A walk on the wild side!

Well, after our epic journey out of Delhi we walked over the Nepali border (something which neither of us had ever done) and were welcomed into Nepal. We felt the stress lift with every step we took and managed to successfully navigate the immigration and border town of Mahandrenagar with a little help from a friendly local.

What we haven't told you is that although the stress of leaving Delhi was great and our plans were entirely up in the air we were both very glad to be entering Nepal from its most western border crossing. The reason for this was the fact that we would be able to visit Bardia National Park on our way through, something we had previously written off due to the fact that it was so far into the west of Nepal (17 hours by bus from Pokhara to be exact).

Revitilised by our successful internet search and consequent phone call to our potential accommodation we braved the dusty bus depot in Mahandrenegar, somehow managed to purchase two tickets and were directed/carried by the local gathering of porters/drivers/men who jump on and off the bus to drum up passengers and made it to the back seat with all our bags, a bottle of water and Larry. Three hours later and having significantly aged due to the dare devil like driving of the Nepali locals we exited to be met by one of the staff from Forest Hideaway Lodge. After a very pleasant 13km jeep drive through rivers, local Tharu villages while waving to smiling kids and grazing sheep (believe it or not) we entered a wee haven from the madness that had ensued the previous 4 days.

We sat and had a very relaxing lunch followed by a much needed shower and then sat in hammocks until the sun went down. We both looked at each other and said “We like Nepal!”

Over the next 6 days (We only intended to stay 3) we enjoyed a fantastic variety of jungle safari walks (12 hours long in about 32 degree heat), jeep and elephant safari and a very chilled out day rafting down the river. Our excellent guide Indra with his finely honed eyes helped us to spot deer, monkeys, wild elephant, one horned rhinos (including a 5month old baby rhino), a 4m Python, wild boar, several varieties of crocodile, huge amounts of birds and a leopard. He tried hard but unfortunately he was unable to locate a tiger for us, which he was very apologetic about. We did not mind because it is very hard to spot one and Indra was a real pleasure to be with. He climbed trees in flip-flops and with a great sense of humor he entertained us about many things in Nepal and even turned up a little tipsy one night as it was the Holi festival, apologising in excellent English and explained to us the intricacies of Roxy (the reason he was a little tipsy).

We left Bardia with a little sadness in our hearts as we could have stayed a lot longer. We definitely made a friend there and as we were ushered onto our bus to Pokhara by Santos, the man in charge at Forest Hideaway, we could not thank them enough.

However, onwards we must go and into the mountains where Larry will finally get to stretch his legs........