I would be terribly remiss to not introduce two Nepalese women I met while traveling – thanks to Laura’s connections and existing friendships. Shova is a young woman who was engaged to help our fellow traveler, Tara, so that navigating the crazy and potholed streets of Kathmandu along with rough terrain in Chitwan was not too challenging. Shova has this quiet, inquisitive air about her that endeared her to all of us. But the loving relationship she nurtured with Tara was beautiful. They became inseparable and Tara – who has a heart as big as they come – decided that wanted to gift Shova something special at the end of the Nepal adventure. We discovered that Shova had taught herself how to play the guitar from online lessons and using any guitar she could get her hands on (she didn’t own one). Knowing that, we found a small guitar shop in the city and surprised Shova with a visit there. She had no idea why we were stopping there, and when Tara presented her with a guitar, things got emotional.

After Shova picked out a beautiful case and strap, she sat down and began playing and singing. Turns out she has a lovely voice and we all were choked up.

Once we had reached Chitwan, Sangam joined us. She and her family were already good friends with Laura and Julia from prior trips, and she traveled five hours by bus just to come with us on some of our experiences. It was really nice to have a native of Nepal with us to help explain some of the traditions and cultural norms that we might otherwise not fully grasp. Aside from that, Sangam has a beautiful heart and it was a delight to get to know her.

This next morning, we all opted for a leisurely breakfast – it was very lovely sitting in the hotel garden where the air was much fresher than in the big city and the pace much slower. We were surrounded by beautiful flowers, birds, and even a resident cat came to visit.

The afternoon was another more extensive exploration of the Chitwan jungle. As we had done earlier, we took the canoe ride along the river.  This time we got to see many more of the two types of resident crocodiles – the gharial and the marsh mugger. With only around 200 remaining in Nepal, similar numbers in India, gharials are among the world’s most endangered reptiles. Gharials are large, with males able to reach over 19 feet in length and 550 pounds in weight, with a long narrow snout.

The mugger crocodile is a medium-sized broad-snouted crocodile, It rarely reaches a body length of over 16 ft and is a powerful swimmer but also walks on land in search of suitable waterbodies during the hot season. Outside protected areas, it is threatened by conversion of natural habitats, gets entangled in fishing nets and is killed in human–wildlife conflict situations and in traffic accidents. 

We also saw a large smattering of native birds while on the water, nbut the real fun started on our jungle walk. Our excellent guide took us into the government-patrolled buffer zone between deep jungle and villages. Proximity to the village is astounding. We were told that in the past two wild elephants had to be killed because one was destructive in the populated area and the other was menacing.  The latter killing upset many natives as an unwarranted killing. Such is the ongoing “politics” of living side by side with wild animals.

Along the way we passed termite structures as tall as we were, many birds, deer, as well as elephant and rhino tracks.  I honestly was nervous about possible encounter with tiger but no luck. (Shellie and Laura did see tiger tracks the next day on yet another jungle foray).

During our walk we encountered an elephant caravan bringing building materials out of the jungle. This was up close – and we nearly had a rough encounter with a rogue baby! Watch both of these short videos for the real-time episode…first one, the caravan emerges from the jungle. Second one – the baby decided to come visit, but our guides warned him off.

We then walked over a short suspension bridge that dropped us in the outskirts of the village and realized just how very close folks living these are to the wild jungle!

That was a plenty busy day. We walked over in the evening to have dinner at Shantiko Kitchen (Michael the elephant whisperer owns). If you look it up, the address says “Next to the rhino statue”…small town indeed. I got a big kick out of a guitar hanging on the wall…Despite this message we had a lovely dinner!