Nepal Jungle Hike: By Mary

Today we embarked on a beautiful journey into Chitwan National Forest. It began at 6:30 am with a relaxing canoe ride down the river, where we saw crocodiles, fish, and birds. Spirits were high on this sunny Saturday morning. We docked on a rocky beach and were ushered through 9 foot high grass. We took a break to go over some important rules (ex. if there is a rhino running at you climb a tall tree, or look a tiger in the eye to intimidate it), standard stuff really. I felt a stinging on my left ankle and figured some of the grass had cut me. To my surprise it was not grass at all but something much much better- my very first leach! This little 3 inch long bloodsucker had grabbed on for a quick meal I suppose. We were all quite amused. Onward. We began to trek through the dense jungle seeing some interesting insects and learning of the medicinal uses of some of the tropical plants. We approached a grove of trees and our guides grew quite. They pointed skyward and we realized we had stumbled upon a monkey gathering. This is when I discovered my second leach. It had crawled through my sock. I guess my blood is extra sweet. Back to the monkeys. High in the tree tops were several adorable fuzzy white monkeys with black faces. We were thrilled. Or so we thought. All of a sudden a barrage of urine fell from above. We ran, the whole while our guides were laughing and saying, "golden shower golden shower!". We barely made it out alive. Just as were lulled into a false sense of security one last evil primate took his ultimate revenge. Benny and I were the o poor casualties. It's not so bad though. We can now say we've been peed on by monkeys, and how many people can say that? Plus we had some excellent showers waiting for us at Chitwan Park Cottages. With an exciting start to our hike we moved on and really had a wonderful time. We saw a bathing rhino and snuck up pretty close to him. Then he spotted us and the guides hurried us along to avoid unnecessary carnage. It felt like something on the Discovery Channel. All that was missing was an Australian narrator. We also saw several deer, and many different varieties of animal prints and scat. We went onto a lookout tower that overlooked the vast fields and grass land banking the river, enjoying the clear blue sky above. Just as our exciting hike drew to an end and we crossed the muddy river bank to access the canoe that would take us home, Tom got stuck in the mud. The more he struggled the worse the situation became. His feet were entirely covered and the mud went up to his ankles. He literally couldn't move and escape seemed futile. Most of us were laughing too hard to help and it took a guide and Benny to finally free him. Never a dull moment. We gladly returned to our lodging with some excellent memories and empty bellies, just in time for lunch.