An adventure in Nepal

We would not consider ourselves to be adventurous people. At home, we are not naturally inclined to participate in adrenalin inducing activities. Booked through a third party in India, we did not really know what our tour in Nepal encompassed and went quite blindly into it all. But read our story about our visit to Nepal below, and you be the judge of whether this could be considered an adventure.

Our tour company, Himalayan Social Journey, had it all in hand and made all the arrangements for us to have nine great days in Nepal. The briefing on the planned activities definitely surprised us, and against our natural instinct, we decided to trust their judgment and participate in the suggested activities.

Our second day in Kathmandu started with an early morning flight on a small 30-seater plane. It was a majestic one-hour scenic flight over Mt. Everest and the range surrounding it. The US$200 price per person was not in our original budget, but considering we were in Nepal, seeing Everest was just something we could not miss.

Views of the Himalayas from our scenic flight to Mt. Everest

On the third day, on the way to Chitwan National Park, we stopped to do some white water rafting on the Trishuli River. It is luckily quite warm in Nepal in May, so even though the water splashing all over you with each rapid is cold, the sun quickly warms you up.

View of the Trishuli River when we stopped for lunch after a busy morning of rafting

The following day we were up early again to take a canoe ride for bird watching in croc infested waters. The crocs are all around you and with all ten of us weighing the long wooden boat down, we were all a little nervous of tumbling over and becoming breakfast.

Next, we took a guided walk in the jungle in the hope that we would spot some game, including a tiger. We heard later that another group on the same walk as us that day were charged by a wild boar and the guide was injured. Our wild boar spotting was of one running in the opposite direction - he must have known not to mess with Africans.

A group of travellers from Namibia and South Africa taking a jungle walk with our two guides

We also saw a rhino taking a lazy swim. At first, we would not believe our guide that it was a rhino until we were only a few meters away - from a distance, it just looked like a log in the lake. Unfortunately, we never saw any tigers, but that is a great legitimate reason to return one day.

The whole afternoon was used for a guided game drive. As we started, the first rains they have had in nine months, came pouring down. The thunderstorm continued for the next two hours leaving us thoroughly drenched while perched on the top of the open vehicle. When the sun eventually came out, the thick layers of dust had been washed off, and the rays lit up a beautiful bright green forest that made it all worthwhile.

Our Rhino spotting in Chitwan National Park after the sun came out on our game drive

However, after all these activities nothing got our adrenalin going like the bus trip along on the national highway. You can't prepare yourself mentally for the narrow roads undergoing construction on a mountain pass. The nail-biting traffic negotiations ended up being the most terrifying activity of our Nepalese adventure.