India, part 4

Up early and in our vehicle by six. Allwyn is our driver/guide, and I believe Elizabeth is still with us. Allwyn goes back to the grassy fields where we looked for the tigress and her three cubs yesterday. I should mention that the guides pinpoint the area where a tiger might be by listening to alarm calls that spotted deer, langur monkeys, and sambar deer make if they see or smell a tiger. Allwyn stops the vehicle every so often so he and the ranger can listen for alarm calls. We have also learned to recognize the anxious cries from the animals. Particularly those made by the spotted deer.

   When no alarm calls are heard, we continue driving on various roads. Allwyn turns off on a side road where there is a dozen jeeps parked ahead of us. Some of the jeeps are situated further down the road facing the group that we join. There is a large gap of maybe thirty yards between the two clusters of vehicles. Obviously, there is a tiger somewhere. I hear and soon spot an elephant crashing through the brush in a small gorge to the right of us. The patrol guy is yelling on occasion and soon we catch a glimpse of the tiger in the undergrowth.

   Before long the elephant patrolman “herds” the tiger out of the trees and the beautiful cat amicably strolls across the road in the gap left between the safari jeeps. He disappears quickly into the forest. Well, that was cool.

   Yesterday I suspected that the elephant patrol guys weren’t really wanting to get a close look at the tiger for health reasons but were trying to force him into the open. After this encounter there is no doubt in my mind that the elephant patrol really is herding cats for the benefit of tourists! Amazing when you think about it, that a tiger can be driven by an elephant. The question for me, is it right?  Perhaps the answer is yes because they need tourists to come to the tiger reserves. It is tourist money which helps save the tigers and help the local economy. If the visitors report that they saw no tigers will tourists continue to come to the tiger reserves?

   Since we are in the back of the pack, getting a photo of the tiger without a human in it is not easy. I believe Joy and her jeep companions were in the front row, so they got a great look. No phone use allowed when in a crowd so Joy couldn’t get a photo of the young tiger. Joy’s old point and shoot camera she brought to use instead of her phone broke, I believe the first day we got to the park. This tiger turns out to be one of the cubs that are still “legally” with their mother.

    After our tiger encounter, Allwyn takes us up to see the recumbent Lord Vishnu statue situated at the base of a hill in the park. Paul and I visited this place on our last India adventure, and the site is as impressive as we remembered. The statue is sixty-five foot long and carved from a single piece of sandstone rock. This is the only place in the park where you can legally leave your vehicle, except for rest room areas. There are a set of steps that lead to the incredible Indian sculpture which is believed to date back to the tenth century. We are the only people here, so this adds to the peaceful solitude of the sacred place.

 After enjoying this extraordinary place, Allwyn begins the hunt for more tigers. We go to park by a waterhole along with other vehicles but leave after a short period of time. We drive along a road and see a couple of jeeps sitting alongside the road. The guides are pointing towards a grove of trees bordering a field of tall grass, obviously trying to show their guests where to look. Allwyn speaks with the guides, and they say there is a tigress in that area. I actually get lucky and see her for a brief moment as she walks through a gap in the trees. Paul and Elizabeth missed her quick appearance.

   There are elephants close by and since Allwyn leaves and drives back to the water hole I suspect our guide suspects what the elephant drovers are going to try and do.  We wait patiently while several other jeeps come to the pond, sit a few minutes and then leave. Soon we hear and then see an elephant in the trees on the far side of the water hole. Before long, the sister to the male tiger we saw yesterday, walks towards the water hole. For a minute we think the magnificent tigress is going to go to the water and drink, but she just walks along the pond and then retreats into the cover of the trees. We have a great vantage point for this tiger encounter plus there isn’t a huge crowd of tourists. We have a leisurely drive back to camp enjoying the deer and other wildlife along the way.

We do not eat breakfast in the park this morning but return to camp and have brunch. We enjoy omelets and other side dishes. When we finish eating, Paul and I go back to our room and finish packing. We take our luggage out and give it to a couple of guys who will take it to the transport vehicles.

   Paul and I make our way to the headquarters to await instructions from Allwyn for the next leg of our adventure. In the meantime, the staff brings out a birthday cake for Carolyn and we sing happy birthday to her. The cake was delicious!

   After we all finish eating cake, Allwyn informs us that our drive to Kanha National Park will take around five and a half hours. Yikes, although there will be incredible things to see along the road, I am not looking forward to another round of driving in India. Once Allwyn has finished talking, everyone heads down to the departure point to claim a vehicle. Paul and Joy are visiting the restroom before we leave so we three are the last to arrive in the parking area. Oh heck, there are five vehicles that hold the driver and three passengers. Our group has six couples so that means one couple must ride in different vehicles. That would be Paul and I! I am a little unhappy but there is nothing to be done about it. Paul and I have to do some trading out of our backpacks so we both have our water bottles, tablets and our seat cushions. I crawl into the backseat of the jeep and find my companions are Mike and Aimee. Our driver looks really young!

    Mike is a storyteller and I listen to some adventures that the couple have had. Okay, no way would I do some of the things they have done! After about an hour of listening to Mike, I have also been watching the traffic we are driving in. We have had some close calls which have elicited some audible gasps from me. I pull out my tablet and begin reading my book, so I don’t have to watch the road. I stop reading whenever we drive through a village and try to take pictures of the colorful life along the village streets.

    It is getting dark when we reach Kanha Jungle Lodge. I learn from Paul that they were nearly in a wreck! A car was passing a truck, and their driver had to go onto the shoulder to avoid being hit. Paul was riding with Linda and Ron. I think all of them were pretty scared and who wouldn’t be! After talking with Linda, I think the road trips and the way the people drive here, scare her as much as it scares me.

   There are staff waiting for us in the arrival area to greet us and gather our luggage. We are given our room number, and a staff member leads us to our room. The young man that accompanied us, shows us where the light/fan switches are located among some other helpful instructions. I am so tired that I tell Paul I am not going up to supper. Paul has them bring me a light meal, soup and a couple of small chunks of chicken. It is plenty. Paul doesn’t linger after eating as I would guess no one does because everyone is tired. Our room is nice, but we realize we have no air conditioning. Surprisingly, the room is comfortable with just a ceiling fan.

   We will have the same routine in Kanha as we did in Bandhavgarh. Up early, eat some porridge than off on our first game drive in Kanha. I am excited to see this new park.

India, part 5

    After a decent night’s sleep, finally, Paul and I go to the dining area where Joy as usual is already there along with a few others of our group. How early do these people get up?

   Paul and I serve ourselves porridge and seeing no juice we ask for some. The server disappears and after ten minutes or so comes back with two huge glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. We feel terrible as we assumed the man would just go get the boxes of juice they gave us at our bush breakfasts at Bandhavgarh. I force myself to drink all of the juice after the fellow went to all that trouble, but it wasn’t easy to do.

    Paul and I again have Elizabeth in our jeep and our driver is Krishna. Krishna has a happy personality accentuated with a big smile. We also are accompanied by the managers son, Jay, of the Kanha Jungle Lodge. Our first three lodges on this trip are owned and operated by the same family who are related to the man, Kailash Sankhala, who made the push for tiger reserves staring back in 1956. I believe Jay is a great-great grandson of Kailash.

   We pick our local ranger up along the way to the entrance of the park. Soto introduces himself and he too is smiling and laughing as he climbs into the vehicle. Once we enter the park it isn’t long before our three guides hear spotted deer emitting alarm calls in the vicinity of a large grassland area. The Sambar deer that are near us are definitely on alert too but not calling.

   After sitting patiently with nothing happening, Krishna decides to check another area where we see deer running but not necessarily because they are frightened. Again, no tiger shows itself, so we head back to the large meadow area. Once we arrive, we see a huge number of jeeps lining the road. Krishna maneuvers us into a great spot where no one is blocking our view. A massive tigress is striding through the field right towards us and eventually she walks right by us! The stunning cat steps into the road and walks down the road for several yards. Krishna hurriedly turns the jeep around and we end up right behind the nonchalant tigress, following her at a comfortable distance.

    The big cat leaves the road and enters the meadow that is on the opposite side from which she came. There is beautiful light playing over her striped body. When we run into Joy later, she tells us that their jeep was the first to find the tigress. I believe she was laying down when they found her. Lucky them to see her without the traffic jam.

   We see a lot of deer and besides the Spotted and Sambar deer, there is a Swamp deer found here which is an endangered species. Kanha is one of the few places where these deer can be seen in good numbers. Swamp deer are cool to watch as they completely submerge their heads under the water to graze on whatever is growing on the bottom of the ponds.

    Krishna and Jay are knowledgeable about everything so we are enjoying listening and learning from them. Not that I will remember most of the education they are giving us! They also are good about stopping to let us enjoy all the animals we encounter. We sit and observe a Langur monkey and her baby that Krishna says is three or four days old. We watch the baby, (man they have big ears), as it plays, stares at us, and scratches his rear end, making us all laugh.

    Krishna drives us to a rest stop where our guides set the breakfast on the hood of the jeep. There is one dish that has some type of vegetable coated in batter and deep fried. There are a few fried green beans laying on top. I ask Krishna if this food is spicy, meaning the batter-coated vegetables. He replies that they aren’t quite as hot when they are deep fried. I decide to forgo them and opt for the green beans. I take a big bite and chew half of a green bean. Holy smokes literally, I wonder if flames are coming out of my mouth. My throat catches fire and soon my chest even feels hot plus my eyes are watering. I can’t remember who informed me that what I was eating was a green chili not a green bean. In my defense these chilis look just like green beans! I eat some of my sandwich and drink juice and water so eventually the burning sensation calms down. I can’t taste much; I hope my taste buds recover.

   On our drive after breakfast, Krishna was telling a few funny stories about some of his clients making us all laugh. I told him he had a new story to tell about the dumb American woman who ate a green chili because she thought it was a green bean. We are all laughing and Krishna states I told you it was hot. Which makes us all laugh harder.

    When we return to camp several of us, including Joy, take a walk that leads to the river with Dimple, Jay’s mother and the lodge manager. Dimple talks about various things including weaver ants which are amazing. Basically, the ants make their homes by “stitching” leaves at the end of a tree branch together. The river view is lovely, and, on the way, back Dimple shows us a couple of places in the fence where tigers crawl through and stroll through the grounds of the lodge, usually at night.

   We leave for our afternoon safari with Krishna, but I don’t remember if Jay is with us or who our assigned ranger is. I haven’t mentioned how dusty the roads are, so when there are a lot of jeeps driving the same road most of us have a handkerchief or mask over our nose and mouth. It is a good thing that they have laundry at the lodges for a very reasonable price, because our clothes are covered in red dust by the end of the day.

   This afternoon Krishna takes us down various roads, but we don’t see a lot of wildlife. I think it is too hot. We do have a mongoose cross the road, but he is too fast for me to get a photo. When we are heading for the gate, there is a humongous gaur lying next to some water, chewing his cud. Before we reach the park gate, Krishna gets a call from someone telling him the tigress is out in the open. Krishna races back, and I am not kidding when I say he races, to the grass field we were at this morning. The light is very dim, but we see the tigress, strolling along a fence in the distance. A good way to end the day.

   If memory serves me right, and anymore that is questionable, Joy and her group were among the first jeeps if not the first jeep to find this gorgeous tigress again.

    Tonight Dimple shows us a film featuring her great-grandfather Kailash Sankahala, that talks about his drive to save the tigers in India. Some of the film shows the brutality of the British in slaughtering tigers when India was under there rule. I couldn’t even watch some of the carnage. The film made you appreciate the determination of Mr. Sankhala which covered decades to save the Bengal tiger in India.

   Tonight we are dining outdoors where the staff has lanterns hanging everywhere. Paul attempts to take a photo of the beautiful setting but all he gets is a bright glare. A nice ending to another wonderful day.