We wanted to do a three day rafting trip on the Kali Gandaki River, but due to monsoons, we were told by all the travel agencies that the river was closed.  We later found out that we could have rafted on the Kali Gandaki if we had a group of 6 people to fill up the raft.  The next best thing was rafting on the calmer Seti River for two days.  The first day was mostly uneventful with only a few real rapids.  We camped out on the sand next to the river for the night.  Instead of a tent, we were sleeping out in the open under the raft itself.  Not the most comfortable or bug-free night.

The next day was a good deal better in terms of whitewater.  As a whole, the rafting was a lot of fun, and the scenery was similar to some of what we saw on the Annapurna Circuit trek.  We finished up around lunchtime and headed to Chitwan National Park.

At Chitwan, we took an extremely unstable canoe ride with our guide.  Within the first few minutes of the ride, we spotted a Gharial, one species of freshwater crocodile found in Nepal.  It entered the river and swam across in front of our canoe.  We also spotted many different birds along the river bank.

Our visit to the elephant breeding center consisted of our guide saying here are some elephants, that little one is 20 days old, and I’ll be waiting over there.  The highlight of Chitwan was definitely the elephant-back safari.  We had immediate good luck again and spotted 2 rhinos within the first few minutes.  We also saw wild deer, monkeys, and another 3 rhinos cooling off in a small pond.  The tigers never ventured anywhere near our elephant unfortunately.  The early morning bird watching got nixed due to rain, and we headed onward to Kathmandu.

We are in Kathmandu for another day, then it’s into northern India.  The scenery and climate will hopefully be more similar to Nepal than the rest of India.

Here are some more highlights from the Annapurna trek as well as Chitwan National Park.  The complete sets can be found at Annapurna and Chitwan sets.

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