The main thing we wanted to do in Chitwan was an elephant safari to hopefully see some rhinos. On our first morning we headed down to the river for breakfast and elephant bath time! The mahouts bring down all the working elephants to the river for a bath every morning. We had heard about this beforehand and were in two minds as to whether we would join in or not. We were there early and it was nice to sit and watch the elephants close up when there wasn't anyone else around. Though as we were the only ones there we kept getting asked if we wanted “Elephant shower”?! After a while of watching it started to get busy and we discovered that what happened was...you climbed onto an elephant, the mahout signalled for the elephant to take a trunk full of water and squirt you in the face a few times. You got off and the next person got on after paying 100-150 rupees for the experience. There was no helping to bath the elephants or anything like that. An hour later it was pretty busy, six or seven elephants and their mahouts and a large group of tourists waiting to have a go with their friends and families snapping away. We discussed whether we should get in the water too but after watching for a bit I decided I wasn't very happy with the whole situation. Especially after seeing a few mahouts give their elephants a poke in the side with sharp metal poles or giving their ears a big tug when they weren't doing as asked :(.

We had an elephant safari booked for the afternoon to go into the “jungle”. The jungle was very much like being in a forest back home just much hotter and drier. There were three elephants as part of our group with four of us on each one. Was actually much more comfortable than expected! We saw spotted deer, antelope, sambar deer and one wild pig. We were able to get pretty close to the deer, they didn't seem too bothered by the elephants. Sadly no rhinos after two and a half hours of looking. Not even out in the open from the forest, though the grass is very tall at this time of year making them difficult to spot anyway. The safari was fun and great to see the wildlife and be up close with the elephants. I was a little uneasy however about the treatment of the elephants. A couple of times our mahout smacked our elephant right on the top of his ear to get him to go faster. The elephant noticeably jumped in pain and snorted and swished his head. He needn't have done this as he could control the elephant well without having to hit him at all. On another couple of occasions the mahout hit him straight on top of his head without warning and the sound was just the same as if he had hit a beach ball! Not nice. 

On day two our plan was to go to the elephant breeding centre. Though kindly the manager of our hotel arranged for us to go on a jungle walk with a guide before hand as he knew we'd missed out on seeing some rhinos. It was just the two of us which was nice. We walked through the forest which was very dry and crispy, for nearly three hours. In a lot of areas there had been controlled burning of the forest floor so we were walking through crunchy charred shrubs. Very difficult to walk through quietly! Slightly uneasy about us walking through and just coming across a rhino! I paid close attention to the trees and which ones I could climb in an emergency seeing as that's the only thing you can do if one charges at you! In Chitwan you do a jungle walk at your own peril! We saw spotted dear, sambar deer, macaques and Tom saw a wild chicken (I wasn't quick enough!). We headed to an area with a couple of large lakes where the rhinos come and drink daily. Alas, no rhinos! We waited for 20 minutes but still nothing. Our guide actually said he had never come to the lakes and not seen at least three or four rhinos. Doh! He took us further into the forest to another spot where you can sometimes see them, still nothing. Our luck just wasn't in this time!

We headed to the breeding centre and were lucky to see a little elephant who was only about 10 days old. Very cute. A lot of the elephants were munching on grass bundles specially made by their mahouts. They were filled with molasses, salt and rice. The elephants get to graze all day in the forest and come back to the centre at the end of every day.

On our last evening we were treated to some spectacular sheet lightening over head. The clouds in the sky were being lit up in a lovely pinky/orange colour with some pretty impressive forks shooting across the sky. Wish we had lightening like this back home! 

On our final morning in Chitwan we had our first proper soaking! Woke up to torrential rain which only got heavier and heavier until we had to leave. Just to make sure we were kept on our toes a bolt of lightening struck the ground right next to the dining hall where we were enjoying pancakes for breakfast. Frightened the life out of everyone! We were definitely awake!