Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So after a few days of well-deserved relaxing, eating meat and drinking alcohol in Pokhara I was set for the road again and this time it was taking me and my trekking posse ( Tali, Karen, Ben & Michael) to the Terrai, the flat southern part of Nepal. Now I've had some difficult/interesting bus journeys in Nepal, but I think this one must go down as the worst yet! We took a 16 hour local bus from Pokhara to Ambassar to get to Bardia National Park. Luckily we'd reserved seats on this bus because it was packed beyond belief. We must have at one point had 90-100 pax (plus 4 boxes of chickens) on board our 52 seater bus. It wasn't long into the journey until I got handed my requisite kid to sit on my knee, which I was much happier about than Tali who instead got adults sitting on her shoulder the whole journey since she had an aisle seat. The mountain roads here are dangerous at the best of times, but then it began to pour so we had rivers of mud washing down the mountains onto the road making for particularly safe driving conditions. But the conditions inside were actually more concerning- since everyone closed the windows due to the rain it got really stuffy pretty quick and then it began… everyone started vomiting. It was horrendous, people being sick into plastic bags and out of windows everywhere, the sounds and the smell continued for literally hours. To top it off I was sitting in a complete puddle at this point as the bus was far from water tight and so rain was coming in the windows and dripping from above. Eventually after four hours we stopped for a break in a little village. At this point I seriously considered hitching back to Pokhara rather than get back on the bus for another 12 hours, but after some samosas and a serious word with myself I was ready for the next round. Thankfully the rain had stopped, and about an hour and a half later a lot of passengers including my cargo got off so the rest of the journey was much more bearable.
We arrived in Ambassar on a pretty deserted road 13km from where we needed to be at 6am, not ideal but luckily there was a guy who touted for a resort who invited us for a chai while he called his friend to take us to his resort. About 20 minutes later Jack from Bardia Kingfisher resort arrived. He was a character, a real 'Jack the lad' full of energy and loved what he did (jungle guide). He was married to a French girl called Mylene and together they ran the resort (5 huts) which had a really chilled bohemian vibe, possibly helped by the fact that the place was rampant with weed - which everyone took advantage of. It was pretty cut off from the outside world with electricity usually from 11pm-5am but to be honest it was the kind of place you really didn't need or even want it. There was quite a cool group of guests while I was there; 2 English couples that came for a few days and were still there nearly 2 weeks later, and another English guy Elliot and Charlotte from N. Ireland who had been travelling together for a while and Chris a French guy who was a friend of Jack & Mylene, just passing through on his way to bike through India (if he ever managed to get his visa- he messed up his paperwork twice while I was there) So in the evenings everyone just got together and had a drink or a smoke chatting about their day i9n the jungle- it was so chilled. We had some awesome days together- one in particular when we went for a picnic by the river. We drew up a shopping list of what a picnic would normally include in our respective countries, so we had Pimms, cucumber sandwiches etc. and then scoured the village for what we could get- we ended up with samosas, churros style donoughts and most importantly 2 bottles of rum which we filled up with lots of fruit- what more do you need really. Four people got on Chris' motorbike. Charlotte and I got bikes as we thought an extra two passengers might push it, however the journey there was considerably easier than the return. Drunk cycling on pitch black dirt tracks, where we met water buffalos being hearded; running right for us was hilarious if not the most sensible mode of transport.
But obviously the main event here was the trip into the jungle. Bardia National Park is one of the last places you can still do jungle walks, rather than elephant or jeep safaris. I opted for a jeep safari in the morning and a jungle walk in the afternoon to try to get the best of both worlds. We didn't spot much wildlife on the jeep, only a few cool birds, jackals and lots of deer but it was a good way to cover more ground and see more of the park. We got out of the jeep to move onto foot and almost immediately we got the call from Jack to our guide that they had spotted tigers, so we began running to where they were. In hindsight this seems crazy running towards man eating tigers rather than away from them but hey that's what we did. Or should I say that that's what I tried to do but given I'd just added 3 liters of water to my backpack and was already exhausted in the heat I was definitely not keeping up with the group, luckily Ben was struggling too or was just being nice waiting as he had some protection (a bamboo stick) now what good a bamboo stick was going to be if we ran into a tiger or elephant I do not know but hey I was glad of anything going. We were about a minute or two behind the group when we heard massive rustling in the bushes next to us and Ben shouted look at the Rhino, now my eyesight is not the best so I gave it a second or two and couldn't see it but could damn well hear it, really close, so I suddenly re discovered my ability to run and took off. By this point Jack had come to find us to make sure we hadn't been eaten and took us to where both groups were now chilling out by a small river, where the tigers had been. Apparently it was now a waiting game as Jack was sure they'd come back to the same water source. I was all for this course of action- sitting still for an hour or two in this heat was definitely fine with me. And the animals did come; we saw a tiger and her two cubs and a rhino with her baby rhino and another huge male rhino (possibly the one I'd got up close and personal with earlier). It was fantastic, we were in the perfect spot chilling in the shade, close enough to see the animals (in amazing details with binoculars) but far enough away that we weren't disturbing them at all. Overall it was an amazing day where you really feel you're in the heart of the jungle and whilst walking through tall grass could come across animals at any minute- a little terrifying but awesome!
One of the days the rest of the group went back in for a full day jungle walk but I decided I'd had enough action so opted for a quiet day in the resort - but it seems you don't need to enter the park to experience the wildlife. I was chilling in a hammock when there was a whole commotion from the house just opposite the resort. Mylene and I went to investigate and found out a little girl had been playing with her brother in the sort of channel of water than encircles the whole village just by her house when she was attacked by a crocodile. Luckily their parents were close by and together they got her free, but all four of them were badly injured but luckily no limbs lost. In times of crisis like this you could really get a sense of community here with all the villagers coming together, the boys from our resort with a motorbike racing to the bring the doctor and then anyone with a jeep coming to take the people to the nearest hospital (over an hour away). Jack seemed to think the National Park would pay their medical bills as they certainly couldn't afford it and apparently the park should've been controlling the crocodiles so they never got into the village. I don't see how this could possibly be policed but hey what do I know. They did a count of the crocodiles and apparently 4-5 were unaccounted for so the next day they started draining the water canals around the village to begin the search. The locals are in there every day- bathing, playing, washing clothes and dishes- so it's terrifying to think there could be crocodiles on the loose. Hey never a dull day in the jungle!
- comments