So on Sunday, March 10th, Jason and I drove past Mysore to the Kabini River Lodge. They had warned us that the last 10 Kilometers (convert that to miles, kids) was a bit slow going. They told the truth. It was very bumpy no a hard dry rocky surface. The total trip took us 5 hours to go 220 Kilometers. That's an average of about 27 mph. One of the strange things about the arrangements for our stay is that the reservations were taken by, and paid to a kind-of travel agency, but the lodge is run by the governent and all the employees, from what I could tell, were government employees.
We arrived around noon, settled into our cabin, and went to dinner at 1:30. Before we left for our first safari ride, they told us about something amazing that had happened the day before that their rangers who had been there for 25 years had never seen. They saw a tiger kill a Ghar right in front of the tour jeep, about 50 feet away. Needless to say, we were pumped.
On our first safari, we started out by seeing some spotted deer, a ghar, and monkeys and some interesting birds (I'm going to have to get the names later). Then the jeep brought us to the sight the Ghar killing from the previous day and the Ghar was still laying on the ground but had not been eaten (at least the parts we could see). Then the tour guides claimed they saw a tiger and kept point to a place about 1 kilometer away. I could not see anything, but after about 5 minutes of searching with binoculars, I saw something that might have been a tiger. I thought, "is this what the safari is like? seeing things from a half mile away?" - My doubts would be answered a little while later. We did, however, see a hawk eagle land on the dead ghar as if it were going to eat some but it was so nervous, it just kept looking around.
The tour guides kept in touch by cell phone (yes, great cell service all over) and we heard about a leopard sighting. We drove to that area and saw a female leopard walking down the trail and we followed it (at a safe distance) and took pictures until it disappeared in the woods. Later we came back to that same spot and a we saw a male leopard (see pic below with blurry lump in the middle of the path). We stopped to take pictures and not disturb it but then the female leopard came out of the woods and tried her hardest to encourage the male to mate with her. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the male showed no interest. They said this is very rare to so. Then one of the jeeps in our group started their engine and then the male started chasing the female into the woods but it did not look like an amorous chase so the female sprinted about 50 feet up a tree in about 1 second (as if she were sprinting across the ground) and sat on a branch trying to figure out what to do. She seemed scared. The male remained at the bottom of the tree until we left for dinner. What an amazing experience!!!
Monday morning, we were woken up at 5:45 and were on a jeep around 6. That day we saw lots of the usual animals from the previous day but we did see 3 elephants, wild boar, a hawk eagle up from up close, and then we saw a tiger jogging into the woods. It was so cool to see all these animals in the wild. There are no fences in this wildlife preserve. After breakfast, we drove the 5 hours back to Bangalore and will leave first thing Tuesday morning for home.
I hope that everyone has enjoyed this blog so far. I will be enhancing it and posting pictures as soon as I can.
Cheers from India...
We arrived around noon, settled into our cabin, and went to dinner at 1:30. Before we left for our first safari ride, they told us about something amazing that had happened the day before that their rangers who had been there for 25 years had never seen. They saw a tiger kill a Ghar right in front of the tour jeep, about 50 feet away. Needless to say, we were pumped.
On our first safari, we started out by seeing some spotted deer, a ghar, and monkeys and some interesting birds (I'm going to have to get the names later). Then the jeep brought us to the sight the Ghar killing from the previous day and the Ghar was still laying on the ground but had not been eaten (at least the parts we could see). Then the tour guides claimed they saw a tiger and kept point to a place about 1 kilometer away. I could not see anything, but after about 5 minutes of searching with binoculars, I saw something that might have been a tiger. I thought, "is this what the safari is like? seeing things from a half mile away?" - My doubts would be answered a little while later. We did, however, see a hawk eagle land on the dead ghar as if it were going to eat some but it was so nervous, it just kept looking around.
The tour guides kept in touch by cell phone (yes, great cell service all over) and we heard about a leopard sighting. We drove to that area and saw a female leopard walking down the trail and we followed it (at a safe distance) and took pictures until it disappeared in the woods. Later we came back to that same spot and a we saw a male leopard (see pic below with blurry lump in the middle of the path). We stopped to take pictures and not disturb it but then the female leopard came out of the woods and tried her hardest to encourage the male to mate with her. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the male showed no interest. They said this is very rare to so. Then one of the jeeps in our group started their engine and then the male started chasing the female into the woods but it did not look like an amorous chase so the female sprinted about 50 feet up a tree in about 1 second (as if she were sprinting across the ground) and sat on a branch trying to figure out what to do. She seemed scared. The male remained at the bottom of the tree until we left for dinner. What an amazing experience!!!
Monday morning, we were woken up at 5:45 and were on a jeep around 6. That day we saw lots of the usual animals from the previous day but we did see 3 elephants, wild boar, a hawk eagle up from up close, and then we saw a tiger jogging into the woods. It was so cool to see all these animals in the wild. There are no fences in this wildlife preserve. After breakfast, we drove the 5 hours back to Bangalore and will leave first thing Tuesday morning for home.
I hope that everyone has enjoyed this blog so far. I will be enhancing it and posting pictures as soon as I can.
Cheers from India...
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