We all have a pretty strict itinerary here at Island Jungle Resort. They wake up everyone at 5:45 in the morning. Tea, coffee, and biscuits is at 6:15, followed by our first morning adventure at 6:30 am. While I originally did not like this schedule much, it makes more sense after being here for a day.
Our 6:30 activity was an elephant ride. How exciting!
Chitwan National Park is known for its elephant rides, as it is a great way to see the park high up and off your feet. We loaded on to a very tight elephant seat with two other people (and out guide sitting on the elephant's head) and headed out in to the jungle.
The ride was a very neat experience, more because we were riding on the elephant than actually seeing anything in the jungle. It was quite foggy this morning and visibility was not great. Needless to say, we did not see any wildlife on our elephant ride except for the intermittent bird. The trees and fog were pretty, though!
Riding on an elephant is quite the experience. It was a very bumpy ride, as the animal is huge (in case you didn't know...). One of our guides told us that they weigh around 2500 pounds. That is enormous! Despite its size and weight, the elephant actually moved quietly around the jungle floor - much more quietly than our tourist group on our walks! Our walk was intermittently interrupted by the elephant farting (quite frequently, actually, and it smells a bit like skunk...), peeing, pooping, and stopping to graze. Our guide would shout at the elephant in Nepali, whack it with a short stick, and off we would go.
Our elephant rise was followed by lunch at 8:30 and our next activity at 9:30. Our second morning activity was bird watching. We went on a walk close to the resort and river and saw some neat birds.
We got back around 11:00 and had a break until lunch at 1:00. Mike and I opted for a nap, since we've been getting up so early. There is a long break in the middle of the day, to avoid the heat and because the animals are most active at dawn and dusk.
After lunch we had another break until elephant bathing at 2:30. This was so much fun! After hauling around tourists and gathering wood during the morning, the elephants get pretty dirty. Their trainers walk them down to the river for a bath and the guests get to help. Really, the elephants entertain us, but we can pretend we help wash them. My elephant kept spraying me with water. It was chilly, but felt nice in the warm afternoon.
Mike ended up on an elephant who thought it was a bucking bull, and kept trying to throw Mike off, much to the delight of his trainer...
After elephant bathing, we went on our last scheduled activity of the day - our jungle expedition at 3:30. We weren't exactly sure what to expect. We walked to the boats, were taken across the river, and boarded a large truck with seats in the back. Then we headed back out in to the jungle. We didn't really see much during the initial part of our trip except a few chickens and a deer. I was beginning to think that the jeep ride was a bit silly. But then we saw four rhinos across the river - two mothers and two babies. Just as quickly as we saw them, they ran back in to the trees and were out of sight. We were all pretty excited to have seen some wildlife, but were all hoping to have a better glimpse. Our wishes came true around the next bend, when we basically came head-to-head with a rhino.
It stared us down for a bit, then would go back to grazing. Every time it would start to walk away, our driver would rev the engine of the jeep to gets its attention. 
At one point the rhino was probably only six feet in front of the jeep. So neat!
Mike would also like to add that he saw a wild boar on his way back from the boat dock to the resort (probably one kilometer or so). He said he initially though it was a deer, but noticed its tusks as it fled back in to the jungle. I can't attest to this, as I wasn't there. I was back at the docks, waiting patiently for our guide and the other boat to cross the river. I would like to add that, although I'm sure it was neat to see the boar, Mike broke the golden rule of the resort. They state that you are never to walk alone in the jungle or without a guide, as animals have been known to come very close to (or even in to) the resort. Boys will be boys. Thank heavens the boar decided to flee and not to charge, although Mike assures me he had a tree picked out...
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