Hi from Pokhara, Nepal

Sorry we havent been in touch for the last 4/5 days but it has been hectic with not a moment to spare.

Our last day in Kathmandu was spent visiting one of the worlds largest buddhist stupas. Bodhnath is a very religious place and is still used by all the Tibetan refugees that live in Nepal. It was a crisp day and the prayer flags looked really nice blowing in the wind against the blue sky.

The following day we set off early on the bus for Chitwan National Park (CNP) for 3 days/ 2nights wildlife spotting. The journey there took us nearly 7 hours by bus it is not a great distance from Kathmandu but the mountain roads really slow you down and also the condition of the roads doesn't help either. We arrived at CNP early afternoon and straight after lunch we were taken to visit a local village.The Tharu people that live in this part of Nepal were just going about their daily chores as we walked around and saw village life in action. There were goats feeding and women slicing turmeric to dry in the sun and the houses were made of mud and cow dung. They even had marajuana growing wild in the fields!!!!

The next 2 hours were a little bizarre as we spent time looking at dead animals and creatures in formaldahyde and not roaming around the park as we expected!!!

The electric in Nepal is precious and everywhere is on a load sharing scheme so for a while at the guest house it was candlelight before going to bed exhausted.

Up at 6am the next day and we took a dugout canoe down the river, the morning mist was rising off the river and we peacefully floated down the river. There were lots of birds out and we got to see the kingfishers feeding which was cool. Further down we floated past the crocs just resting in the water about 6 feet from us. After about an hour on the boat we moored up and took a trek through the jungle hoping to see rhino, we did see lots of deer but no rhino but we still had our jeep safari to come after lunch. Our guide did get bitten by what we thought was a cute caterpillar but it gave him a nasty nip on his chest.

We squeezed in watching the elephants getting a bath in the river just before lunch which was ace to watch, they scrub them with stones to clean them off and the elephants were loving it.

Once lunch was out of the way we were ready for a sleep but we took the boat across the river to meet our jeep. We loaded up into the back of the jeep and it took a bit of starting which was a little unnerving but after a bit of tinkering under the bonnet we set off in search of some wildlife.

CNP is a world heritage site and home to the endangered asian rhino which we were here to hopefully see, the first thing we did spot was some lovely male peacocks flashing their feathers in the bush. It took about another 30 minutes driving into the jungle before we saw our first real wildlife. A family of Sloth bears, 3 in total staring right at us in the jeep, unfortunately one guy with us got a little excited and let out a scream which scared them off into the forest.

Then the animals came thick and fast next was a bison grazing, then wild boars before we saw what we had come to see. A 2 ton asian rhino about 30 feet from us staring right at us, we never realised that their ears were so big. It just looked at us for a few minutes and we got towalk a bit closer for photos and then it casually trotted away. It was amzing to see and so big. The time in the park went really quickly and after 3 hours we had to head back, our guide had eagle eyes and spotted 2 more rhinos for us in the distance.They were not in clear view but you could make them out between the trees and to finish of we saw a big Lancaur monkey high in the trees. It was a great 4 hours in the park and we saw everything apart from the very rare tigers that live here and were reallly pleased.

Once off the boat we sat by the river with a beer watching the fish jump out of the water and finally relaxing after a full on 36 hours. We called into a shop on the way back to the guest house and got talking with the owner, he took us into the garden and showed us his bees and the honey they produced, I happened to mention the carrots he had growing and he picked a few washed them off under the water pump and had them sliced up for us to try, you could not get any fresher and they were delicious too.

Had an awful bus journey to Pokhara, it was 5 1/2 hours of bumping up and down and from side to side but we made it in one piece which amazed me as the driver was like a bat out of hell. Pokhara has the second largest lake in Nepal and we are going for a walk around it today.

Lots of love

M & M

xx