Riding 2Up

April 8, 2009

Trekking in the Himalayas (March 24 - 30)

As we were keen to see the Himalayas and diversify our riding a bit we opted for trekking over whitewater rafting as it was a lot cheaper and the rivers were very low. I would've preferred canyoning but this has not been catered for in Nepal by tour operators since around 2000.

Our six day trek took us from Nayapul, 2hours by bus from Pokhara in a loop up to Poon Hill at 3200m and back down to Nayapul. The start of our trek went also to Annapurna Basecamp, Machaputhre base camp and the Annapurna circuit via Jomson.

It was an amazing experience and we are keen to do a longer trek given the time and opportunity. We even had some snow overnight and the min temp was -5 degrees and it was quite funny as Pascal was walking the whole time in sandals.

One horned rhino encounter

We had a three day stop in Chitwan National Park in Southern Nepal and it was the place of an amazing encounter with the rarest species of Rhino, the one-horned rhino. We hired a guide and tracker and headed into the jungle and grass plains of Chitwan. The tracker was very keen and got up several trees before putting us down wind of the Rhino for an amazing sighting by foot. We were all very apprehensive as Rhinos are notorious for charging and when we got to close it turned flicked its ears up and we bolted... but the rhino didn't charge and we although frazzled were completely amazed by it's size. The experience was awe inspiring.

That afernoon we were able to witness mother rhinos grazing with their young but from the safe and lofty seat upon an elephant. The elephant safari enabled us to get much closer to the rhinos without causing them any anxiety or hassel.

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