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29 March 2024

Goodbye India, hello Bhutan: William, Kate's exotic Himalayan trip

Published
By Agencies

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are due to fly from India to the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

Over the next two days the British Royal couple will meet the country's king and queen and trek up a mountain to visit the famous Tiger's Nest monastery.

The royal couple will meet King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema. (AP)

They will also receive a ceremonial welcome and watch a competitive game of archery, the kingdom's national sport.

William and Kate are in the middle of a seven-day tour of India and Bhutan.

After arrival in Bhutan on Thursday, the royal couple will have a private audience with King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema, as well as a private dinner with them later on.

Bhutan's King Jigme Khesa Namgyel Wangchuck and his wife Jetsun Pema have revealed the first photo of their baby son born on Feb 5 on a Facebook post on Tuesday (Feb 9). (AFP)

The 36-year-old King Jigme and his wife Jetsun, 25, both studied at Regent's College in England.

Both Jetsun Pema and Kate have a connection with airlines. The Bhutan queen’s father, Dhondup Gyaltshen, worked as an airline pilot.

Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema in front of thousands of residents gathered for the third day of their wedding ceremony. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, Kate’s father Michael Middleton worked as a flight dispatcher while her mother, Carole, was a flight attendant before starting their party supply company, Party Pieces.

Kate and Jetsun both are style icons in their respective countries.

They travel to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan on Thursday, before returning on Saturday to India's Taj Mahal - famously visited alone by his late mother, Princess Diana, in 1992.

To rhino sanctuary

Reuters

Britain's Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took a jeep safari on Wednesday through an Indian national park that is home to two-thirds of the world's dwindling population of one-horned rhinos.

Prince William and wife Kate, on a week-long tour of India and Bhutan, rode in an open-topped jeep through the Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam, spotting a pair of rhinos in a lagoon, as well as water buffalo and swamp deer.

Kate and her husband Prince William were attending a tea party in honour of the Queen's 90th birthday in New Delhi.

The royal couple was keen to learn about efforts to combat poachers and how the wildlife affects villagers living near the park, spread across an area of 430 square km (165 sq miles).

"We felt good when the prince came to the park. We are lucky to interact with the prince," said forest ranger Salim Ahmad, adding that William had asked about the problems faced in the park and anti-poaching efforts.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge got to play parents to vulnerable animals who were injured or orphaned in the wild. (Getty Images)

The thick-skinned, one-horned Indian rhinoceros is one of five species in the world. Global conservation group WWF estimates that fewer than 3,000 of the animals survive today. They are found mostly in northeastern India, with a few hundred in neighbouring Nepal.

The rhinos in Kaziranga live in swamps, forests and tall thickets of elephant grass, where poachers hide before trapping them with poison, or just shooting them dead.

(Getty Images)

William and Kate have already visited the Indian capital, New Delhi and the financial hub, Mumbai.