Elusive Bardia tigers
A three hour bus journey covering 60km of tarred road brought us safely to a drop off point near Bardia National Park (previously Royal Bardia National Park but all the 'Royal' prefixes have since been removed due to national disillusionment with the royalty). We enjoyed a good chat to some locals while waiting for our jeep pick up and before we knew it we were settled into our cute little cottage at Forest Hideaway Resort.
Weather was balmy and the surroundings beautiful. We did a tiger trekking walk (but saw no tigers), lounged in the hammocks, did a stunning early morning elephant safari as well as a jeep safari. All the above were great but a highlight was going off to play with a gorgeous little orphan elephant - only 6 weeks old - who was found washed away in the monsoon floods and rescued. He was too gorgeous - especially when he can running to you accidentally stepping on his trunk as he came!
The elephant safari was magical too - just us on our elephant and a UK couple we met there on their elephant. We were following fresh tiger tracks and knew that we were very close as our elephant became very nervous and stamped his feet and snorted. He was not too happy about getting closer to a tiger. Our excitement grew. Unfortunately the tiger was lying low...
The afternoon walk, which takes you past a watch tower from where we watched monkeys swimming over the river, was also breathtaking. The afternoon climaxed as we moved from the open bush into tall grasslands. As the grasses got taller and taller one could not help getting caught up in the romance of it all - Johan lingered for photos and video and it was all one of those movie moments - until Johan had to face one of his worst nightmare... As soon as we were in a bit of a clearing he discovered that he was covered in leeches! - we all were. After a frantic leech removal episode (Johan had to be de-leeched first to stop the hysterics) Johan was bleeding so much it looked like he had been shot! Moving through the grasslands was a lot quicker after that.
A highlight of the jeep safari was to spot the rare Asian rhino - a one-horned rhino, much smaller than the African rhinos with weird scales like foldings of skin.
We were sad to leave after only two nights but the Annapurnas were calling and new regulations were about to come into effect. We were insistent to get there in time to still be able to trek alone.
Weather was balmy and the surroundings beautiful. We did a tiger trekking walk (but saw no tigers), lounged in the hammocks, did a stunning early morning elephant safari as well as a jeep safari. All the above were great but a highlight was going off to play with a gorgeous little orphan elephant - only 6 weeks old - who was found washed away in the monsoon floods and rescued. He was too gorgeous - especially when he can running to you accidentally stepping on his trunk as he came!
The elephant safari was magical too - just us on our elephant and a UK couple we met there on their elephant. We were following fresh tiger tracks and knew that we were very close as our elephant became very nervous and stamped his feet and snorted. He was not too happy about getting closer to a tiger. Our excitement grew. Unfortunately the tiger was lying low...
The afternoon walk, which takes you past a watch tower from where we watched monkeys swimming over the river, was also breathtaking. The afternoon climaxed as we moved from the open bush into tall grasslands. As the grasses got taller and taller one could not help getting caught up in the romance of it all - Johan lingered for photos and video and it was all one of those movie moments - until Johan had to face one of his worst nightmare... As soon as we were in a bit of a clearing he discovered that he was covered in leeches! - we all were. After a frantic leech removal episode (Johan had to be de-leeched first to stop the hysterics) Johan was bleeding so much it looked like he had been shot! Moving through the grasslands was a lot quicker after that.
A highlight of the jeep safari was to spot the rare Asian rhino - a one-horned rhino, much smaller than the African rhinos with weird scales like foldings of skin.
We were sad to leave after only two nights but the Annapurnas were calling and new regulations were about to come into effect. We were insistent to get there in time to still be able to trek alone.
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