Chitwan National Park

There is plenty of wildlife of all shapes and sizes, and you will see lots of it. The star of the show is undoubtedly the Asian one-horned rhino. The prehistoric looking armour plating gives these beasts a sense of security (false as it turns out, but only when humans with guns are around) that means they generally don’t run away when approached, in fact they occasionally do the opposite. ‘If he comes too close’ said my guide for our forest walk, just climb a tree. He did and I did. It gave me great views and I only had to wait 35 minutes up the tree until he wandered off.

The leopards and even the remaining tigers are just too elusive here, and rarely seen. Other big game includes Sloth bears, wild boar, sambar, spotted deer, gaur, mongoose, large numbers of langur monkeys and the occasional crocodile.

Chitwan is also one of the best places in the world to see birds. More than 500 different species have been recorded here, including such luminaries as the Grey-headed fish eagle, pallid harrier, brown crake and marsh sandpiper.

But the reason I love Chitwan is the atmosphere. You will be woken early for the first game walk/ride/drive of the day. It will be cold and misty as you head off, usually having to cross the river to get to the park. This is best done on an elephant, for several reasons. They are the only way to get through much of the jungle and through the elephant grass, rivers and swamps. When on an elephant, you can get much closer to the animals before they spook and run away, saving you the trouble of climbing up any trees. But the main reason is it is just great fun, travelling like a maharajah, and would be the way to go to work in Basingstoke if allowed.

As the sun gets stronger, and the damp cold mist starts to burn off, you start heading back towards your base, the colours of the day become that much more beautiful, and, on clear days, you have the extraordinary backdrop of the Himalayas in the far distance, not an easy backdrop to compete with. On your way back to your lodge, you will start noticing some of the smaller animals and birds that were ignored in the rhino excitement, the muntjac deer and the squirrels. However my favourite was not the great lumbering beasts or even the glimpse of the ‘bhag’, or tiger as we know it, but the humble chicken, or jungle fowl as they are somewhat more romantically named. These are not escaped domestic birds, but truly wild fowl whose cousins now live in coops. They are fantastically beautiful, with a wide range of colouring that years of selected breeding has removed from domesticated chickens. Their colouring is simply fantastic, and worth travelling 5000 miles to see.