You know where you are?? You're in the Jungle BABY!! - Chitwan National Park, Nepal

So we survived India, and despite sharing a border, Nepal is absolutely nothing like it's giant neighbour.

We leave Varanasi with Adam and Alicia, in a taxi no bigger than a Ford ka (think smart car with a snall back seat). This may seem ok, but the Nepalese border is a good 8 hour drive away and our packs are precariously balanced and loosely tied to the roof rack. Not only that we squeeze Adam into the front seat and me and the two girls cram into the back. Lets just say it's not exactly spacious.

We're all excited to be moving on to a new country after a couple of weeks in India and the time passes quickly. We arrive in Sunuali the border town, possibly trying to obtain an award for 'Most rubbish strewn in the street' which it would win hands down.We are dropped off a few meters from Indian Immigration where we need to sign out of the country. The immigration 'office' is a shack behind a curtain and we are quickly dispatched by an older official with more ear hair than I ever believed possible to grow.

 Indian Immigration 'Office'

Possibly the most rubbish strewn street in the world?

We wander into no-mans land, pose for pictures infront of the Welcome to Nepal sign and wander into Nepal. A quick trip to the Nepalese immigration office (an actual brick built building) and we're officially here. We stay overnight in a bug infested hotel and are picked up early the next morning for the 4 hour drive to Chitwan.

Our hotel in Chitwan, the Hotel Rainforest, is probably the nicest place we've stayed so far. There is hot water, air con AND the sheets are clean enough to sleep in! The hotel staff are very welcoming and everyone is smiling. We feel relaxed within 5 minutes of arriving. As we are bought welcome drinks, the hotels 2 resident elephants meander past and Heather immediately runs over to make friends. Our activities don't begin until 4pm that afternoon, so the four of us head down to the river for a quick beer in the sunshine. My adventurous wife wanders down to the waters edge and I shout to her to be careful as there are crocodiles in the river. She says I'm making it up, but she is proved wrong in quite dramatic style the next day (more on that later).

Our jungle activities begin with a sunset walk through the edges of the park with our guide, Buddha (what a great name - he was born on the same day as Buddha). We head off to see where the government elephants are housed overnight, but as we get there a local says something to Buddha and he is suddenly filled with urgency, telling us to come quickly. We all follow him as quickly as we can and we are greeted by two wild one horned Indian rhino grazing at the edge of the elephant compound. We are separated by a small fence, so we are able to get within 6 feet of these majestic creatures, close enough to hear their powerful lips ripping up the vegetation. Most of us are wary enough to stand a few feet back as the fence wasn't exactly protection from 3 tonne of Rhino. This is displayed quite obviously when one snorts a warning and we all leap back another 6 feet.

 Meandering Elephant

No zoom lens needed - 6 feet from a wild rhino

That evening we are treated to a display of dance from the locals, a quite interesting affair with stick dances and guys dressing up as girls and dancing (no idea why, the narrator spoke in the most bizarre tones we spent more time laughing than listening).

Next day and an early start for a canoe ride to look for crocodiles. We board our canoes 20 feet away from where we sat drinking beer the day previous. The flat bottomed canoes were about as stable as Bambi on ice and we are all convinced that we are going to tip over into the fast flowing river. Our canoeist doesn't fill us with confidence and crashes our already unstable canoe into the opposite bank, fifteen feet away from a 10ft long marsh mugger crocodile (a croc known to attack humans and the odd canoe). Our sense of panic does not help our balance and we rock dangerously close to going over. I can honestly say I have never felt fear as genuine as that in my lifetime, I was actually planning how I could get Heather and myself away from the crocodile, when, not if, we went in to the water. Its really not possible to put into words, just how terrified we all were. Fortunately our life preservation mode kicked in and we managed to stay still enough (mainly because we are paralysed with fear) to get away into the current and stay dry.

The only time Heather smiled on that canoe trip

We finally make it onto dry land, and we walk through some pretty dense grassland (10 foot high elephant grass) to get to an elephant breeding centre which is full of baby elephants... awwwww. The peace at the centre is briefly interrupted when Heather discovers a leech attached to her ankle, happily drinking her sweet American blood. Other than roaches, Heather had specifically stated on numerous occasions that she REALLY did not want to get a first hand leech experience, so I was proud of her relatively calm reaction (small amount of screaming for me, followed by a strange calm). The leech was quickly removed with minimum fuss by Buddha.

The mini vampire wannabe

We carried on trekking deeper into the forest, but with the exception of a recent Tiger paw print (less than 12 hours old) we didn't see any wildlife. This is because of two reasons, firstly our group of 12 is too large and secondly, part of our group were some 20 something American lads, who talked at the top of their voices, about absoultely nothing for around 75% of the time we were walking. This was until Adam politely, but firmly told them to shut up.

The closest we came to a Tiger (that we know)

Next - Elephant bath time!! Unfortunately because of monsoons creating a strong current, we can only watch, not join in bathing the elephants, which clearly love being in the water. They obey every (well most) of their handlers commands as he cleans the elephant with a rough rock, even lifting up each foot on command. After lunch and a beer break by the river where we saw a small 12ft Gharial crocodile (fish eating only), we climbed up onto the back of an elephant, for our 2.5 hour long elephant safari. The benefits of being on the back of an elephant are that you are pretty high off the ground and relatively safe (not many things attack a 5 tonne elephant) and that the smell of the elephant masks our scent and therefore we can get amazingly close to the wildlife. The downside is that if there is a more uncomfortable form of transport, I'm yet to find it.

We strike lucky again and get up close to two more rhino, this time a mother and its 3 month old calf. Depending on what statistics you believe we have now seen 4 of the 67 or 350 rhino in the 975sq/km park. The elephant safari is a bonanza of wildlife and we see deer (lots and lots of deer), eagles, peacocks, wild chickens, monkey's and more crocodiles.

Mother and baby

Chitwan National Park has been one of the highlights of our trip so far. The chilled atmosphere at our lodge, Adam and Alicia's great company and the experience of being so close to both tame elephants and wild rhino have combined to give us a really memorable time in the Terai area of Nepal.

The Canoe Four

Next on to Pokhara, Nepal to see the Himalayas up close and personal

- Mark ' I survived a near death crocodile experience' Cleverly