Rhinos at Chitwan

We spotted these guys when we were riding atop a big ol' elephant called Motty. Our first wild rhinos. Up close, rhinos are smaller than I expected. I thought that they'd be about the size of a Land Rover, but in actual fact, they're closer to the size of a Smart Car.

Three interesting facts about elephants

We were fortunate enough to have a very informative guide in the National Park. While Amy was playing with this baby elephant, he told us three very interesting facts about our big-nosed friends.

1. Elephants have over 40,000 muscles in their trunks alone (a human has about 600 muscles in their whole body!)
2. Elephants have six sets of teeth in their life time (we have two, remember?)
3. Elephants are totally risk averse. They will never do anything risky ever. 'Which is why you never ever see elephant doing bunjee jump or white water rafting' (sic).

Stupid stupid stupid strikes again

We've just spent the last three days in southern Nepal in Chitwan at the Nature Reserve. Although we nearly didn't make it, due to a road block half way through our journey (yes, another one) caused by striking students who were angered that the Nepalese government hadn't provided the textbooks they were promised.

Fair enough I suppose, but can you imagine what would happen if a bunch of students in the UK decided to stand in the middle of the M25 and cause a 4 hour traffic jam? The police would have a field day....

Anyway. We got there in the end and had a beautiful cottage in a huge garden (see photo, with the delightful Adrian) on the edge of the park. Adrian wasn't feeling brilliant most of the weekend, poor boy, but we managed to see 3 crocodiles (of the man-eating variety), rhinos and a gazillion elephants (both tiny baby and some VERY large adults).