Chased through Chitwan

If you’ve never heard the sound of a pair of male rhinoceroses in rut in the jungle 100 meters away, have no fear – you’ll recognize it instantly.

Either you’ll instinctively know that the sharp wock that suddenly pricks your ears isn’t in fact a giant lumberjack cutting down a kapok tree, or or an elephant knocking down a sal tree — or your guide, a small man who until that point displayed a laconic manner, will frantically motion for you and the eight Swiss septuagenarians behind you to “Run! Run NOW!”

Most disconcerting of all, he’ll then pass you as you attempt a sluggish U-turn on the narrow trail.

You can’t really blame him, though. After 15 years as a guide in Royal Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal, he was never attacked by one of the 400 or so rhinos in the park – never, that is, until 18 months ago when one of the brawny beasts, interrupted during the delicate period of rutting upon which you too have stumbled, tossed him 20 feet into the air.

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