Day off in Chitwan

monkeys
the three rhinos that we saw on the elephant trek.
side view of the armored tank
a crocodiles bottom. we got off the canoe about 30 feet away. the guide: "dont worry, he is cold blooded so until he gets warm he wil not attack us". everyone else: "how long does it take to get warm?" guide: "i am not sure". worried face's!
us on the canoe. sorry ladies, Dr. Biggs chose the photo's so i may not look my best!

We decided we had earned a day off or two after the first two weeks working so we came to Chitwan national park, its near the Indian border so its bloody hot (too hot for us northern folk who think the sun is the local pub!). we had a very adventurous day on a canoe, then a walk through the forest where the guides pretended that we were near to some sloth bears, which seemed to scare the Israeli woman who was with us as she quickly picked up a stick to defend herself and didnt let it go for the rest of the trip! we didnt see any bengal tigers but we did meet a rhino sleeping in the forest, no pictures im afraid as batteries ran out. but i did get a photo of a tiger footprint on my phone! you will just have to beleive me until april!

in the afternoon we went on an elephant safari into the forest again, there we saw three rhino, two different types of deer, some wild boar and some monkeys. the elephant driver (or mahout if you like) didnt seem impressed with your favourite yorkshire trekker as i managed to spot a great deal more wildlife in the undergrowth than he did! it was a great trip, very peaceful until the Nepali Dom Jolly (spelling?) turned up on the back of another elephant! - i dont know you pay 600 rupees for a safari thats just 30minutes from the internet cafe and some fella's phone rings... he answered the flamin thing as well! so we are not quite as intrepid explorers as we would like to portray, but it was only one day off!

we are back off to the working world today. will not be in touch with the world wide web of knowledge until saturday as we are visiting some more remote villages. subject to my ankle not exploding!

bye for now

ok ok, i misjudged your eagerness to see geography in action so due to popular demand see the photos

an irrigation channel! it means the village are much better off than many!



a typical farming landscape with a mountain in the background. i could tell you what it is called, but i wasnt listening properly to the students at this time! i could ask Dr. Biggs, but it appears her abilities to pronounce nepali names and words is worse than mine!


i get the impression from being reading over peoples shoulders (sorry mum i know i shouldnt do it, but its very tempting!) Dr. Biggs is writing an essay on Nepal so i have kept it short and sweet!

Introduction to the photos

The main purpose of our trip is to meet some masters students who have been funded by the Glacier Trust. The idea is for a knowledge transfer to happen where we give them experience in geographical data collection and analysis and they give us some experience of climate change impacts in a very interesting location. Since most of you reading this aint geography geeks, and probably dont have the same appetite for pictures of terraced farming and the like i will try and keep the descriptions short and the photos plentiful!

Ellie is in Nepal as well...

Hi all (gary's boss here!)

Yes, we are still getting along fine., he doesn't smell that bad yet either! Life is heating up in Nepal - currently in Chitwan National Park (waiting to meeting an NGO again) and it's well over 30 degrees! Went for a walk this morning and saw a massive (2 tonne) rhino dosing in the jungle shade and a couple of crocs sunbathing on the Rapti river banks.

Work is going well with the masters students. We are learning a lot about the environment from them and we're helping them with their research methods and field data collection. This week, after meeting with a NGO to do some field research with them we are hopefully going to concentrate on my field data collection. Life in the Nepali rural communities is even more laid back than in the city - things happen when they happen. We waited 2 hours under a tree the other day for a jeep to arrive. Gary has re-drafted our time plan every day since we've arrived [someone has to make sure things happen - gary - yes ellie i have editing POWERS!!!!!!!]!!
*yes gary likes to make himself feel better by making sure we have an updated plan. while this is very useful it is me that has to make all the phone calls to make things happen, despite him requesting to be communications director!

Campus life is peaceful and we are getting a lot of work done (in our guesthouse.. a late-20th century American-constructed ruin.. ok, it's not that bad - at least we have lots of rooms and the water/electric just about works) even though every other day seems to be a national holiday. Electricity is randomly available. We are now regulars at the only local restaurant where we've exhausted the menu, purely to avoid dal bhat in the uni canteen every evening.

I'm really enjoying seeing lots of different parts of Nepal which is such a diverse country in both culture and landscape. Good job we still have plenty of time left as things here take such a long time happen!!

Gary seems to be writing frantically on the computer next to me so I'll stop waffling on as he'll have more to say...

Gudibari Village visit

the legendary bengal tiger waiting for its lunch.
conducting a group survey in the village. most of the men here are ex Gorkhas for the British or Indian Army. The guy in the stripy t-shirt is M0han one of the masters students, who acted as our interpreter for this method.
our new friends.
introducing the students to GPS. Dr. BIggs in her element...
this is the house of the head villager that kindly let us stay the night while we visited his village. it was very peaceful.

Kathmandu

The view from Kiritpur on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Our guide Dharma lives in this region and he gave us some local "wine", he didnt drink any which is never a good sign!

Dharma teaching me about the Thai airways temple. Dharma has since abandoned us for Europe!

We didnt see much of Kathmandu as we had to meet several contacts before moving onto the district we were to work in, so i will have more photos to upload when we return to Kathmandu on the 10th April.

Hello

Hello all - who ever you may be.

After a great many trials and plenty of errors, i have managed to track down an internet connection that can cope with a few of gary's random babblings and plenty of photo's. it was a truly difficult task, traversing mountains, rivers, wetlands and international borders.... ok ok.... it was a short taxi ride from the university to the tourist village of Sauraha near Chitwan National Park! but its bloody hot and im a yorkshire man so i am allowed to stretch the truth slightly! :-)

i am in Nepal for 6 weeks doing voluntary work with the Glacier Trust and am accompanied by DR Ellie Biggs - she is kind of in charge and i do as i am told (haha) but it means she has to organise everything i can just complain so its perfect for me!!!!. So far we have introduced some masters students to GPS and how it can help with data collection and trialed a new survey method that i have seen used before in india.

i will come back tomorrow with some resized photos ready for publication and some short witty statements to accompany them.