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  Thursday 29th of March 2018 and they brought tea for me at 4 o'clock. We will not leave until 7 thirty today so I had plenty time to relax before I went for breakfast at 7 o'clock. I spotted a White-bellied Drongo sitting on top of a tree and I took the chance to record the beautiful White-bellied Drongo song with my ZOOM H5 Recorder.  White-bellied Drongo singing “Good morning” for me
Listen to the White-bellied Drongo
I got the recording and we were ready to leave Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge. Today we will use a closed jeep to avoid the dust, it is terrible here. Even a small bike makes a dust cloud and sitting in the open jeep is terrible, so a closed jeep it is. I was surprised, two extra staff members to join us. - Are they joining us? - They will paddle, my Guide told me. So, we're ready to get on our way to Chisapani, but first a picture. Then we can leave Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge. We will drive for about one hour to Chisapani where we will launch the raft. Then we will be on our way down the Karnali River for 5 to 6 hours. The driver will pick us up and we will have about 2 hour drive back to Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge  The Ghurkha attack team
 Today we have 2 extra paddlers with us in the back
We came out on the main dust road taking us to the paved road, the main highway. The longest highway in Nepal, well, I call it a very poor road. We passed a school and all the students were lining up outside the gate and a guard was searching all the students. I asked if they were looking for weapons. But it was exam day and they just checked the pockets for notes and other means to cheat on the exam. This is not allowed to do in Sweden and the cheating is rampant. Anyway, when we were up on the paved road we were soon ending up in a check-point. Leaving the National park and they check all the vehicles for blood, dents etc. or any other signs of having hit any animals. And of course, on the lookout for poachers. The Nepalese Government wants to double the tiger population by 2020 or 2022, but then they will need to double the habitat as well. A tiger male need 70 km2 as his own territory, any other male come in to the territory and they fight. But they seems to take their wild life seriously.   Traffic sign for military check-point
 On the highway
 40km/h, it will take ages to get to Chitwan on Saturday
We are soon coming to a bridge and the road was blocked with some branches and a few heaps of sands. Closed due to some repair work and we have to leave the road and cross the dry river on the river. And the sand was like powder and we had to close all the windows due to dust. A thick layer of sand, well, it is not sand, it is powder. When the car drive through the dust it looks like dry water. There was also a truck, a broke down truck standing on the dust path across flood bed. For sure, traveling along the roads in this part of the world is like a huge billboard for TATA. Only TATA trucks and many many of them standing still having broken down.  Bridge is closed
 It is very dusty
 It is very dusty
 A broke down TATA truck
 Reaching the other side of the dry river
 Another check point
 Another check point
 Monkeys on the road
 Reaching the Karnali Bridge over Karnali River
 Reaching the Karnali Bridge over Karnali River
We reach the Karnali Bridge over Karnali River, crossing the bridge and we reach the small town Chisapani. We make a stop so my Guide can buy cigarettes before we continue and we have to cross a big construction site next to the river to reach the beach where we will launch the raft. Lucky that we had our extra staff with us, they were pumping like there was no tomorrow and the raft was ready in a jiff. Actually, I was surprised on how quick it went to inflate the raft. We left the beach, but the Guide had forgotten his binoculars and back pack so we had to come ashore again a little bit downstream to pick up his stuff. Lucky the driver discovered the stuff before we were too far down the river, now it was no problems. So, we were soon on our way down the Karnali River and it was a gorgeous morning  We make a stop to buy stuff
 Crossing a construction site
 Crossing a construction site
 The Guide have to get out and clear the way from cows
 Down at the river
 Preparing the raft
 Preparing the raft
 We are downstream from the Karnali Bridge
  We are ready to leave for our adventure
  We are waterborne on our way down the Karnali River
What a lovely idea to go drafting!!! I knew that the Tiger Tops had different activities, walking in the village  and looking at this and that.  Yeah, real sleeping pills! But the manager told me that they had drafting, and I don't know why, maybe he was presenting the drafting in a more attractive way. So I decided to go drafting, and THANK YOU for suggesting the drafting.
Fantastic! We were slowly drifting down the river watching the landscape passing by. We passed a jackal that was drinking water on one of the beach and then we spotted a group of the very beautiful Bar-headed Goose, but too far away for any good pictures. The river is full of the very beautiful Ruddy Shelduck, known as the Brahminy duck in this part of the world. But darn, the Ruddy shelduck is a scared bird and they took off when we showed up in the horizon. I had not expected any “white water” but we were soon running in to some “white water” but it was not very much of a rapid.  Floating down the Karnali River leaving Chisapani behind
 Bar-headed Gooses on the beach
  A little bit of rapids
 A little bit of rapids
 Jackal down at the river drinking water
 Jackal having a look at us before disappearing
 The last thing we see of the Jackal
  Bar-headed Goose
 Bar-headed Goose
 Bar-headed Goose
 The last we see of Chisapani
 Bar-headed Gooses on the beach
 Passing more rapids, and yes, this promise to be an exciting tour
  Great Cormorant - जलेवा
  Little Cormorant
 Cooking a goat
   Ruddy shelduck/ Brahminy duck
We were floating down the Karnali River when suddenly a huge Peacock came flying over the river. What a beautiful sight that was! Of course, I was way too late trying to get pictures as I was just watching this bird not even trying to reach for my camera. Karnali River is a holy river and we passed some cremations. We could hear drums when they brought the dead body to the cremation area. My Guide told me that they had to walk around the wood with the dead body three times before they but the body on the wood.  Peacock landing on the beach
 Peacock landing on the beach
 Bringing wood
And we can hear the drums as they are bringing the dead body
 Ruddy shelduck/ Brahminy duck
 Ruddy shelduck/ Brahminy duck
  Collecting stones
 Collecting stones
 Elephant tracks from elephant coming to drink water at the river
  Grey Heron - फुस्रो बकुल्ला
 Grey Heron - फुस्रो बकुल्ला
A Grey Heron took off from one of the trees where we had planned for our lunch. I tried to get a few pictures, never give up. The Grey Heron landed on the other side of the river and I could watch him while we had our lunch. This was actually the day I had planned to have only fruit salad for lunch and dinner. The food at  Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge is excellent and I don't want to eat myself out of the  trousers. But as we will have picnic today I asked them to put fruit and healthy black bread only in my picnic box.
I got suspicious already when I lifted the box, it was very heavy. I opened the box, no bread and bananas, well, there were bread and bananas, but there was so much more that I have
 We stop for picnic lunch
 Tiger tracks in the sand
We could follow the tiger tracks down to the water so the tiger had been down here to drink water. I was in a little bit of a hurry to leave after discovering the tiger tracks. I learned a little about the river as we were floating with the water flow. The river is named Karnali and it is one of the rivers feeding Ganges. And yes, Karnali River is also a holy river. And we passed a few places where they were cremating people. I heard the drums and I asked the Guide what it was. They are drumming while carrying the dead body to the wood pile. They walk around the pile of wood three times carrying the dead body before they put the body on the wood. Then yes, as you can imagine, they put fire to the wood and everything goes up in flames. The soul skips several steps of “suffering” as the ashes is spread in the holy river and they have a “fast lane” to Nirvana.  Passing a Little Egret
 White water and more adventure ahead
 Passing another cremation site
 Passing another cremation site
 Passing another cremation site
 A little further down the river and they unload a dead body
 Walk around the wood three times
 Walk around the wood three times
 Walk around the wood three times
 Getting a good scrub
 Leaving the cremation site behind us
   We can see from many of the pictures that it is low water in the river. During the monsoon the river is brimmed. We had to check if it was possible to do the drafting. The other river is almost dry so it would not be possible for drafting. But luckily enough there was enough water for drafting today. Otherwise I would have missed this gorgeous experience. Anyway, they take this opportunity to take stones from the river bed. And they need a lot of stones for constructions and roads etc. And the load the trailers connected to tractors by hand. And you can hear the sound of stones getting thrown at stones everywhere along the river. We arrived to one area where they were building walls along the river to prevent flooding. Jeez! What a waste of human recourses. Two excavators digging up stones from the river, putting it like a wall and people loaded the trailers by hand from the wall. Listen to the sound of the river
There were also small canoes transporting stones from the other side of the river where they were loaded by hand. I told my Guide: Imagine of the excavators loaded the trailers directly, then they would load the trailer in a jiff and the wall would soon be ready. Now they load the trailers by hand, the tractor goes to empty the trailer and now they move them by hand to the wall they are building. What a waste of time! If they want the wall to be ready that is.  Unloading stones
  And this is where all the stones end up
 Unloading stones
 Bringing more stones
 Bringing more stones
 Our driver waiting for us
 We passed the construction site and we could soon see our driver and the jeep from Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge on the beach. We were soon on our way back to the Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge. And I can hear you! Isn't there any stupid video from the river adventure? Yes, there are, 11 minutes of pure excitements, just click PLAY below and sit back and enjoy. We left the Karnali River behind and we drove back towards Chisapani and Karnali Bridge, will take us about an hour to get there and from there it is about 1 hour to the hotel. We made a stop so I could get some cash from an ATM so I could pay back my Guide. I had borrowed money from him to buy Mango Juice. We're on the highway so it is not so very bumpy, but these Land Rovers are for sure not very comfortable to ride in. But we made it to Chisapani and we crossed the Karnali Bridge.  Flag of Nepal
 On the way to Chisapani
 Approaching Chisapani and the Karnali Bridge
 Karnali Bridge
 First military check-point was just after the bridge. I don't remember how many we passed on our way back to the hotel. But it was at least three of them. Long queues with trucks and buses, but we could just pass the line, seems like they don't want to disturb the foreigners coming here. So we just swished by leaving the buses and trucks behind us. Took us about an hour from the Karnali Bridge to get back “home” again. Dinner and I was off to bed, they will knock on my door at 4 o'clock in the morning with a pot of tea so I need to sleep.    How many times have you seen Deer warning signs and deer at the same time?
  So, tomorrow is my last day here at the beautiful Tiger Tops Karnali Lodge. Will we see any tigers? So far no tigers or leopards, so tomorrow will be my last chance. You just need to click HERE to find out what we found in the forest.
    
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011
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the entire width of the country. It is the longest highway in Nepal and was constructed by CPWD/PWD Nepali and Indian engineers.
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