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We arrived in Chitwan national park the home to the endangered Tigers and Rhino. Chitwan is a really chilled out area and a lot more touristy than anywhere we had been. We hadn't really seen any other westerners since we had been in India but there were quite a few here in Nepal and a lot of western food on the menu and also beer. Beer is often sold in India but you will rarely find it actually on the menu. Chitwan is home to the Chitwan national park which is a protected park and here tigers elephant rhino sloth bear and leopards roam free and we were about to embark on a jungle trek through the animals territory with an unarmed guide. As this dawned on me I started to actually get a bit scared. We were told if we saw a tiger we had to 'stare it out', I wasn't really convinced by this. We started the two day trek in a wooden canoe going down a river infested with crocodiles. Our guide kindly pointed out the 'man eating' croc to us, and at this point the croc turned saw us and dived into the water, I was sure it would resurface near us but it didn't! Then we were coming into the bank to get into the jungle as we neared the bank a croc appeared only a metre away and dived into the water I was petrified! The guide decided to take us a bit further down the river instead. We then went into the jungle. It was pretty muddy and there was huge elephant grass which grows about 10ft it ripped my arms to shreds. The guide kept pointing out all the tiger prints in the mud and at that point we heard a huge roar, and we were told that it was most likely a tiger. We saw a few deer and boar. The other pest was leeches they get everywhere they kept trying to get in through my socks but luckily they didn't make it, I hate them. Chris got one stuck on his shoulder. We trekked through all day and never managed to see a Rhino which we were all really hoping for. We stayed over in a basic guesthouse in the jungle for the night and it was a great experience. We had to get another wooden canoe over which felt like it would capsize at any moment and apparently one did the week before! I made it to the other side and went and sat down at the bar of the guest house and was waiting for all the other group to make it across. I was watching the elephant's crossing over with their Mahouts (the handler) and who is on the back of the elephant..only Chris! He managed to get a ride on the bare back of the Elephant, I was really jealous! The next day we went back into the jungle and saw a crocodile breeding centre and we did manage to see a tiger. Its mother had killed 4 humans in 60 days and had to be captured they say once a tiger had eaten human flesh they will then continue to hunt humans down. The mother eventually died and one of her cubs was now in the enclosure and would most likely be sent to a Zoo. We had an Elephant ride later that day but this was a proper organised one and we didn't ride on the elephant's bare back we were on a wooden seat and we were all hoping to see the Rhino. We managed to see three and it was amazing. They were smaller than I thought they would be. The Rhino are blind and they could sense we were there they backed off a bit but remained very still. There skin looks so thick, I felt like I was in Jurassic park. We saw a mother and baby Rhino. We took some film and lots of photos so hopefully they will be on the net soon.
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