After two days of r and r, we had decided to take greater advantage of what was on offer in Chitwan, so had arranged an additional excursion (we have already the full three-day package, starting tomorrow.) I blame myself for not fully paying attention when Roshan, the hotel manager, outlined the various options – there was talk of a visit to a village, to a local museum, but it seemed the one we eventually settled upon was the one of least interest to me, which was a day looking at birds. I am no birder (or twitcher, or w3hatever the correct term is nowadays), finding, except in extreme cases, one bird to be much like another. And it is an activity which demands inactivity, as well as patience (and I am not a patient man.)
There ere five of us on the excursion: as well as Val and myself, there was a driver, a bird expert (Rahinder(?), and, for no very good reason that we could fathom, Roshan himself. It took a fair drive to get away from Saraha and up into the mountains, where we switched from riding in the cab to the back of the pick-up – there were benches fitted there, or we could stand and hold onto the bar fitted behind the cab. It was a remarkably steep zig-zag climb up, and then we started looking for birds – there was one particular species we were apparently searching for, but I don’t recall the name; I think it was Nepal’s only species residing solely in Nepal. It dies bot matter all that much, for we never spotted one.
In fact, tis first part of the trip was pretty dull. We would frequently stop because Rahinder had spotted some example or other, and we would peer into the trees and bushes for a while. Rahinder certainly seemed to know his stuff, identifying various individuals (though actually he could have said anything, and we would have been none the wiser.)
We did climb down on a couple of occasions and walk, and on one of these hikes I had my most difficult part of the day. My knee (this time the left) was giving me a lot of trouble, and when we set off on a long climb up a series of concrete steps, I thought I would not be able to manage at all, and would simply have to wait for the others to descend. But I was persuaded to persevere, and it was good that it did, for it eventually led to a castle at the very toping, overlooking the surrounding countryside. It was very much like a mediaeval castle back home, complete with a moat and ramparts, but in fact was comparatively recent, from the early nineteenth century, and was part of a series of fortifications built to fight back the British. Being so new, it was in very good condition, and was clearly now a tourist attraction (though not a very popular one, it seemed – the ticket booth was empty, and we could wander freely, the only visitors.
After this, we ate a packed lunch, and then there were more pretty much abortive attempts to find birds, the only example of which I found interesting was when we spotted a couple of storks (the picture is indeed of a stork, though of a different one, on a different day.) I had thought, and hoped, we were heading for home at this point; we were both very sleepy, could barely stay awake. But no, we then ventured onto a road which followed the perimeter of the park, again pausing to spot various birds and other creatures: a few peacocks (though not putting up much of a display), a monkey or two, even a small wild elephant, trying to cross the river, and getting a lot of attention from three or four tourist jeeps, screeching to a halt, as well as a small crowd of locals.
As we arrived back, Val received a phone-call, the first of a series of business meetings she was scheduled to have this evening. I did venture out to see if there was somewhere which appealed for me to eat dinner, but I was a bit too early, I would have been the only customer, so I returned to the hotel. By the time Val had finished, it was almost too late to eat, especially as we wasted a little time having a couple of indifferent cocktails in a bar. But we managed to find somewhere still open, and actually had two very tasty meals, before heading home (once more braving the firecracker-throwing children.) Not the most exciting of days, but it had got us out, which was better than merely killing time.
