BHANDAVGARH & KANHA

 

BHANDAVGARH & KANHA NOVEMBER 2013

 

This is the first time we took a flight for our forest trip.  Early planning was very much required.   The whole trip was arranged for us by Infinite Journeys Pvt Ltd.  There website is www.infinitejourneys.co.in for your reference or bookings. 

3 of us left from Bangalore on the 13th of November 2013 early morning to catch a flight to Nagpur.   From Nagpur airport we were picked up by a cab to be dropped in Jabalpur to stay overnight.  We stayed in Narmada Jacksons A Grand Heritage Hotel for one night to continue our road journey to Bhandavgarh.

14th November morning after breakfast we headed to our first destination Bhandavgarh, which is approximately 170kms from Jabalpur. Reached Bhandavgarh in approximately 4 hours. Arrived at our resort Monsoon Forest www.monsoonforest.in exactly at 12.00pm.  

 

Here we should mention about the resort, we were given a royal treatment.  We were the only guests that day and so was the care given by the staff and the manager.  Very good service, food & hospitality.


The front portion of the tent we stayed in Monsoon Forest

 We left for our evening safari, was first to be in the gate. 

Outisde the gate waiting to enter the forest

Sharp at 2.30pm the gate opened we first sighted a group of spotted deers then some sambar deers and variety of birds like Lesser Adjutant Stork, Racket Tailed Drongo, Vulture, Grey Hornbill. 
Our eyes was still looking for some big cats but nothing that evening.  On the way back to the gate we had a sighting of Jungle Owlet.
 Some Langurs and Mongoose. 

Came back to the resort and relaxed in front of a bonfire and enjoyed early dinner and went to sleep.

 

15th November morning had a wake up call at 5.00am served with lovely coffee and left for the morning drive at 5.30am.  We were the first to reach the gate and entered dot at 6.30am. 

 

After an hours drive we were lucky, lots of vehicles in one area one jeep had spotted a tiger deep inside the bush, so all were waiting and all eyes looking the same spot. 

Suddenly vehicles started moving, there was a tiger which got up and started walking towards the dirt track, yes we did see the tiger a big one walking majestically towards the waterhole then towards the track again. It came close to our vehicle could see the paw of the tiger when she walked down the track.  All were Excited and thrilled.  Some where shouting don't make noise, but one of the vehicles started moving close to the tiger, and it vanished into the bush again.

But spotting of that tiger for atleast 10 to 15 mts was really enjoyable.
 

The whole day went off with that memorable experience and sharing of those fotos and talking about the tiger.  We did spot other small animals and birds as usual.

 

Next day the 16th morning we went on a different gate called Magdhi expecting to see some more tiger.  We did go first and the weather was too cold infact.  We spotted a Barking Deer first then lots of birds, since the guide was eager to show us tiger, he was pushing the vehicle as there was alarm calls from Langurs and Spotted Deers.  But no luck for us, probably tiger was looking at us.

 

Lesser Adjutant Stork

 

Common Hoopoe

We did spot lots of birds and again some spotted Deers.,

Indian Robin, Indian Roller, Peacock, Jungle cock, Peahen, Serpent Eagle, Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher & Stork.  Sun started coming out and no sighting of either tiger nor leopard. 

Indian Roller

Serpent Eagle

So our trip ended in Bhandavgarh and we left for Kanha in a cab booked by our agent.  

The drive was for about 7 to 8 hours.  Reached Kanha late in the afternoon, we stayed in Krishna Jungle Resort.  That evening was free for leisure.

Early morning 5.30 outside the Forest Entry Gate

18th November morning with same excitement left for morning safari at 5.30am from the lodge, waited in the gate.  Gate opened at 6.30am, it was too cold, we were completely covered except for the eyes and the nose.  This place is a paradise for bird watchers. 

 

Some of birds we saw are Indian Pond Heron, Green Beeeater, Red wattled Lapwing, Yellow Wattled Lapwing, Spotted Pigeon, Crescent Serpent Eagle, Alexandrine Parakeet, Greater coucal, Greater Racket Tailed Drongo, Black Drongo, Indian Treepie etc.,

Alexandrine Parakeet

Black Headed Oriole

 

Small Blue Kingfisher

 

Green Beeeater

18th after morning drive came back to the resort relaxed had breakfast, lunch etc., rested and left again at 2.30pm.  This afternoon drive was also not that successful keeping in mind the big cats.  Only birds, Sambar Deer, Spotted Deers with more birds like Grey headed bull bull, Jungle Babbler, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Black Ibis and so on. 

Spotted Owlet

19th Morning drive as usual but in a different gate called Mukki gate, started early and it was too cold as well fully covered and shivering inside the blanket we entered the gate with full hope.  After again seeing the regular birds, deers, for more than a hour without any excitement closing the eyes to sleep thinking usual drive and nothing to see, suddenly our guide stopped the vehicle and asked the driver to come back, since he saw some stripes inside the bush, after giving few minutes we did see a tiger getting up from behind that bush, it was a few hundred meters away, the engine stopped and we waited, just to our surprise we did see 2 more tigers in the same spot all playing, so we altogether saw 4 of them 3 cubs and a mom. 

 

The cubs were playing what a sight! one cub ran and climbed a small tree gave us a good sighting went down started playing. slowly more vehicles started coming to that spot then we had to leave.  Since it was a bit far the pictures are not that clear. 

 

 

We did proceed on our drive leaving other vehicles there thinking will come back after all the vehicles move out, but to our bad luck they all moved to the other side of the track where the bush was too thick and we could hardly see anything, waited and no luck.



But the excitement we did carry through.  It was nice, we took a video of the cubs playing eventhough its not very clear we do still enjoy watching that.

19th evening again tried our luck no cats only Jackals, Bisons.

 

Some more birds like Black Capped Kingfisher, Common Hoopoe, Indian Grey Hornbill, Common Golden Back Woodpecker, Black Headed Munia, Red Munia, Rufous backed Shrike, and more more.....

Black Headed Munia

 

 

Before the last drive ended we did sight a few Bara Singhas.

 

 More birds for your view

Indian Treepie

Pond Heron

20th morning had early breakfast packed our lunch from the resort and got into the cab to reach the airport to catch return fligt to Bangalore. It was a very memorable trip.

 

Red Munia



Black Capped Kingfisher, a very rare sight!!!!

 

 



 

 

 

Bhandipur June 2012

Baby enjoying mothers milk

Bhandipur - Excellent trip, better than Kabini.  Stayed in Junlge Lodges again.  JLR is actually outside the forest entry gate.  Good accommodation and food with service as usual.  

Only Jeep Safari in Bhandipur.  Usual evening and morning rides.  We stayed for 2 days here as well.  So we got 4 trips into the forest.  One in the morning and the other one in the evening for 2 days.

Elephant heard

Evening safari is quiet cool and good.  The weather was not hot at 3.30pm.  Inside the forest it was totally dry. 

Of course as  tradition the first thing you get to see is the Spotted Deers.  The above picture was one of the rare sighting.  The next we spotted a heard of Elephants with 2 small babies.  They came for the water hole which was completely dry and they kept moving.

TIGER, ha!ha!hah! we spotted a tiger in the next day morning safari.  Near a small water hole coming to drink.  As it was coming we did spot and without much noise our safari jeep moved a bit in the front and close to the water hole.  The thirsty tiger started drinking water, once the thirst was quenched, tiger went inside the water hole to get a nice cool dip for the whole body.  Sat in the water for atleast 1/2 hour, trying to make no noise the whole jeep was quiet and thrilled watching tiger so close.

What a pose

Relaxing and Cooling

Once cooled got up and started a low growling.  Our Safari driver said its calling the babies to come to the water, but they never came.  We in fact waited to see if they will also come out to drink with their mother.  But no luck, time was running out so we left and came back to lodge.

Growling tiger 

Tiger reaching the water hole

The next day morning at 7.00, we saw the same tiger again.  It was just reaching the water hole as you see in this picture.

The morning jeep carried a different group, all holding big zoom lenses trying to  capture the great moment in their cameras.  We both were thrilled again to see the tiger and this time we stayed there for a longer time.

Drinking water, see the reflection in the water

What a muscular body!  Fully grown female.  This was commented by driver who was also clicking pictures in his cell phone.

Same procedure the tiger followed, drinking water first and getting down in the water to get cool.  This time she was not sitting in the water for a long time, since there was something moving on the other side of the bush, which we did not realise.

Trying to see what is moving the other side of the bush

Came out sat for a little while on the banks of the water hole trying to see what is on the other side of the bush.  Few seconds it got up and moved again growling, this was little panicky.  Driver said may be because the babies are alone and something is moving.   Once the tiger moved out of our sight we saw the elephants, tamed ones walking slowly with their bell on the neck, so this was the cause for the tiger to be restless.

The trip came to an end, we felt a bit sad to leave the place since may be the tiger will come again to the same spot in the next drive.  Anyways time for us to leave.  Shared the pictures with the other guests in the JLR and left for Bangalore.  

Thekkady - Periyar Natural Reserves

THEKKADY

This is part of theWestern Ghats range and is located in the state of Kerala.  Its about 550 Kms from Bangalore http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bangalore,+Karnataka,+India+to+Thekkady+Wild+Corridor,+Kerala,+India&aq=0&sll=13.116747,77.577746&sspn=0.042548,0.055189&vpsrc=0&ie=UTF8&t=m&z=7  

 The roads were good in  September 2011 in spite of the monsoons earlier.  We did this distance in our Ford Figo aram se.  This was in the month of September 2011 and it was rainy season.  We stayed at Mahindra Resorts in Thekkady town. 

They have lots of activities, such as  Day Trips inside the forest, Camping inside the forest, Elephant rides, trekking etc., in Thekkady, but we chose to spend an entire day at the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.  We booked a 4x4 from our resort  alternatively you can book one from the Forest office- Kerala Forest Development Corporation Ltd (they are located near Mahindra Resorts).   You can find so many of them from the site.

We were picked up from the lodge at 6.00 in the morning.  We had a long drive to reach the entry gate of the forest.  The road from the city to the gate was not good.  We reached the gate at 6.30  & had a cup of chai.  The guide cum driver was registered our names against the vehicle number at the gate before entering the forest. 

It was green and very moist; to top the beauty, the sunlight was out just then.   The drivers here are not strict on anything.  They let you do anything (sometimes to our advantage but not always).  We don’t like throwing garbage in the forest, we won’t like people smoking inside the forest etc, but unfortunately these are possible here.  We hated the crowd who came in the other vehicles as they had no regard for the forest.

First, we spotted some Elephants just few kms as we entered; they were not on the road side but a little inside.  The vehicle was stopped we stepped down and went a bit inside to have a better view.  There were 4 or 5 of them .  Since the we were too many of us,  the elephants started moving to the other side.  The early spotting of those elephants relaxed our mind to while proportionately fuelling our interest.  Water streams, waterfalls, chirps of birds added to our experience.  Thekkady is full of ups & downs.  So the view is good.  

The driver was able to spot some Bisons & Sambar Deer on top of the cliff,   we then opened our Binocs and saw them.   It was quite a distance and tiny looking; so no videos or photos.  I have always wondered how these guides are able to spot something so minuscule to our sights.  Similarly, we again spotted a few elephants, but this time on the other side of the water stream inside the lush green.  Not a very clear view.  We continued our drive with some panoramic view of mountains and taking some snaps.

We reached a place called GAVI and office is named Gavi Eco Tourism.  I discovered  that they also have a website named gaviecotourism.com.  We had to register again in the office.  The officials are very kind and nice to you helping with all sorts of queries.  We learnt on packages offered while the breakfast was being prepared.  If you go for full day trip you will be provided with breakfast, lunch and tea with snacks.  The office  associated us with a guide; a guide who is dedicated to you for the entire day.  They follow strict timings for all food and trips.  Morning after breakfast we went for a drive by paying extra.  Lunch at 1.30pm follows the trek/drive  After relaxing for few minutes we were taken for a boat ride that lasted an hour or so. 

We took a drive inside (instead of trekking) since the talk of Leeches all over the forest due to the heavy rains was alarming/scary.  The drive into deeper pockets of the forest started at 9.30.  We spotted a huge herd of Bisons and some elephants again.  We also saw Nilgiri Langurs, Sambar Deer and Lion tailed Macaques, but all these were too far to photograh.  We drove for 3 hours and blesssed with no rains. 

As we returned to the office, the other groups who went trekking were excited showing some snaps in the digital camera.  We also peeked in and it was a tiger.  They spotted the tiger not very far from the beaten track which they took.  They were excited and sharing their moments with all of us.   While we were enjoying the delicious lunch, mist covered  the  entire space.  What a wonderful feeling!  

Boating was our next activity.  We saw cottages/tents already laid up at the banks where one could stay.  As you move further you will spot a huge water falls called Gavi Falls.  One shouldnt miss having a bath in this falls.  We thouroughly enjoyed ours.  After the shower in the falls we rowed back to the dining area.  You hardly see any animals on these stretches due to the movement of too many people.  We had tea, snacks and left the place for our lodge in our 4x4. 

We are planning to revisit this place in Dec, this time we want to go and stay at Gavi Eco Tourism place.   The accommodation looks attractive and also more opportunities to spot animals.   We will update soon.