Another national park

Journey to Bardia National Park

After breakfast we checked out of the Nepali Gaur hotel, this time for the last time. We were at the airport in good time but if we’d been late it wouldn’t have mattered, as our flight was considerably delayed due to poor weather at our destination, Nepalgunj.

Eventually we took off and I watched as the scenery outside changed from snow-capped mountains to flat farmland and finally to forest.

We landed at the small airport and were met by a driver from the lodge who helped us find our luggage in the scrum around a table that stood in for the more usual conveyer belt.

A VIP welcome?!

The drive to our Bardia NP lodge took about two hours on road that was excellent by Nepali standards. We drove through a restricted wildlife zone with speed limits and frequent warnings about the presence of various animals, although all we saw here were monkeys (macaques I think).

Tiger Tops Karnali

We arrived to a friendly welcome, and were immediately impressed by the building and set-up. Although this is another in the small Tiger Tops chain, it is newer than Tharu where we stayed on our visit to Chitwan NP. What’s more we received a room upgrade, to a large and very attractive ‘signature’ room. Was this in compensation for having to settle for a tent at Tharu I wondered, or just a coincidence? Either way, it was very welcome.

We had a late lunch in garden and met the only other guest staying there that night (more would arrive tomorrow). James works for a travel company and was combining business with pleasure, checking out the lodge while also enjoying a few days’ stay there..

Later we went for sundowner drinks by river, which was 30 minutes drive away. Locals were carrying huge bundles of grass across the river to be used as animal feed. We saw various birds including pond heron, common greenshank, pied bush chat, ruddy shelducks, and watched a pied kingfisher fishing.

On the way back to the lodge we were treated to a partial eclipse of the moon – wow!

Dinner was served in the central building. We had been told 7.30 but that seemed to be a bit elastic as it was nearer 8.00 by the time we ate. The food was plentiful and delicious, with bottle gourd soup, chicken in lemongrass sauce plus vegetables and mashed potatoes, and banana cake. We sat by the fireplace for a while afterwards to make use of the WiFi but didn’t linger too long as we didn’t want to keep the staff late.