Elephants

Riding on elephants

 

We went in an open truck from the hotel to a place at the edge of the national park.

 

Photo 1 truck ride

 

There was a collection of tourists there and about 10 elephants were waiting, already with their riders sitting behind their heads and the seat for the tourist on their backs. We climbed up some wooden steps to a platform and then stepped out onto the back of the elephant. The seat was a kind of wooden tray, with a post at each corner and a low wooden railing all around. We sat 4 to an elephant, facing outwards, with our legs either side of the corner posts. Our elephant was called Kanchikali and she was 32 years old. Some of the elephants had patterns drawn on their faces and ears. Their skin was a dark grey colour and they had coarse sparse hair on their heads. The edges of their ears and some of their faces and the ends of their trunks were pale pink and freckled with grey spots.

We headed off into the forest – a parade of elephants. Mostly we followed in line, but sometimes an elephant took a slightly different route and pushed its own way through the undergrowth. The motion was very rocky, but after a while we got used to the gentle lurching. The mahout had stirrups made from rope and he pushed his bare feet behind the elephant's ears to urge her on. He had a wooden stick that he occasionally hit her with on one side of the head and shouted and talked to her. He also had a metal spike with a hook, but fortunately he didn't use that.

It was difficult to get good photographs, because of the rocky motion of the elephant's walk.

 

Photo 2 of Kieran, Robert, Joe and Brian on their elephant

Photo 3 of me on the elephant

Photo 4 of mahout

 

We crossed an area of open grass where local women were cutting the grass with small sickles and came to a river. The elephants waded across, stopping occasionally for a drink. Coming out on the other side of the river the bank was very muddy and the elephants carefully chose to put their feet in the prints of the elephant in front.

 

Photo 4 of crossing a muddy ditch

Photo 5 of crossing the river

 

The elephant rider pointed out a very small crocodile in a swampy pond, a monkey high in a tree and several types of deer. Then the cry came from in front that there were rhinos. The elephants gathered around and we could see a mother and a baby rhino. The baby rhino was frightened. They both looked like their skins were too big for them, with massive folds dividing the skin into what looked almost like separate plates.

 

Photo 6 of watching the rhinos

Photo 7 of mother and baby rhino

 

We left them to it and continued on through the forest. Occasionally an elephant would reach out with its trunk and grab hold of a bunch of leaves on a tree and rip them off. They seemed to be particularly fond of the banana leaves.

Theresa dropped her hat and the rider turned the elephant round and spoke to her and she picked the ht up in her trunk and passed it over her head to the rider. Theresa had her hat back, complete with a smear of elephant snot!

On the way back the parade spread out and at times there were no other elephants in sight – just us alone in the forest. We paired up with another elephant and the riders spotted a family of wild pigs in the undergrowth. We stopped to take a look, but the elephants did not seem to like it at all. They banged their trunks on the ground and made a booming sound like a drum and we could feel the vibrations from this through their body. They lifted their trunks and trumpeted and stamped their feet. The pigs ran off and the elephants settled down.

When we got back to the start we climbed back off the elephants onto the wooden platform and down the steps. Our guide gave a tip to the elephant riders by putting a note in the elephants trunk and she passed it over her head to the rider.

 

Photo 8 of the Kanchikali receiving her tip

 

Washing elephants

 

Later on 4 of the elephants came to our hotel, each with a rider, but bare backed, no saddle, as earlier. We were told we would have the chance to take the elephants down to the river and wash them, 'Be prepared to get wet.' The elephants lay down and we were told to get on behind the rider, two to an elephant. I couldn't imagine how this would work, but a stool was brought and with a leg up I was sitting astride the elephant's neck, holding tightly to the waist of the mahout, then Joe got on behind me and held on too. Thankfully the skin and coarse hair of the elephant meant that it was not in the least slippery and we felt surprisingly safe It was a sort walk to the river and when we were there the rider urged the elephant down into the water and she waded in up to her tummy. Then she kneeled down and rolled over and we all fell off laughing right into the river. The elephants lay down very still right under the water, occasionally lifting out the end of their trunk to breathe. We sloshed water over their heads and backs and sometimes they squirted water over us. We spent about half and hour with them, just playing around. They were very calm and gentle, but absolutely enormous beasts. It was very special.

 

Photo 9 of all in the river

Photo 10 about to be dunked again

Photo 11 of Kieran and Brian bareback elephant riding

Chitwan National Park

We drive for 5 hours from Pokara to Chitwan national park, which lies in the flat lands of the Terai in the south of Nepal, close to the border with India. Chitwan is home to an ethnic group called the Tharu, who are thought to have migrated from the north of India. These people are generally very poor and only about 30% of their children go to school.

 

Photo 1 of Tharu house

 

The temperature has gone up while we have been driving and when we get out of the air-conditioned bus the heat and steaminess hits us. Pokara and Chitwan are the two tourist destinations of Nepali people.

Our hotel is rather as I imagine an African safari lodge might be. It has separate buildings for the rooms and restaurant is outside under a thatched roof. There is an open terrace which looks out over the river where we can watch herons fishing and water buffalo grazing.

 

Photo 2 of hotel

Photo 3 of view from the terrace

 

On our first day there we have fantastic encounters with elephants, which I will tell you about separately.

Later in the day we have a guide from the national park and we have a canoe ride down the river to spot crocodiles. The canoe is made from one whole cotton silk tree. We all get into one canoe, which sits very low in the water.

 

Photo 4 of canoes

 

As we float leisurely downstream the park guide points out various birds whose names can't remember and a kingfisher. He tells us that this is not a very good season for spotting crocodiles because it is so hot they tend to stay in the water, rather than lie on the bank. We are all a little nervous about being in such a low boat with crocodiles in the water! We do see several crocs on the banks. One is about 3m in length! I couldn't get a photo of them, as they were so well camouflaged.

He canoe pulls up at the shore and as we get out two working elephants lumber out of the jungle. They have been clearing dead trees and the mahouts have cut elephant grass to take back to the nearby elephant breeding centre for food.

 

Photo 5 of working elephants

 

The park guide takes us on a nature walk through the jungle, pointing out interesting things on the way.

 

Photo 6 of nature walk

Photo 7 of termite mound

 

The park is home to around 40 tigers, rhino, deer, sloth bears and elephants. Along one path we find a fresh tiger paw print. I should have put something down to make a size comparison, but the whole print is about the size of my hand.

 

Photo 8 of tiger paw print

 

The guide shows us a way to work out the height of the tiger. He picks a piece of grass and uses it to measure twice around the circumference of the paw print. This will be the height of the tiger.

 

Photo 9 of measuring the height of the tiger.

 

Our walk ends at the elephant breeding centre and it is dinner time. The elephants are tethered in open barns for feeding; otherwise they graze in the forest during the day. Females are kept for breeding and males are recruited into the Nepali army,  which uses them to patrol national parks and prevent poaching, as well as for transport. The training regime for the young elephants sounds pretty harsh, with them being chained to a post.

 

Photo 10 of feeding time at the elephant breeding centre

 

There is a mother with a 3 month old baby, who trots around looking at the crowd of people.

 

Photo 11 of mother and baby

 

There is also a pair of 3 year old twins. For both twins to survive is very unusual. These two are boys and are already growing their tusks.

 

Photo 12 of mother and twins

In the evening we go into the local town and get tickets to the Tharu cultural show, which demonstrates the traditional music, song and dance of the Tharu people. We get to the culture hall just before the start of the show, but the performance is already sold out to Nepali and Indian tourist who are keen for their evening's entertainment. We hang around the town for an hour and then go back for the second performance.

The first dances are rather like our morris dance. The men dance in a circle and have two sticks which they use to whack the sticks of the other dancers.

Photo 13 of Tharu dancing

Only men are allowed to dance. This presents a problem if they want to represent women and results in men dressing up as women to dance. We watch a very strange dance which is used when a man has died. A young boy dresses up as the wife of the dead man and twirls his skirts wildly and an older man dresses up as the dead man's mother and skips around more sedately. It was introduced by the commentator as the 'lady-boy dance'!

At the end of each dance our group claps politely, but the Nepali and Indian tourists in the audience are strangely quiet and just sit there waiting for the next part of the show.

For the last part of the show the commentator invites the audience to join in with a circle dance. Guess who is up there first? Kieran and Debbie follow me and come up on stage too.

Photo 14 of me and Kieran joining in

 

trekking days 3 and 4

When we wake up in the morning we have a view above the head of the valley of Annapurna 1 and the next door mountain that we haven't seen yet, Huinchuli.

 

Photo 1 of Annapurna 1 and Huinchul

 

Here we are all waiting for breakfast. From left to right is Kieran, Brian, Robert, Sven, Anil, Debbie, Erica, Debbie, Kristine, Joe and Romy. The tea house smelly dog insists on sitting under the table and has to be shooed out.

 

Photo 2 of waiting for breakfast

 

Outside the house opposite an old woman is sitting on the veranda of her house sorting kernels of sweetcorn. She tosses them in a wide metal pan and picks some out and outs them to one side.

 

Photo 3 of woman sorting maize

 

We set off walking through the village of Landruck.

 

Photo 4 of Landruk village houses

 

After some initial step-climbing the trail becomes gentler and we walk through various other villages stopping occasionally to catch our breath. At one place the porters are given some walnuts straight from a tree by the tea house owner and they squat on the ground cracking them.

 

Photo 5 of porters cracking walnuts

Photo 6 of chickens in a basket

Photo 7 of view from a rest stop

 

We then have 1 hour of steep steps to climb to arrive at the highest point of the trek and a new view opens up on the other side of the mountain. The whole Annapurna range would be visible from here, but unfortunately they are hidden behind the clouds. We walk through a beautiful forest, with occasional clearings. Just before lunch it starts to rain heavily. We have to be careful not to slip on the stone paths and steps. The tread on Debbie's trekking shoes is very slippery and she has to go very slowly and even so she falls and cracks the screen of her new camera.

By the time we finish lunch the sun has come out again and we have pretty much dried off. It is an easy hour's walk to our 3^rd night's tea house – the aptly named 'Paradise View'.  We are almost at the end of our trek and my legs have never been so sore after walking.

 

Photo 8 of tea house at Champus

 

This is the last evening of the trek and the porters are in the mood to celebrate. After dinner they make  a camp fire. They sing and play a drum and do a strange twirly kind of dance. I'm straight up dancing with them, in spite of the sore legs. Then Kieran, the assistant guide does a great dance step with a squat and a sideways hop. Soon everyone is joining in.

 

Photo 9 of camp fire

Photo 10 of porters singing

Photo 11 of porters dancing

 

The children from the tea house sit cuddled together on a table and watch us.

 

Photo 12 of tea house children watching

 

Then they sing softly to themselves accompanied by a drum.

 

Photo 13 of children singing

 

We sit around the fire while it dies down and the Irish boys pass around a bottle of local whiskey. Gradually people start drifting off to bed, but the local children are there until past midnight. Finally it's me, the Irish boys and Anil. The evening ends with them teaching our guide rude words, which seems particularly hilarious.

The next morning the mountains are still not visible. After breakfast the tea house owner presents us all with a scarf each, which is a local tradition.

 

Photo 14 of scarf presentation

Photo 15 of the whole group

 

This is the view as we leave the tea house.

 

Photo 16 of the view

 

We trek downhill and down steps for an hour and a half and eventually reach the place where the bus was waiting to take us back to Pokara. On the way this dude was particularly keen to make himself heard. Those without hangovers think this is very funny; those with hangovers, do not.

 

Photo 17 of man with horn

Photo 18 houses

Trekking day 2

We get up early hoping to get a good view of the mountains before the clouds gather. We can see 2 of the peaks in the Annapurna range amongst the clouds – Annapurna 1 at 7200m and the Fish Tail mountain at 6940m. The Fish tail mountain is considered holy in the Hindu religion because of the shape of its peak and because it stands alone. It is forbidden to summit this peak.

Annapurna 1

Fish Tail mountain

The tea house terrace has great views of the peak and we sit outside for breakfast, drinking in the view and the Nepali tea. Beside the house a wide marijuana bush is growing.

Tea house, mountains and marijuana

We start walking; this time steeply down steps and again we stop to rest from time to time at small shops or restaurants. At one place a man is sharpening the individual teeth of a saw with a file, watched intently by his daughter. I guess there is no popping out to B and Q here when your saw is dull.

Man sharpening a saw

Occasionally mule trains pass us in both directions and people carrying goods in baskets on their backs. One man has a huge cardboard box of pepsi bottles and one with a crate of live chickens.

 Mule train

We are heading for a hot spring, but somehow I get momentarily separated from the group and never make it there. I opt to wait at the lunch restaurant with a few of the porters and am glad to have the rest. I lie on a stone bench in the sun, snoozing. One of the porters comes to talk to me and he asks about my family.  I show him pictures on my camera. I ask him about his family and whether he has children. He tells me he is not married yet and he is only 25. He looks about 40. When the others come back from the hot spring hey say they enjoyed the experience, but they are exhausted from the additional climb down and back up and from sitting in the hot water on a hot day.

After lunch our walk takes us back along the river bank and we cross the river again on the longest bridge so far. In the middle the bridge swings and tilts wildly.

River crossing

The terrain becomes more gentle and looks rather like  a walk at home through woods and beside a river, except that the river is much wilder and the hills steeper. We walk through a small farmyard where sweetcorn is drying stacked on a frame in front of the house; chicken peck and some sheep's wool is laid out to dry – a story book farmyard.

Sweetcorn drying

In a shed on the other side of the yard an old women of 80 is sitting on a mat on the ground, weaving cloth on a loom that lies in front of her feet. She looks remarkably sprightly and gives a toothy grin. Not bad going in a country where the life expectancy is about 60.

Woman weaving

Waterfall

We are all very pleased when we arrive at tonight's tea house. It has a great view up the valley we have just come along and we can look back to where we were on the other side of the valley at lunch time.

Tea house at Landruck

Me