We stopped in the town of Dhera Dun for lunch.  It is the setting for India’s most exclusive school – and numerous others if the billboards were anything to go by.  There is also a very impressive military academy housed in the smartest buildings and grounds that I have seen in India so far.  The reason for visiting the town was to obtain information about Rajaji National Park.  We couldn’t locate the National Park Office, so we visited the Tourist Office instead.  They provided lots of useful information and directrions on the best way to reach the park. 

We travelled on to Haridwar (a very holy place for Hindus, lots of timples, bathing etc). and crossed the Ganges – our first encounter with the river.  Impressive barrage and HEP scheme.  We arrived at the Chila gate to Rajaji National Park mid-afternoon.  It turns out that for some reason (we didn’t quite understand) vehicles can’t go into the park at the moment (the resthouses within the parks boundaries can’t be doing a great deal!).  Our only option was to take a 2 hour elephant ride.  This was fairly costly when park fees, etc were taken into account – and an elephant doesn’t travel very far in 1 hour so we decided against it.  Somewhat disillusioned, we checked into the Tourist Board Hotel and enjoyed tea in the sun on the lawn.  (Additional note from Fred: Fred’s been vegetarian for 2 days now and you can smell it in the wind!)