Nepal 97 Travelog : Canoe ride in the Chitwan national park (20/24)

<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT = "#ABCBBE"> <PRE>Back at the lodge, after this incredible safari, we talk to one of the employee who told us that there were only one or two viewing of Tiger by tourists, every month ! But may be from 20 or 40 meters far away, and for a 1/ 10 of second ! What we just experienced was clearly the best seeing for the last past 3 or 5 years ! According to our pahit, and, which goes into the Jungle almost every day since 20 years, it was his best safari ever !!!! After this incredible elephant safari, we experienced too during other excursions what most of the other groups saw during their 1h30 min elephant safari : few monkeys from far away ! That's all : no rhinos or tigers or deers !! Anyhow, for them (but it could have been us), the lodge kindly organize a slide show presenting the main species of the park during the evening.. Our last excursion was a canoe ride, the main objective being crocodile watching, and with a lot of chance, a glimpse of the very rare gangetic dolphin !! We could spot some crocos : Unfortunately, they did remain in the water, and looked very much like floating trunks.. Indeed, the second day was somewhat rainy (very rare at this time of the season) ! This unusual weather period, it is generally good time to see rhinos or Tigers which are somewhat disturb from their usual habits and move more ! But, it is a very bad time for crocos spotting : indeed, they won't have any mud bath, because they can't do afterwards their usual "sun bath" on the river banks .. During the canoe ride, we saw quite some species of birds (including some "Siberian goes"), with some barking deers.. We all enjoyed very much the stay in this Island Jungle resort. On top of that, the preservation work done here seems quite good : only a very small parcel of the Chitwan park is open to visitors, and we heard that poaching only still occurred at very rare occasions. The park has gained much wider recognition in the world when UNESCO included this area on the list of World Heritage Site in 1984. And today, it preserves the magnificent flora and fauna of the subtropical woodlands of the Indian subcontinent that have been so tragically depleted by strong human population pressures.</PRE> </BODY>