Bandhavgarh: Tiger State

Day 1

I say goodbye to the lodge with a good taste for the treatment received, the food, and the room but very angry for not having seen the tigers. As usual, the driver arrives late. After less than five minutes of getting into the car, when we have not yet left the Kanha town, we have to stop to have a punctured tire repaired.

Luckily, these people have a great practice and skill for these things that must be very usual, and in less than 10 minutes we are on route. We have a long and boring journey ahead, with a monotonous landscape and a conduction not suitable for cardiac. Finally, after a stop on the road to see some trees from which hundreds of bats hang, we arrived at noon at the new lodge near Bandhavgarh National Park. Nothing to do with the previous one, this one is dirty, dusty, old and neglected.

I say goodbye to the driver. Given that the arrival time is adequate, I try to talk to the agency to organize a safari for this afternoon. They are so obtuse that there is nothing to do, until tomorrow. So, I go to eat. There are not much customers in the lodge (no wonder), and I have to eat under the watchful eye of the owner. The food (the usual) is not terribly bad, but I have eaten better at the earlier one. At least they give me a bottle of water for the meal and I do not have to ask.

After lunch, I go for a walk to the town, to see if there is something interesting to see. I see a couple of stores, an internet cafe, many animals on the street and several hungry dogs rummaging through the piles of garbage. It is very hot, so I do not prolong the walk too much and I go back to the hotel to take a nap.

I read books all afternoon. When it's time for dinner, I go to the dining room. Before they serve me, I ask the owner to pack the breakfast tomorrow on a hot box, to take it to the safari and eat in the park. The food served for dinner suspiciously resembles what is left over at noon, duly tuned and camouflaged but yes, they give me another bottle of water.

I can see that they are going to charge me. At the lodge there are a lot of employees, but I am the only guest and it does not seem like it will change. Nor is anyone seen doing anything. Only the owner and the kid who serves the meals work. Tomorrow I have a safari at 5:30 in the morning. So I put the alarm clock at 4:30 and I retire soon to sleep.

Day 2

We rest a few hours before catching at 11:00 am the bus to Tala, which is the access to the National Park.

In the hotel, we paid for the safari to the park to have more possibilities to see tigers, including the entry to the park, the guide, and the jeep. The jeep can be shared to make it cheaper, but we did not find anyone and we were alone. It is the park with the highest density of tigers in India and where the chances of seeing them are greater (even so it is quite difficult to see them).

We drive about a quarter of an hour to the entrance office of the national park. Here the jeeps gather. Now it is time to wait for a driver to return with the entry permit. We were lucky because we saw a lot of animals like the Barasingha deer, wild boars, peacocks, langur monkeys, and jackals.

A kingfisher is posing, almost as ordered, on a branch. The sun slowly shining through the clouds lit its plumage. Later we see on a river a smaller kingfisher, which according to our guide is anything but ordinary. To see it is more of a matter of luck. Termite heaps stand around everywhere. Unfortunately, we do not see a tiger, but we see its traces in the sand along the wayside. It had probably passed here in the morning.

Then our guide learns from another driver that a sloth bear has been seen nearby. Quickly we go to see the bear.
After about 10 minutes drive, we actually see some dark brown bear walking through the forest at some distance. Unfortunately, it is always covered by trees and bushes, and if not, we usually only see a brown spot in the distance. Our guide tells us that it is very rare to see a sloth bear here.

At lunchtime it starts to rain, as a thunderstorm passes by and we consider whether it makes sense to go on safari under these circumstances. At 2 o'clock it is really dark and it is impossible to take pictures. I talk to the guide. There is a hood for the jeep, so at least we stay dry. But we can see practically nothing under the hood.

In the late afternoon we ventured on another safari. The rain also has something good, as there is no more dust covering everything and everyone with a red layer. We watch a short-toed eagle still holding its prey in its claws, a pit viper whose head he has bitten. The vultures and owls sit on the trees, usually too far away to take useful photos, but with the binoculars we can look at everything perfectly.

Our driver stops. He saw tiger marks in the sand. We continue slowly. Again we stop. Our guide tells us he heard an alarm call. This is what the Hanuman langurs expel when they notice a predator in their vicinity. Then we see a big line of jeeps standing. At a distance, maybe 30 m, a tigress sneaks through the forest. After a few minutes, she disappears from our field of vision. We later learn that she is a mother of four children.

We could not believe it, the first time we entered and see a tigress with four cubs. We saw them thanks to the alarm call by deer and monkeys when there is a tiger nearby. Despite being about 20m away and between the trees, we were astonished seeing them. We met people who had entered 3 or 4 times and had not seen any, so we felt lucky.

It was quite cold on the jeep, when the hood was removed. The safari ends with a sunset before we have to drive out. At nightfall, we are back at the hotel. We sit on our terrace in the evening. I feel cold. The hotel does not even have a heater. Before dinner, we talked to an elderly couple. They visit several national parks each year where they might see tigers.

But they really saw a tiger for the first time today. Slowly we realize that we had unlucky luck when we saw the Tiger in Ranthambhore. Before dinner, we can still see a BBC movie in the in-house cinema. A photographer spent 15 years filming tigers, but until last year he was unable to film a tiger on the run for its prey and we almost had it in front of the lens. I have the dinner and go to bed early. Despite winter clothes and a blanket, I still freeze.

Day 3

It's 4:30 in the morning and it's cool. It is still dark, and I am afraid that the hot water for the shower does not work very well. There is a knock at the door, but when I open it there is nobody. They have left some buns and cups with coffee and infusions to warm me up. Something is something. I go out to wait for the guide of the safari well sheltered. I request some blankets to take in the car, that I suppose will be a convertible jeep like in Kanha.

With breakfast, they give me a bottle of water. With the usual delay, the jeep arrives and I sit, keeping breakfast at my feet to go biting. The park is not far, although the road to get to the entrance has endless bumps, and at the time of opening doors (6:15), we are already waiting. It consists of 6 different zones, and we are assigned one. The park's fauna is one of the poorest I've seen here.

At 8 o'clock, we stop for breakfast and continue going around without meaning on the roads of the park. The doors close at 10 o'clock in the morning incomprehensibly, and even after lunch we cannot resume the safari. Of course, they offer the possibility (paying extra), for a safari and trekking combo from 11 to 5.

I return to the lodge quite pissed off as usual, and after visiting the services, as it is too early to eat, I go to the village for a walk. In the backpack I carry some leftovers of food that I give to the dogs that roam the street and they begin to follow me wherever I go.

At noon I return to the lodge, to take a shower and to eat. I take a nap. For the afternoon safari, they give me another bottle. I have a collection of full bottles of water, because I have hardly finished the first two. This afternoon we are assigned another zone. The doors open at 2:30. During the safari in the afternoon, we see some monkeys and some deer, and a splendid sunset.

I am beginning to be sure that the tigers in India is only a myth. They have been extinct for some time, but silly tourists like me continue to believe in them. I go back to the lodge for dinner. I ask for breakfast tomorrow in picnic format again, and some fruit for dessert. After dinner, the owner passes me a note with what I have to pay. I give him back all the water bottles I had in the room and I do not pay him anything for them.