Chitwan

Wednesday morning started with a two hour canoe ride down the Rapti River in Chitwan National Park. We had three guides and two other tourists besides myself, the edges of the canoe were only a few inches out of the water the entire ride. We saw over twenty crocodiles, and a lot of cool birds, my favorites being the Ruby Shelduck and White-Throated Kingfisher. They were all extremely vibrant.

After the canoe trip was the jungle walk. We started about ten o'clock and walked through the national park, resting at lookout towers and tracking animals until after sun down. An hour into the trip we saw our first rhinoceros. A short while later we were able to watch another one bathe in a small lake, and saw one more in the evening from a lookout post.

During one of our rest breaks there were monkeys playing in the trees above us. This langur monkey was nestling it's baby in one arm as it swung from branches with its other, all while keeping a close eye on us trespassers.

Next up were Sloth Bears. After we startled one in the early afternoon, I received my first lesson in tracking a sloth bear. First, wait a few minutes after it runs away to see if it reappears somewhere. When it doesn't follow its path to try to startle it into moving again. When that doesn't work, start a fire with the dry grass in the area to try to scare it into moving again, then circle back to your original vantage point and wait for a few more minutes. I was fairly certain the bear was long gone, and it turned out it was. The brush fire grew bigger and louder as we sat and watched nothing happen, then left after a few minutes, leaving the fire to burn out on its own. It was strange to say the least. We did get lucky again and saw four or five more late in the evening. One cub even riding on her mom's back as they curiously spied at us.

The sunsets and sunrises were incredible, and the moon at night was full enough to light up the river and surrounding grasslands. As soon as we got back after the two day hike, it was time for the daily elephant baths. I was in desperate need of a shower, and so was the elephant. It rolled around in the water for a while, me always failing to hang on to its back. It sprayed me with the river water, which probably wasn't too clean but felt great in the moment. The rest of the afternoon I sat on the beach, reading and writing, only moving to walk into the river and splash myself with water to stay cool. It was a great few days in the jungle.