Rapti River which borders the park.  Since both Khamel, the naturalist, and Rajendra, who accompanied us, are expert birders, we saw lots more birds.  As we enjoyed a spectacular sunset,  a huge crocodile slid off a sandbar into the water.  This would have been  the perfect ending to our Chitwan NP visit.  However, as we neared our take-out, we spotted two male rhinos facing off from opposite sides of the river. They looked huge and dark standing in the water.    Our guides said they'd never witnessed this. What a special ending for our visit to the Nepalese countryside!