After a week in Rajbiraj we had a day off, so headed an hour nearer to Biratnagar and stopped at a place called Koshi Tappu Reserve. The journey meandered through the villages, seeing their everyday chores, sorting crops, animals wondering. The fields were green and much corn growing.
Once we found ‘Birders Homestay’, took a while, and settled into our tents we were offered the “80s 3 course dinner…soup, chicken fricassee and fruit salad before heading out to do some twitching.
Our guide, a trainee it transpired, accepted all the help, focusing his borrowed binoculars and identification of birds. We took a tuk tuk on the boundary of the reserve, spotting an Eagle, well to be fair Rachana was well on form, video eye tuned in and was on a role. We hopped off for a 100m and walked to where we saw wild water buffalo who have white socks, whose pastures are being deprived of water, before heading onto the museum. Expectations ‘nil’ we saw a few animals in formalin and a stuffed shell duck, whose head was not fixed and the guide, not us had a few attempts to fix….we legged it out as laughing. He wanted to show us the elephants but we were saddened to see the chains. It was for tourists although he said they go and wander 10 till 5pm in the grass.
Back to the tuk for a competition… looking now out of the reserve and game on, I was on it..egrets, heron, owl, black birds, Tim spotted the woodpeckers..Rachana fell behind buy a couple of points. The children were playing by the Riverside, football posts in action. We were rounded up by the army as late out of the reserve and then home for beer and fire before a lovey ‘Dal Bhat Thali’ and a good night’s sleep.
This morning 3 of us walked around the villages and viewed the koshi River, sited some 13 egrets, a farmer sorting out the irrigation for his crops and children off to school. Namaste to all on their verandas whilst also appreciating their garden skills. After breakfast we packed and then with a well loaded roof the 6 of us were brought to Biratnagar.
We spectated the local school tournament run on MCC ground by Nepal Cricket. We’re back to a full-length week tomorrow and really looking forward to supporting the ‘changemakers’ and coaches.
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