Chitwan national Park is famous for the rhinos -about 500 of them live in the park. In Sauraha you will find many agencies offering safari tours to the park. Tipical prices at the cheapest ones are: 1250 rs for one hour canoe trip plus 3h jungle wallk back to Sauraha, 1350 for half day jeep safari departing in the afternoon. They pay 95 rs per dollar at the moment. You have to add 1500 rs for your park permit – per day. So it is worth to combine two tours in one day to awoid another permit payment.
It was quite cold at 7am when I jumped into dugout canoe. There were picturesque fogg on the river. During one hour sailing I saw one crocodile and a lot of water birds. Then we disembarked on the park side(river Rapti forms the park boundary) with two obligatory guides and started our jungle walk. First I saw a nice dead deer hunted during the night by tiger (120 tigers live in the park). Sorry it was partly eaten…Then we had a chance to see big rhino.
After lunch I crossed the river again in the canoe and with 10 other travellers boarded comfy, open jeep to drive some 20 kms to the park HQ and back. On the way we were lucky to see another rhino, bears, monkeys and crocs. At the park quarters there is a crocodile nursery – paying extra 100 rs you can see them of different ages – adults are up to 6 m long. Great, sunny day!
