Our first Tigers
22.10.2010
Friday 22nd October
Up at 4.45am with Masala Chai and biscuits. Our morning safari is a slight disappointment. Plenty of deer, wild boar and Langurs. Even some fresh Tiger pugmarks, but no sign of the king of the jungle.
Nonetheless the 4WD journey is quite exciting in its own right and the early morning is stunning.
The middle of the day is our own and Jake and I swim and read in the sun, while Sarah relaxes.
After another huge lunch we set of into Zone 1 for the second time today and soon find fresh pugmarks on a trail, but no Tiger. We have good sightings of most other large mammals, including our first barking deer. Then with on an hour left a jeep heading towards us signals they have seen two tigers lying in open ground only 2km away. We head off as fast as the uneven tracks will allow.
When we arrive there are already four other jeeps in attendance, but we get a clear view of two juvenile tigers at about 200 metres distance, lying in a maidan, just in the buffer zone. We feel relieved and excited and take many photos and view them through our binoculars.
Our quest to see tigers in the wild achieved, we head high up in the Bandhavgarh hills to witness a spectacular sunset, with the sun forming a perfect orange disc in the sky. It was a sunset the like of which I have never seen in Europe.
On the way to the park exit we stop at an ancient rock dwelling, where we are shown hundred of great eastern horseshoe bats, both hanging from the ceiling and flying.
It’s been a full day and we head for the hotel.
