safaris are neat.

We headed down to Chitwan in south Nepal for a retreat....

to enjoy fellowship, to receive encouragement, to see nature, to stop and smell the roses, to have retreaty type things.

Well, 2 of our retreaty type things was to go on a jeep safari and an elephant safari.... we had a lot of fun on the jeep safari though it didn't quite meet our expectations.... and we might have sort-have been loud enough to scare away all the animals.. but our theory was that the "animals" we sorta saw were actually stuffed and chained to the spot so our guides would know exactly were they were.

for example... this was a barking deer (don't be fooled by the large tree) and this speck was a rare hawk-tailed yellow bellied raven.

you're right i just made that up... but its a bird... exciting safari isn't it?

and then of course that brings us to the nepalese spotted tiger.

nope, still kidding... its just a deer with trees....

and i'm pretty sure a spotted tiger would actually be a leopard, yeah?

and then we came across a lake which the guides claimed there was a croc on the opposite bank... hmmm. (they were the only ones to see this) so we claimed this was the "real" one. some may see a tree root but we saw the great croc king!and then we happily rode off into the sunset back to our lodging, ever weary of the next upcoming "elephant safari" and we wondered if the elephants would be as real.But we were so happily surprised when we arrived the next day to find that this would be the best elephant ride EVER!

We saw deer...

rhinos and rhino babies made our own trail through the jungle

Our elephant was named "the golden lady"