ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 93/341/5: CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK, NEPAL

Chitwan National Park is amazing, and contains a huge number of wild animals within its reserve, as well as outside, as there is no fence barrier between Chitwan National Park and the jungle.

Since the 19th century, Chitwan – Heart of the Jungle – was a favorite hunting ground for Nepal's ruling class. Until the 1950s, the journey from Kathmandu to Nepal's south was difficult, as the area could only be reached by foot and took several weeks. Camps were set up for the feudal big game hunters and their entourage, where they stayed for months shooting hundreds of tigers, rhinoceroses, elephant, leopards and sloth bears.

By the 1960s, 70% of Chitwan's jungles had been cleared, and only 95 rhinos remained. The dramatic decline of the rhino population due to poaching prompted the government to institute  a rhino reconnaissance patrol of 130 armed men and a network of guard posts all over Chitwan. To prevent the extinction of rhinos, the Chitwan National Park was gazetted in December 1970, initially covering an area of 544 km2. In 1977, the park was enlarged to its present area of 952 km2. The best way to travel through the park is on an elephant.

On our drive on the "road" outside of Chitwan National Park, a huge Bengal Tiger lay on the road right in front of Knackers, blocking our way. One of the punters got out of the bus for a photo, but I quickly dragged him back inside the bus. We waited for about half an hour in a staring contest with the Tiger. Eventually, the Tiger finally got up, walked to the bus, pissed on the wheel hubs and the doorstep, and wandered off into the jungle.

On another trip, we stopped at Chitwan National Park for a real close up of wild animals. When a one horned Rhino charged at us, Corrie was up the nearest tree in a flash!!!

I couldn’t believe Corrie climbed the tree so fast, I couldn’t even see a branch low enough to grab onto, and the Rhino was closing - it was already closer to me than Corrie!!

Fortunately, our guides jumped in between me and the Rhino, which was protecting it’s baby rhino, smashed the ground with large sticks, and kept the Rhino at bay with the sticks.

I didn’t know where Knackers had crashed “in the jungle not far from Pokhara”, but I knew it couldn’t be far from Chitwan National Park, and had dreadful thoughts of the punters huddling in the bus to hide from the roaming Bengal Tigers and Rhinos.

After our smashed radiator had been welded together, repaired properly and didn’t leak, Gary Hayes headed off down the road again from Kathmandu to retrieve the punters, who I thought had been left on the edge of Chitwan National Park free camping with the Bengal Tigers and Rhinos. I still remained in Kathmandu, as Top Deck London had still not sent the trip money for the 11 weeker overland Kathmandu to London.

Eventually, Trevor Carroll (author of Crossing Continents with Top Deck) finally arrived in Kathmandu to start a Kathmandu to Sydney trip, and gave me travellers cheques for my trip money back to London.  So I hitch-hiked from Kathmandu down the road with a truck driver, who generously allowed me to eat dinner with his family, on the floor (no cutlery, right hand only), and to sleep there overnight as well. It doesn't take long to find a Top Deck bus in Nepal ......

Meanwhile, our 1980 Kathmandu to London trip book records: “DAY 5 CRASH SITE SEPT 22

Impress locals with our spear-fishing skills.

Nude sunbathing. Teena burnt her bum, Jackie her tits.

Easy to chase off locals.

Went for a swim. The water was clean.

The boys & girls almost caught fish, they did.

The apricots and pudding for lunch was an absolute luxury.

Taught the natives to dance the “hokey pokey”.

Tea Pot taught us 637 native dances in revenge.”

Day book photo of 4 of the punters relaxing on the side of the road where Knackers had it’s head-on collision which smashed the radiator into pieces.

 

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