September 26, 2009 – Day 275 – Sauraha, Nepal

Up at 5:45AM. Not fully light outside yet. We have to check out of our room because someone else booked for it for tonight. We took our bags to the tour office we booked with and stored our things there until we get back later this morning to find another room. Since it was so early, very few places were open for a decent/cheap breakfast so a packet of coconut cookies and a bottle of water had to suffice.

Wild Rhino

Finally at 7AM, we set out in a dugout canoe down the calm river. We floated along, catching glimpses of birds playing in the morning sun and seeing a few early rising villagers bathing at a far bank. The air and harsh sun even this early in the day make us reminiscent of the time we spent in the Pantanal in Brazil.

Bird on the river

An hour in the canoe and we landed on a quiet, sandy shore to being our hike into the jungle. We picked our way through some tall itchy grasses, palms, and tangled bushes rising over our heads on either side, several expansive nest of giant red bugs who all seemed to be breeding like the apocalypse is coming (called courting bugs we found out later), and endless amounts of rhino turds, and we could finally begin our adventure in trying to find some rhinos in the wild!

Courting bug not... well ummm... courting

It only took 40 sweaty, tiptoe-y minutes to track one down who was enjoying a nice cool bath in a stream. At first, we were both thinking we were looking at a crocodile hovering in the water. But as we inched closer, ever so quietly, we both gasped (inwardly—we didn’t want to let it know we were watching it!) when we realized we were staring right at our first wild rhino!

Rhino caught in the bath

Fumbling with our cameras we snapped away like Chinese tourists at Disneyland. Our guide made a loud snort sound to try and catch the rhino’s attention and though it could not see us, it jumped sloppily out of the stream up ran up the opposite bank into the tall grass. Lucky for us, it was not interested in picking a fight so those “run up that tree there if she charges at us” instructions the guide had just given us were not needed.

Our guide

Wow! So all those piles of rhino shit really were useful and we got to see a real rhino in the jungle. Woohoo! Feeling totally psyched, we made our way back into the bushes and continued our walk. If we had turned back to the village even then, we would have been satisfied but no, that wasn’t all. Maybe 20 minutes later, our guide gives us the rhino evading instructions in an accented whisper and slinks low into the brush. We follow suit, not quite sure what he means to do until he points through the undergrowth at 2 rhinos in another part of the stream! Then he excitedly points somewhere else just a few feet from the 2 rhinos at—2 more rhinos!

Not a Rhino, but an Eagle

There were 2 “couples” and it is mating season so we were not able to get very close at all since the males are overly aggressive during this time. There was a fair amount of rhino noise going on between the two males as they communicated and stood their respective territories (and females). Our guide was nothing short of giddy and could not resist making a pig-like snort to see what reaction, if any, the rhinos might have at the sound. We were maybe 25 feet from them but lucky for us they were disinterested in pig noises and didn’t stir much beyond a few extra loud grunts. Having fully tested our luck and not wanting to push it any further, we silently inched away from our hiding spot and retreated further into the jungle and away from the thick skinned beasts.

It was not even noon yet and we had seen not just 1 but 5 rhinos who were actually in their own wild habitat! The guide commented that we had an extraordinarily lucky day and he could not help himself being just as excited as we were as he was talking with his younger assistant guide. Time to turn back for lunch and within another hour we were enjoying cold showers and an overpriced lunch.

But that was just the morning! After the heat of the day passed, we hopped into the back of a truck and rode to the elephant park for an up close and personal visit with a pachyderm. Another 2 tourists loaded into a little wooden elephant saddle for the ride.

Elephant head

In the two hour ride, we went around the park office on the well trodden paths atop our elephant carriage. We saw 4 rhinos, several herds of spotted deer, a few samba deer, a peacock couple, and a couple of monkeys high in the trees. All the animals around the park office and trails are incredibly tame and barely even flinch when they hear the yelling, laughing tourists and elephants all day every day.

Another day in the zoo

Since we had gotten to see some real wild rhinos this morning, we didn’t really mind the sedate looking ones we saw during our elephant ride. The ride itself was extremely bumpy but still pretty fun for the novelty of it. The couple who were sharing our elephant were really loud and complained about how uncomfortable it was the entire 2 hours but we had a fun time and enjoyed it for what it was, not necessarily for the wildlife viewing.