Nepal 97 Travelog : arriving at the Royal Chitwan national Park (15/24)

<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT = "#ABCBBE"> <PRE>The Chitwan National park, covering an area of 930 km2, is situated in the sub-tropical lowlands of southern Nepal, lying between two mountain ranges, the Siwalik and the Mahabharat. This is the flood plain of three rivers, the Rapti, the Reu and the Narayani, which will all ends up in the Gange river. The forest is dominated by Sal trees (shorea robusta) and tall grasses. This is the natural habitat of endangered animals like Bengal tigers, one-horned rhinoceros and gharial crocodile. The park also secures populations of other endangered species such as wild elephant, four horned antelope, striped hyena, pangolin, Gangetic dolphin, monitor lizard, and python. We were staying for 3 days at the island jungle resort, one of the 7 lodges, lying at the border of the national park, and offering the possibility of having a glimpse of the park.. There are may be 70 to 80 visitors in the lodge, which will alternate between the different activities proposed : guide jungle walks, elephant safari, canoe riding, etc.. Compared to our safari in the Indian reserve of Sariska, our stay here was ten thousands times more thrilling as it was the occasion of extraordinary wildlife spotting !! Among them, during a jungle walk, we did encounter, 15 meter away in front of us, a 2 tons rhinoceros and during an elephant safari, we had the rare chance to face for few seconds (i.e. at less than 10 meters) a magnificent tiger. I will come on that later on..</PRE> </BODY>