As there are a few days spare before I start my volunteer project, me and Sarah have decided to go on a trip down to Chitwan National Park for 3 days and 2 nights. The trip starts with a 7 hour bus journey, but that is nothing compared to some of the days we did on the truck. Before this trip I would never have driven all day to get somewhere spent on whole day there and then left the next day to drive all day back again. Its funny how your perspective changes. We arrive at Parkside Hotel and have a late lunch before our afternoon activities.

We booked our Chitwan trip as a package so everything is included and organised for us and what a good idea that turned out to be. In the afternoon of our arrival I head off out with the guide on a tour through the village and to a sunset view point. While we were waiting for the sunset suddenly a rhino came along on the other side of the river. We watched it slowing making its way along the riverbank until it disappeared into the undergrowth. Amazing! In the evening for dinner there was a bbq, we sat around a campfire where I met this Austrian couple who had arrived the day before.

The next day we got up went on an elephant safari, where 4 of us sat on the top of an elephant in a wooden structure and the elephant driver sat on the elephants head steering with his feet on the back of the elephants ears. On the safari we were really lucky we saw 2 more rhinos, deer and peacocks. After the safari we went down to the elephant bathing area and me and Sarah got on to elephant in the river and got completely soaked. It was an amazing experience, to be squirted water at by the elephants trunk and then be on top when it lays down in the water.

In the afternoon we go of on a walking tour of the jungle, it was a little worrying as you never know what could be around the corner or in the bushes. However we didn't really see much, although we did see a kingfisher which was pretty special, it was almost electric blue and flew over the water. The walk ended at the Elephant Breeding Centre, which was great to see all the baby elephants but also a little sad as the information room explained how they train the baby elephants and that was pretty cruel.

After dinner we went to a see a local dance show called Tharu Culture Programme. It was brilliant to see the traditional dancing, it was a little bit like Morris Dancing back home, with lots of boys hitting sticks together.

In the morning before we left to get the bus back to Kathmandu, we went on an early morning canoe ride along the river. It was simply wonderful, there was a mist over the water giving it a magical tranquil quality. As we floated down stream we saw lots of different birds, but the best part was seeing the kingfishers again, I just love them. It was not quite like David Attenborough's Planet Earth as they are very small and quite a distance away but spectacular to see them in real life. The most amazing thing we saw was one dive down from the tree into the water and catch a fish! Now that was like the tv show!

Visiting Chitwan National Park has been brilliant, I have had such a wonderful time and done some amazing things. It was also a great end to the part of my trip which I have done with Sarah, it has been so lovely to share this part of my journey with her. We now head off on our separate very different adventures.