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.