Rhinos? What Rhinos?

We celebrated Nepali New Year (Happy 2064!) at the Rhino Residency Resort just outside of Royal Chitwan National Park. Our bungalow was a comfortable colonial affair, and we enjoyed being close enough to walk to the Rapti River so Terry could participate in the morning elephant bath time. Then we moved to a pretty resort inside the park boundaries for another two nights, and went on several different elephant and jeep safaris, a canoe ride, and a bird watching walk with four other friendly people (veteran travelers all) who were the only other guests sharing the resort with us – Claude and Jeannine from Sherbooke, Quebec and the Gundersons from Denmark. Many other tourists we spoke to after our visit to the park were lucky enough to have seen rhinos on their safaris, but all we managed to flush out were a few different types of deer and a bunch of peacocks. Our safari elephants were new mothers, so it was lovely to have their babies trailing along behind us through a very quiet (rhino-less) forest. Not that we’re bitter.