Thrilling Tadoba: Part III

 

Sunset in the forest

The evening safari was going to begin at 3.30pm, and we were all worried about going out in the sun at this time when the temperature would be around 40 deg C! But there was a lot of excitement as well. During the morning safari, we hadn't really spotted a sloth bear, but otherwise, it had been all about the herbivores and birds. Would the evening safari be as thrilling?

Spotted deer

The open gypsy picked us up from the resort as usual, and took us to the Junona gate, that would take us to the core zone. 

The safari started, and as we were passing through the jungle, we saw these tall, apparently ancient looking stone columns on either side. Our guide told us these were used as guiding stones for the mounted elephants in the ancient times. Once again, I was awed by the sheer amount of stuff to see and internalize in the jungle.

As we made our way through the jungle, we saw many spotted deers, sambars, wild fowl and langurs. The first thrill of the safari came when upon hearing the distress call of the sambar deer, we headed to a stream hidden behind a grove of trees. The keen eyes of our guide spotted a couple of wild dogs that were perhaps frolicking in the stream. I must admit that I was more keen to see the wild dog than I was about the other VIPs. After peering through the binoculars, I finally caught a glimpse of the reddish brown creatures. They were a lot smaller than I had imagined, and appeared pretty tame and cute! But one must never go by appearances. The wild dogs are one of the most aggressive and successful hunters of the jungle. 

A bird probably coming home

The next highlight was when we spotted a leopard lazing by another stream. It was too far away, and without the binoculars, it would have been really difficult to spot it. 

Then we headed to a watering hole and waited to sight the tiger. We waited, and waited, but no tiger came. But we did see a herd of Indian gaur, standing high up on the crest with the largest gaur in the herd that was probably the leader, cautiously surveying its surroundings. It would take a few steps towards the steep incline that led to the watering hole, then step back and look around. After doing so for several times, it turned back, probably deducing that it wasn't safe enough to go down and have a drink after all! The herd followed the leader, and it drove home the point that jungle is all about trying to survive.

Soon however, two little fawns of spotted deer peaked over the crest, looking through the gaps in the trees at us. The fawns weren't as cautious as the gaur, and quickly made their way down the steep incline to the watering hole, quenched their thirst, and disappeared behind the trees!

Indian gaur

After waiting for nearly an hour at the watering hole, our guide decided we needed to move on. We arrived at a large lake, and waited there, hoping to see a tiger before the day ended.

The sun was soon going to set, so we couldn't really afford to wait very long.

Just when we were about to leave, our guide spotted a tigress on a hillock, partially hidden by shrubs! And the best part? There were three little cubs with her!

They were too far away for the camera, but we had a good glimpse of the tigress playing with her little cubs through our binocs.

The sight thrilled us to bits, and we headed back to the resort feeling quite pleased.

I couldn't believe that we had managed to spot all the four VIPs-  tiger, leopard, sloth bear, and wild dog.

We had one more safari left the following morning, after which we would be heading back to Nagpur, thence to Pune.

Would the last safari disappoint us terribly after having sighted so many animals of the preceding ones, or would it be the best one yet?

Find out in the fourth and the final part of the blog!

Read Part I here, and Part II of our thrilling Tadoba adventure here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bhutan - The fulfilment of a long-held dream!

Image
Day 1 of the journey: Pune-Delhi-Bagdogra-Phuentsholing “Look guys! We are crossing over to the other side!” I exclaimed.   I could not keep the sadness out of my voice as we crossed the Bhutan Gate and ended our week-long sojourn with Bhutan. The sense of loss and longing only intensified just after travelling a few metres into Jaigaon, India   from Phuentsholing, Bhutan. On the Indian side of the gate, there were crowds, incessant honking, heaps of dirt, no respect for traffic rules. On the Bhutan side of the gate, there was a sense of calm, peace, quiet, clean streets, non-fictional zebra crossings, no litter, and respect for traffic rules. It seemed extremely hard to believe that these countries that share a border can be so drastically different. “It’s all due to the population,” our driver had informed us on the first day. “The population of whole of Bhutan is around 6-7 lakhs, but in India, even a small district will have a much larger population.” There was definite
Read more

How a road trip covering 2120 km gave me the courage to quit a job I hated- Final part

Image
Mangalore, Udupi and finally back to Pune! We had informed Jerry that we would be checking out a day earlier than planned, and we were eagerly looking forward to the prospect of visiting Mangalore. Since we were experiencing coast-withdrawal symptoms, we decided to cut short our stay in Mangalore by one day and go to Udupi instead. We booked a beach resort called Paradise Isle beach resort, and were eagerly looking forward to spending some time, albeit short, on the beach. After a quick breakfast, we hit the road around 8.30 am. The distance from Wayanad to Mangalore is approximately 260 kilometers and according to our calculations, we would be able to cover this distance in approximately five hours. Upon inquiring, Jerry and Mr. Joseph were of the opinion that we should climb down the ghat and take the coastal route, which was easier of the two, and hence less chances of us getting lost on unknown roads. Having ignored sage advice once on the way to Mysuru, we decided to take the
Read more

Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib- 1

Image
Though strictly not a road trip, the unique travel experience bears sharing! Socially awkward, shy or even reticent.. all these are the words I would use to describe myself. I painted this water-colour of VoF from a picture off the internet.. and it made me want to see the valley for myself! Yet I chose 'realistic' (with a little help from the bestie) as a prefix for my name; as the word that describes me the best in a game our trek leader made us play after the first day's trek was done. The game was an ice-breaker and designed to familiarize ourselves with our trek-mates. Each of us was supposed to prefix our name with an adjective, preferably starting with the same letter as our first name and recall all the adjectives along with the names repeated. After walking 12 kilometers (all uphill) and having gained an elevation of just over 5000 ft, my muscles were screaming as we sat crossed legged on the corridor of the guest-house in Ghangria, from where we
Read more