To get to Shuklaphanta National Park, one has to take a short flight to the small town of Dhangadi which is located in the Western Nepal near the border of India. The park is located at a short distance from the airport. After arriving at Dhangadi, I took a cab to Shuklaphanta Jungle Cottage. This is a great place to stay right next to the main entrance of the park. Rooms are quite comfortable and food served here is well cooked and feels like home cooked food.
On arrival from Pokhara, I decided to go for the half day safari post lunch. This place has mostly open grasslands and is home to a large population of Swamp Deer or Barasingha. Other mammals that can be seen here are leopards, tigers, sloth bear, cheetal etc. The next day I took a full day safari but sightings were of any wildlife were not so good. Even though on my first safari here, we got to see a tiger but this was just as we were returning back to the homestay and also light was very low. Overall with sightings, I was not that happy. I feel the best months to visit any park is between February to mid May. These are some of the other photos I took while exploring the national park.
I had initially decided to stay here for 2 or 3 more days but decided to quit and head back to Dehradun which was an eight to nine hour drive. The plan was to cross the border at Dhangadi and enter India via road but there was an issue with my British Passport. It needed an exit and or entry stamp at the Nepal-India border but at this checkpoint, there was no such facility therefore I had to travel again by flight all the way to Kathmandu and then from Kathmandu get another flight back to Delhi. I could have crossed but then without the stamp on my passport, I would not be technically in India and this would be a problem for any future travel. This I was not aware of and had I known this, I would not have visited this place.