Bardia National Park
I had the front desk at Garden Buddha set me up with a taxi at 6:30 am in order to catch an 8 am flight to Nepalgunj. There was a small group of folks from a wheat watch perspective that I met on the plane and just after that I hitched a ride to their Hotel Siddhartha. The hotel is one of the nicer in the town and there aren’t that many. They were super nice and helpful and pointed me in the right direction to pay for a ride to the Bardia National Park entrance and to a suggested guesthouse, Wild Trak Adventures. I still hadn’t made contact until the power went back on In Bardia when Sitaram’s phone could be charged and call me. I was being driven in a brand new Siddhartha Hotel luxury four-wheel drive vehicle by Mr. Raj a kindly Nepali with Indian roots.
We had to pass through a couple of military checkpoints because there are areas where stopping, taking photos or getting out of your car are forbidden. The checkpoint is a time stamped paper that you must delivery to the other end. You can’t speed or go too slow because they generally know how long it takes from one end to the other. You can be questioned and your vehicle searched, it’s up to them.
Sitaram greeted me and showed me to my spacious room and dropped my bags off and went and chatted for a while about the park and what’s around it. Obviously the park is broken in two one where you can’t go at all and one area you can go in with a guide or driver. There was a family from Melbourne a couple houses/bungalows away and they were very fun and the kids entertaining. They mentioned they were headed down to the elephant camp on the confluence of a branch of the Karnali River. When I arrived elephants were crossing the river. A mother elephant being ridden by a worker had a baby elephant trotting along her side out of the water. More elephants emerged from the jungle on the far side and followed in line back to where they spend the night.
Some of the elephants have been moved from Chitwan National Park to Bardia National Park. Once upon a time Bardia National Park received many Rhinos from Chitwan but 10 years ago the Mao political party and the Nepali Government had a civil war and the Mao group went into Bardia National Park and killed 80 Rhinos and cut the horn and sold them. In two years Bardia may be getting some more.
The baby elephant is a product of the domesticated mother having a fling with a wild elephant. Apparently it happens with regularity.
The river water is clear and swimmable but there are crocs, bigger the further up river you go I hear. A couple rivers back when I crossed a bridge in the car I looked below to the edge of the water and saw a few Garials, also known as Gavials, half in the water and caked in mud. I’m rather tentative to go for a swim if the locals aren’t in it doing washing or taking a bath.
The following day I teamed up with the Aussies to share in costs for a half-day jeep trek inside the park. We saw Spotted Deer, Swamp Deer, and I think Hog Deer all in a grass pasture below a lookout tower. These towers are for the park guests to get a vantage point over the high grasses and spot animals moving about. There are quiet a few of these towers throughout the park. Otherwise, we’d park the jeep and walk to the riverbank and look out for animals crossing or getting water.
Johnny got back from a trek with a friend from England and they were sun burnt and peeling like they had been microwaved on the thicker than normal snow over the pass. They learned not to hike in the afternoon because the snow melts and you end up ‘post-holing’ each step taking that much more energy and moving that much slower.
We packed water and lunch and took a day hike in Bardia National Park looking for the bigger mammals still in the wild. There are large populations of Rhino, Elephant, Tiger, wild boar and five species of deer. The park caters to the deer in order to help keep the tigers localized with a centralized and growing food source. Sitaram led us through the park crossing rivers in the shallows and considering the possible encounter of one of two types of crocs the Muggers and the Gavial. Both get big. The Gavial is considered endangered or close. From my geographical perspective there’s plenty.
With sweat dripping down our faces a park ranger phoned Sitaram and gave him some area directions to find a lone bull elephant. I’ve been told there’s a herd of about twenty-five but I’ll settle for what I get. He stood at the edge of a clearing eating the grasses toward the middle. We stood a good distance away. Trying to be quiet is almost impossible because the ground is covered in a few layers of dry brown crunchy leaves. The elephant can hear every step we take.
We moved away and sat in a natural hide on the riverbank cliff and watched for animals to cross over. As we did the old bull moved on down to the river and got a drink and cleaned his teeth by spraying them and spitting out some of the water he had taken in. He stood by the river for a good half an hour before heading off across the river to disappear in an instant with legs like tree trunks and a body the color of many tree limbs cracked with shadows. Gone.
The Rhino was the same way. We found this female taking a long quiet mud bath before we came along and disturbed her with camera clicks and trying to be quiet as you tip-toe across a round river rock exposed shoal, marbles and rolling stones with moss on them. There was no reasonable way to take a good picture of this animal so John took a really nice one of her head from maybe 10 meters while hiding behind a grassy sand bar. I got the other end and out of focus to boot. She agilely turned and ran up a hillside like a tank into the underbrush also gone in seconds.
We found tiger tracks everywhere.
We walked out of the park in the late afternoon sun. The heat of the day subsided into a tranquil night of stars with a nearly full moon.
Wild Trak Adventures is a great place to stay with clean rooms, great food, and you step into the local culture naturally. Johnny Sparshatt is British and partnered with Sitram and his family and they are in their element. John is a Bio jungle bug with a passion for big mammals, birds, spiders, bugs and life in general. They are prepared to take you out of your element and live to tell the tale. http://www.wildtrakadventure.com/
Upcoming; a raft trip, a five day trek, and an EARTHQUAKE!!!!!
www.davidcdagley.com
