Nepal Day 3

Natalie and I woke up early in the morning to go on an elephant safari. Down in the Chitwan National Park Region is where some of the only remaining Bengal Tigers reside, as well as, Rhinos. Above is a picture of one of the men preparing the elephants for the big gaunt.
Riding on the elephants through the jungle in search of wildlife was both a little uncomfortable and beautiful. I really loved the fog created by the humidity of the area. There were three people who were riding on our elephant.

This on of my favorites of the morning as the sun was shining through the branches onto this tree. It is difficult to tell, but there were many banyan trees in the area. I think this tree is only covered in vines. Either way it was beautiful.
The elephants were so awesome.
After the ride Natalie and I got to feed a couple of elephants. This is our elephant "Lucky" locci after we gave her some cookies. She really loved them. It was really funny to watch Natalie feed the elephants. Their trunks move like snakes which is so unusual up close that you want to jump away. All of our breakfast cookies were thoroughly enjoyed by Lucky and her sister.
A couple of hours later after a great lunch in a little family restaurant we went for an hour canoe ride down the local river in the Chitwan National Park. We got to see the little baby elephant walking with their mothers. It was a lot of fun!
This is an additional picture that I could not delete of the post. You can't see the babies, but you do see the friendly water buffalo. At least they were friendly from afar.
The men who guided the canoe trips down the river, would then take the boats back upstream. They did a great job of getting those canoes quickly up the river.
After the canoe trip we did a two hour hike through the Chitwan National Park. The initial part of the hike was through the jungle. Then the second part was through the grassland areas. I actually loved the views of the wetland areas the most. We were unsuccessful at spotting the Rhino. Although, Natalie would have only been happy about seeing Rhino on the back of the elephants. I was particularly happy that we never spotted the tigers.

Here is Natalie being totally excited about the view.
I know that many of you out there are wondering when I became a fan of ASU, well Natalie went there and encouraged me to bring out my inner maroon and gold. It was a great visor. Thanks Nat.

All in all, day three was filled with great adventures...although feeding and riding the elephants were my favorite parts of the day!