Day four of #RoyalVisitIndia, done. Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and Prince William enjoyed a leisurely safari through Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India, on Wednesday, April 13, and Us Weekly’s European Bureau Chief, Omid Scobie, was there along for the ride. Read his diary notes and observations below!
The pair kicked off their morning bright and early at 7 a.m. with an open-air Jeep ride through the expansive park, which was chock full of wildlife and vegetation.
The Duchess, 34, wore a cream-colored R.M. Williams blouse and brown Zara biker stretch pants for the warm-weather outing, while William, 33, opted for a neutral-colored button-down shirt and a pair of khaki slacks.
The pair both wore Ray-Ban sunglasses to shield their eyes from the bright sun, but William quickly ditched his pair in favor of his glasses so that he could see better through the pair of binoculars the two shared.
“Oh wow,” Kate said at one point as they spotted a rhino mother and her baby wading in a marsh-like patch in the distance. (The royal couple stood up in their seats to get the best possible view of the scenery.)
The Duke and Duchess got a chance to admire the leathery beast from a closer distance a short while later, when a huge rhino stood directly in their Jeep’s path, blocking the road ahead.
The couple gasped as they caught sight of the huge animal just 50 yards away from them.
on safari with will + kate at the kaziranga national park??? #RoyalVisitIndia pic.twitter.com/TQDavxWWL7
— omid mio scobie (@_mio) April 13, 2016
“This is amazing!” Kate said. (The excited Duchess used her own Canon DSLR camera to snap photos from the ride throughout the day.)
“It’s amazing to be this close,” Will added, before a ranger yelled loudly to scare it off the road.
About an hour into the safari, Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s parents arrived at the Bimoli Anti-Poaching Camp in the center of the park, where they were greeted by a group of rangers.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” William said of the safari as he shook hands with a young ranger.
The park staff and rangers then sat and chatted with the twosome about the park’s successful preservation efforts, keeping the animals out of harm’s way and away from poachers.
Park guard Mahanda Barman, 34, detailed the time when he had a fight with a poacher after hearing gunshots by the river in the north side of the park.
“It can be dangerous,” he told William via a translator. “That evening there was crossfire between poachers and my team here.… The butcher ran off and was later found dead. We recovered rifles and ammo.… The things happen a lot. It’s a big problem.”
“You’re all doing an incredibly important job,” William told Barman. “I’m incredibly proud of everything you’re doing.”
Another park ranger, 46-year-old Salim Ahmed, told Middleton and William about the time he was attacked by a rhino, but how he and the rest of the staff was adamant about never firing at animals.
“This is their home, we are their friends,” he said.
Later on in the day, the royal pair further wandered around Kaziranga National Park, feeding baby elephants and rhinos from oversized bottles. Next stop? Thimphu, Bhutan!
