Into Nepal... The Western Terai

After a short overnight stay in Ramnagar, down from the Uttarkhand mountains, I have a quick but unsuccessful check for tigers in the nearby Corbett National Park, and am ready to move on again. The destination is the western Terai in Nepal, and after three bus journeys I arrive at the dingey border town of Banbasa shortly after dark. I continue in the morning to the border, across the flood control barrier over the wide Mahakali river, and on to the Nepali immigration post. After completing the formalities, a shared rickshaw takes me on to Mahendranagar a few kilometers along the road. I stop for a late breakfast, change some Indian rupees for their Nepali counterparts, and study my unused Rough Guide to Nepal.

Mahendranagar seems to be a bussling and noisy town, similar to the smaller Indian towns I've visited. I decide to continue on to Bardia National Park. As the local bus takes me out of town on the Mahendra Highway (a surprisingly good road), I suddenly notice I'm in Nepal. Rustic, rural settlements and villages pass us by. There are few motorized vehicles, and about 2 hours and 120km later, the bus arrives and stops at the Karnali River, spanned by a modern lopsided bridge.

Changing buses, across the bridge and through a police check point, 20 minutes later I'm dropped of at Anbassa, where the highway contines and an unsurfaced road splits off towards Thakurdwara. Luckily, there is a guy waiting with a motorbike from my chosen guest house. I sit behind him, clinging on to my daypack as we hum along the bumpy road, passing beautiful thatched rural homes, children running out to the road to shout "bye bye" as we pass. As we continue along a small smooth trail through sparse woodland, I fell like I'm in the forest chase scene from Star Wars. Out the other side, across a dry river bed, and through the village of Thakurdwara, we arrive at Bardia Jungle Cottage, a peaceful guest house with individual thatched cottages for rooms, surrounding a beautiful, relaxing garden. A good place to recover from India for a few days and a base for exploring the National Park nearby.

The night is cold, and it is still cool shortly after dawn as I set off with my guide, Sitaram, walking deep into the park. This is a completely different experience from the jeep rides around Indian National Parks. We walk first along well defined trails, through smaller forest trails, along the sides of dryish river beds, and through long grasslands. The deer run away into the undergrowth as we approach, monkeys sit in trees observing us from above. A jungle fowl is startled and flies away clucking. A pied hornbill with it's huge beak flies from tree to tree. Today the tigers are elusive, but pushing through the undergrowth we hear a rhino grunting and stoping around nearby. We try to sight it for about an hour, following it's noises and tracks through the dense wooded grassland, but every time we get close enough to hear it, it runs away. Hot, tired and dirty, we return to the lodge as dusk approaches. I enjoy a cold shower, then sit outside talking with two french lads travelling around on a Royal Enfield from Goa, with a small, incredibly cute puppy. Crazy french.

Day two, after a relaxing morning, the french and I walk around the local "roads". No cars, no tractors, no motors, no tourists, a few bicycles, oxen pulling cartloads of wood, chickens, ducks and buffalos. This place is incredibly peaceful and beautifl. A local family invites us in to their home, a pink clay cottage with thatched roof, dark and coold inside, with large rice silos separating the floorspace into three small rooms. Back at the lodge in the evening, a french family with 3 kids (12, 8 and 5 years old), and a large german shephard, have arrived in a mobile home. 8 months from France through Europe, Turkey, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, India and now here. Crazy french!

I decide to try one more time for tigers, and on day 3 I walk into the park once more with SItaram. This time the plan is to wait for the tiger to come to us. After making our way through the woodlands to a good vantage point, we sit and wait overlooking a semi-dry riverbed. I sit in a tree looking up-river. Sitaram looks down-river from a point some distance away. Across the river, we hear the warning calls of deer, peacocks and monkeys. I wait. A large mammal emerges from the long grass about 100m away on the opposite bank. It's a deer. It nervously crosses the river bed and disappears into the woodland. I wait. And then it happens. A tiger appears, taking the same route as the deer. A TIGER!! Two minutes later he's disappeared into the undergrowth now on the same side of the river as me. I wait in the tree for a while in case he reappears nearby, but no such luck, and after 20 minutes I jump down and walk to tell Sitaram. He missed it, but he's happy for me and hugs me.

Mission accomplished, I suggest we try for Gangetic Dolphins in the Karnali river, so we walk through the long grass for half an hour towards the river. Taking off boots and socks, we cross a shallow, stoney stream and walk across some muddy river bed to the edge of the Karnali. It's hot, and a swim in the river is inviting. The cold water is refreshing and I struggle to swim against the current to remain in the same spot for a while, then return through the mud and slip across the stones back to the bank to dry off in the heat of the afternoon sun.