After our exciting jungle safari we needed some time to chill and catch up with some work, although at Rhino Lodge Bardia, each and every day was different and we always had something interesting to see or do. Every morning we would wake up early and go for a nice walk through the village and down to the river, where we would see lots of nice birds and the last groups of Spotted Deer, which would later disappear back into the dense jungle, not reappearing until dusk each day.
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| Young Spotted Deer, Bardia |
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| A young Indian Bullfrog we saw by the river one morning |
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| We never knew what we were going to see on our walks. This is the biggest snail I've ever seen and is an introduced species - Giant African Land Snail. |
In the middle of the day, as we were there to volunteer, we did our work and again at around 4 or 5pm we would go for another walk or a cycle through the beautiful and peaceful villages of the area. Writing this account some days later, I feel like our time in Bardia was my favourite traveling experience of my entire life, because of the service and kindness of all in Rhino Lodge Bardia, the incredible wildlife of the area and the beautiful villages and people. I say this with no hesistation - if you are reading this and plan to visit Nepal, go to Bardia and stay at Rhino Lodge. You will not regret it and you definitely will not forget it.
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| One of the relaxing huts in the gardens of Rhino Lodge Bardia. |
Now back to the story. As I was saying, even days spent at the lodge had numerous unexpected amazing moments. As the river was just so serene and full of wildlife we went a lot, sometimes alone and sometimes with Dharma or Sita, or both. Two days after the safari we went to the river with both Dharma and Sita - who if I haven't already mentioned are both kind & helpful as well as really really knowledgeable about the area, its people and the wildlife to be found there.
We were just enjoying the cooler evening temperatures, looking for whatever we could see - birds, butterflies, deer, etc when Sita, suddenly exclaimed "dolphin!", excitedly. This was such an unexpected moment for us both - we knew exactly what he meant by "dolphin" - it was a Ganges River Dolphin - which is an extremely endangered, and very difficult to see, freshwater dolphin found in Nepal, India & Bangladesh.
We immediately ran the few metres to Sita and waited for what seemed like minutes, but was actually seconds, for it to resurface. Wow! It was great - another interesting mammal to enjoy. At first we only saw it barely break the surface with just the blowhole, but after some time we eventually saw it stick its characteristic long beak out of the water, and I even managed a photo.
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| The characteristic long beak of the rare Ganges River Dolphin, Bardia |
For three days this dolphin performed for us and blew us away. Then one day we saw an unfamiliar shape sitting distantly upriver on a sandbank. It was a crocodile! And a big one at that. We excitedly went upriver to a point where we had much better views and we could see that it was a Marsh Mugger - quite a big one alright - definitely no swimming for us in the river now. From this day on we never again saw the dolphin and we wonder if the dolphin and mugger had a negative interaction, if they avoid each other in general or if it was just a coincidence. The mugger continued on and off throughout the trip and we often admired it on our many evening walks.
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| The resident Marsh Mugger in strong evening backlight, Bardia |
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| The Marsh Mugger in better morning light, Bardia |
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| A different captive Marsh Mugger, photographed in the local breeding centre, where individuals are raised and released into the wild. |
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| Alba admiring the Mugger one morning as she was doing some yoga by the river. |
Walking through the villages was such a pleasure. Everyone was sincerely friendly. Everyone smiled and wanted to say hello, children would stop and ask you to take their photo, even the dogs were friendly! There were no tourist traps here, no inflated prices, and no harassment to buy anything. A smile or a hello here was genuine and unlike many other places it wasn't the first insincere step into tricking you into buying some junk product at an inflated price. Unfortunately we have seen this behaviour all too much in the bigger cities in Asia and elsewhere and it has perhaps made me cynical but Bardia isn't like that.
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| Alba with some friendly local kids at Bardia. They asked us to take this photo! |
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| One of the many friendly dogs we met on our daily cycles. This pup was rather cute! |
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| Some bikes weren't the easiest to use. The saddle was broken on this so we took turns using it, sitting over the back wheel. |
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| One of the many elephant watch-out towers, guarding the rice crops. |
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| A local field with a hay pile used to feed the livestock. |
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| A typical traditional house seen throughout the village. |
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| Some domestic buffalo - a very common animal in rural Nepal |
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| A local lady netting for fish in the river. |
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| One of my favourite stray dogs. This dog was very nervous of us at first but we would always rub it and we eventually gained its trust. Every time we met it out and about it would come sprinting to us with excitement just like this. |
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| Here is the same dog, play-fighting with one of his buddies, by the river. |
Going slightly off topic for just a second; when in Kathmandu, at the beginning of our trip we met with a a Women's NGO, run by a Catalan man named Toni Aguilar. He is a friend of a friend from back home in Catalunya, and we met with him to see and understand a local NGO. What he has done here is amazing and he helps women from all over Kathmandu. More to the point he even gave us a bag of 30 toothbrushes, each packed with a mini toothpaste and he told us to give it to children who needed it, where ever we met them. What a kind man he was. As Bardia has some very poor families but everyone was so happy and kind, we knew that this was the place to give these toothbrush packs out. The look of joy on their faces at such a small gift was priceless and made us both smile in turn.
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| Here I am with Toni, eating a lovely buffalo yogurt. Our toothbrushes are in the blue bag. This is the dining hall where they feed up to 30 girls each day. |
As well as this we brought with us 70 pencils as well as lots of chippers and rubbers. We made a visit to a small government-run school where the children are rather poor and gave them each a pencil. It's a really small gift but they were so appreciative and we were happy to give our small token to the village that gave us so much.
Things like this make you stop and take a look at yourself. Sometimes I complain about such trivial things and when I see how happy kids are here just being gifted with a toothbrush or a pencil it makes me ashamed of myself, thinking about those moments when I moan about poor Wi-Fi signal or needing a new camera lens.
In essence, travel like this opens yours eyes and broadens your mind and makes you realise what you truly have back home. At home we are kings and queens, even if we don't have the latest car or latest iPhone. We are extremely lucky and need to remember that always. It's not my place to preach to others but I personally have certainly learned and gained from this and will try to value and appreciate what I have all the more, going forward.
Having done the jungle walk and after spending some time relaxing and catching up with some computer work it was time to do a day long jungle jeep safari. This is totally different as you don't have to be worried about meeting a wild animal face to face, in that you are protected (mostly) within your vehicle, you don't sweat anywhere near as much but you make more noise and can scare the animals more. You cover a lot more ground though so they both have their pros and cons.
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| Ready to go! |
We went through the same process with the paperwork and entered the same gates as we did when doing the walking safari, only we didn't have to cross the river in the canoe, we went straight in, following another road with the jeep. After the recent successful jungle walk we both realised how packed full of life the jungle was and we were excited and eager to begin again. We had only driven in about 10 minutes when Sita suddenly shouted "Tiger". This was the moment we had been waiting for. I was amazed he picked this animal up at such a distance with the naked eye - evidence of his sharp eyes and years of experience.
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| Checking the road ahead to see if it is passable after recent rains - just before our Leopard sighting. |
We all lifted our binoculars and to our amazement it was a very large male Leopard - a species even less commonly seen than Tiger, here in Bardia. Based on the size of this animal and the distance at which he picked it up it was understandable why he first thought it was a Tiger. We had some really nice binocular views and even got some poor shots but unfortunately it then slipped into the long grass, and despite waiting some time we never saw it again. But we were incredibly fortunate with this sighting and it was a very welcome one at that.
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| This was the first view of it staring right at us. |
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| Here it begins to turn and slowly walk to cover |
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| If you are wondering how we sexed it as a male, take a closer look here. |
We checked several river crossings and drinking/bathing points for Tiger as well as keeping a keen eye and ear out throughout the trip, but unfortunately it was not to be. Nevermind! We have seen so much in the jungles of Bardia as we were in great hands with Rhino Lodge Bardia. Tigers are just difficult at this time of year. Don't let that put you off a visit though as we have seen almost all the other big targets and more.
On our return back to the lodge we had a frustrating moment. As we were driving through the trails, relaxing on the open deck of the safari jeep, suddenly a strong and unfamiliar odor hit us - it was Tiger pee, and very fresh Tiger pee - it was overpowering. We could also make out fresh tracks. Was it nearby? We stopped the engine and waited. We heard some deer alarming from an area behind the scent so we quickly drove there and waited in silence once again and... nothing. The king of the jungle had been close yet slipped right past us. We came close like this so many times but never crossed paths. For me this just adds to the mystery and magnificence of this animal. When I do see one day it will be a magical moment. Another time. Anyway, it would have been a pity to see everything in one go, wouldn't it? Now we have a reason to return!
After spending two weeks at Rhino Lodge, we felt our work was done. We had experienced so much so it was time to move to our next location, but first the guides had one last thing they wanted to show us - a local Tharu community - the ethnic group which settled in Bardia several centuries before and persisted through the malarial period, before its eradication in the 1950s & 60s.
