[Stryker]

Ring, ring, ...
Me: Hello?
He: Sir, there was a cancellation at the last minute. Do you want to join the tour this weekend?
Me: Send me the payment link!

Thus starts an improptu tour of Kabini. I don't need a second invitation to go there, in fact I don't need any invitation! It is my second home after all. The call is from Toehold, one of the best wildlife tour operators in the country. Apparently, someone has cancelled their booking for whatever reason and the co-ordinator checks if I'm interested. It's been a long time since I went to Kabini with Toehold, almost all my trips in the last three years have been with friends or family. It will make a nice change to go with a group of dedicated photographers again. Leading the tour is Jayanth Sharma, co-founder of Toehold and photographer extraodinaire. Look up his work when you have the time. Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated to Toehold and neither am I promoting their services in any way.

We reach Kabini on 16th April afternoon, after the usual drive via Mysore Road. The six laning work is in full swing and currently the highway is very boring to drive on, with frequent detours to the partially completed service roads. Rarely are you on the highway proper at all. What is normally an approximately four hour drive takes me more than five hours this time. Once the highway is completely ready, maybe about a couple of years later, I should be able to cover the distance in around three hours. Looking forward to that. Door-to-door from my home to JLR Kabini is 225 kms.

This place is hot! Very humid too, given that it has been raining on and off for the past couple of days. Somehow this year seems hotter than all the previous ones, even though the records say that other years have been hotter. Maybe it is the confinement that is adding to the impression of heat? In any case, we quickly check-in, have lunch and get ready for the first safari. They have moved the starting point from the usual Golghar to the reception area. Apparently, this happened a couple of months ago, for reasons best known to the forest department. If you ask me, it was much more convenient earlier to have a cup a coffee and board the vehicle at Golghar than here. Now they staff have to carry heavy coffee/tea containers all the way to the reception and then setup shop quite a distance away from the vehicles.

The resort is packed with tourists and photographers. Summer is always a good time to visit, as the cats will be roaming in search of water or will be settled in the water to get some respite from the heat. The earlier restriction of 50% vehicle occupancy has been removed and it is back to eight people in the open vehicles. Although everyone (staff, drivers and tourists) are wearing masks, there is not much enforcement or checking either at the resort or at the forest gates. I personally think it is much safer in Kabini than in Bangalore or any major city, given how it is spreading wildly in urban areas. Some of the regular visitors have pulled out citing safety reasons, but there are several others raring to go.

Anyway, enough rambling and on to the photos. We don't have much luck on the first evening safari, the forest is unusually quiet. All the vehicles are darting here and there and checking with each other whether someone saw something. "Enu movement illa" is the response everywhere (no movement anywhere). So when a tusker is spotted, there are about six or seven vehicles crowding him. A majestic creature, isn't he?



He gets a little irritated by the vehicles constantly moving around and decided to do a practice charge or what is technically called a "mock charge" at one particular vehicle, maybe for coming a little too close. He trumpets at the top of his considerably loud voice and runs threateningly behind the vehicle, which accelarates away smartly. There's relieved laughter when the elephant back away, but I'm sure the occupants of the vehicle were praying to every God they knew and some they didn't too.



Nothing else happens on the safari. This is the high point.

The next day morning, we hit a road block. A different and bigger tusker, blocking our road to the back waters. He refuses to move and we have no option but to take an alternate route.



Which is turning out in our favour, as we are now crusing along the EPT (Elephant Protection Trench) which we wouldn't have if that elephant has deigned to move. And we come across a sub-adult tiger sitting on a slight rise, waiting to go down to the small water body below. Probably resting after a long morning walk.



Some jockeying for position ensues. The path at this point is very narrow and another bus is coming in the opposite direction. All this leads us closer to the tiger and I get this.



Looks regal, doesn't he? And he is not even fully grown. After a longish wait, he gets up to go to the water, but gets distracted by some Spotted Deer off to the side.



He decides to take a chance in hunting them down and slinks off into the forest. He isn't successful, we can hear the deer calling out in alarm and running away as soon as they spot him. He does return after that, but doesn't come down to the water. Just walks back in to the thick undergrowth again.



While all this is happening, there are a bunch of peacocks behind us trying their best to impress the ladies. This particular girl seems to have set very high standards for herself. I think he is impressive, don't you?



Nothing happening anywhere else this morning, so we go back to JLR and a heavy breakfast. There is absolutely nothing to do in JLR, no pool, no sports, nothing, unless you want to roam around the propertly trying to spot the many birds that are always around. But it is too hot for such strenuous activity, so I get some sleep.

We are back in the forest after lunch for the afternoon safari. Just a few minutes into the drive, we see a vehicle parked and all its occupants pointing their cameras to the side and upwards. That only means one thing when you are in Kabini. Leopard in the trees!



She seems to have had a good lunch herself and is up there trying to relax. The sound of the vehicles arriving keeps disturbing her, maybe she is still getting used to the life of a superstar.



Just to give you an idea of where she is actually resting. Leopards can climb trees so quickly and so high that you are left wondering how they got there in the first place.



Some shuteye at last! There are quite a number of vehicles now, but surprisingly no one is making too much noise. I'm happy that she can sleep peacefully for a few minutes.



After maybe about 15 minutes, she decides she has had enough siesta time and wants to come down.



That is easier said than done, you might think, but not for a leopard. She comes down quick as a flash and that stupid tree trunk is in the way for me to get good photos. Trees should be banned in forests, if you ask me All they do is come in the way of good photos!



So off we go again, searching for more action. We are hearing a lot of calls from deer but they all seem to be coming from deep inside the forest. Maybe a tiger is moving around inside somewhere. We don't get to see it. But we do get to see a beautiful Indian Roller scratching itself. It is not all about the glamour cats, there are many other creatures big and small that are worthy of our attention.



It is now very late in the evening, a few minutes past the time we should be heading out actually. There is a documentary filming crew waiting by the Bislewadi lake a large water body inside the forest. They say that a tiger went in to drink some water and may be coming out soon. The driver says we can wait for a few minutes and no more. The tiger doesn't return, so we have to drive back. Just a few meters down the road and he excitedly whispers "Tiger, tiger, tiger!!" The best three words you can hear when you are in the forest! There is a huge full grown male tiger, easily one of the biggest I have seen, sniffing for scent marks.



I check the time, it is 6:40 pm, almost dark. We can barely see the tiger, my camera is having trouble focusing. Some jugglery with the settings, open the aperture to its widest f/5.6, boost the ISO to a ridiculous 12800, drop the exposure to -0.7 and I get a decent shutter speed of 1/100. This explains the slightly washed out colours of all high ISO images. Nothing a little Photoshop and a good denoiser program like Topaz DeNoise AI can't fix.

He crosses the road in front of us, barely twenty meters away. We have to reverse a bit to ensure we get good photos.



He looks dirty because he's been sitting in the shallow water probably all afternoon to escape the heat. Don't know what he would do if he shifted to Ranthambore. Probably wouldn't get out of the water at all!



Does number two across the road. No manners, these wild fellows! But then, if we follow him into the toilet too, what else can he do? And see what I mean about trees? What business does this one have here?



Sniffs another tree on the other side, checking again whether the recent rains have washed away his scent marks. Decides that this particular tree needs to be reminded who is king here, so refreshes his unique cologne on it. More trees in the foreground, they are being very un-co-operative today.



Deed done, territory reclaimed, he vanishes into the undergrowth for a night of revelry and whatever it is that tigers do after the sun goes down. And we high five each other, while our driver races to the exit. We are way past regular exit time and we hear some choice advice from the forest guards at the gate, but we are let off without any problems. Places like Bandhavgarh, such delays will cause the vehicles to be banned from entry. Kabini is gentler that way.

The last safari of the trip. Sunday morning. Jayanth decides that we will go in search of the fabled Back Water Female who is raising her second litter of three cubs. These are now almost ready to separate from her and we would love to have a final glimpse of them together. While we are searching for her, we come across several other interesting scenes.

Like this Changeable Hawk Eagle, who thinks "If an owl can do it, so can I" and turns his head a full 180 degrees.



A cute Indian Muntjac or the Barking Deer, normally a very shy animal, checks out my lens looking at her.



A peacock, perched regally on a stump, looks a bit aloof.



In all my trips to Kabini over the last decade and a half, I've seen vultures maybe three or four times. And even then, a single specimen perched or flying around. Never have I seen them together like this. In fact, the tree in which they are sitting contains several more of them. Must be an abandoned kill down below where we can't see it. Sighting these most un-glamorous carrion birds makes this trip worth it by itself. Needless to say I have several good photos of these birds.



A small group of elephants on the back waters, there are a few more off to the side.



And just when we are thinking "OK we seem to have missed the lady" she puts in an appearance. There is a lot of alarm calls going on, so her brood is somewhere around. Not following her as usual. Gentlemen, this is the legendary Back Water Female version 2.0, successful mother, survivor par excellence, unparalleled huntress and one graceful tigress. Her mother was version 1.0 and she was even more legendary, if that is possible.



She walks straight towards us, allowing me this head on shot



She then goes off to the side, looking for her wayward children, who are sitting down in a dip of the land behind us where we can't see them clearly. But they are very much there.



Here are a couple of photos by another photographer, G. Satish, who was lucky enough to be in another vehicle which reached the spot a few minutes ahead of us. They were able to spot the Mom and her three kids together.



And it was his very first visit to Kabini, as well as his first wildlife safari! Talk about beginner's luck!



Thus ends another fruitful visit to my favourite place in the world. As always, my equipment is the Nikon D500 and the Nikkor 200-500mm lens. Been a few months since my last visit and with things going the way it is with the stupid virus, I'm sure it will be another few months before I return here again. Until then these memories will have to suffice.

As ever, I hope you people enjoy these photos as much as I enjoy taking them. Until next time then, bye and drive safe.

[aah78]

Note from Support: Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues section. Thanks for sharing!

[Dr.AD]

Absolutely fantastic photographs, and you had some great sightings! Thank you for sharing.

Originally Posted by Stryker

Ring, ring, ...
It will make a nice change to go with a group of dedicated photographers again. Leading the tour is Jayanth Sharma, co-founder of Toehold and photographer extraodinaire. Look up his work when you have the time.

Wow. Amazing coincidence. I also did a Kabini trip with Jayanth Sharma just a couple of weeks ago and had a great experience. In fact, we saw the same tiger and leopard you saw. The leopard sleeping on the tree photo reminded me of the almost identical photo we got. Looks like that is a usual place for the leopard to sleep. Also, the tiger spotting circumstances (bus coming in the opposite side on the narrow lane etc) sounds identical to our experience. I could be wrong but I feel the tiger location is again the same as where we saw that tiger.

Looks like these are the typical locations for these animals to come out and hang out in the hot summer months, and in general, hot summers are the best times to spot these animals.

Once again, fantastic photos!!

[jkrishnakj]

What a lovely travelogue to begin the day. Superb pictures. If sighting one wolf cat was to give a smile that you can’t wipe off, I wonder what the feeling is when you sight the full family.

I was on waitlist for the long weekend in April and couldn’t manage accommodation.

Great narration and superb clicks. Loved it. Thank you.

[AtheK]

Beautiful pics indeed, we were in Kabini last month and were able to spot a tiger and leopard too. It was my first sighting and felt nice. I have an age old DSLR that I was carrying and this is all I could muster. It was early morning and very foggy.



Your photos are at another level and so lucky for so many spotting, it was amazing to see it through your lens, thanks for sharing.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

...In fact, we saw the same tiger and leopard you saw...

Thanks Dr.AD. I saw your thread detailing your visit to JLR Kabini with Jayanth. There are quite a few tigers and leopards in the park and it would be a huge coincidence if you spotted the same tiger and leopard! But you never know, I guess it is possible too.

Originally Posted by jkrishnakj

Great narration and superb clicks. Loved it. Thank you.

Thanks jkrishnakj

Originally Posted by AtheK

Your photos are at another level and so lucky for so many spotting, it was amazing to see it through your lens, thanks for sharing.

Thanks AtheK

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by Stryker

[i]Ring, ring, ...

He looks dirty because he's been sitting in the shallow water probably all afternoon to escape the heat. Don't know what he would do if he shifted to Ranthambore. Probably wouldn't get out of the water at all!

Amwesome pics! Any wildlife TL in this time always is a delight. Voted 5*

BTW - this is what you would see in Ranthambhore

[naveenvenkatesh]

Fantastic pictures Stryker.
I was with Jayanth from 18th to 20th. It rained black panther on all three days. I am yet to process all the photos but will have the travelog by early May. We did see a mating pair of tigers (I think it was the Bisilwadi female and Jari male, quite a brute if you have seen him!)

We didn't have apatite for Tigers when Blacky was around

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by sach.sri

BTW - this is what you would see in Ranthambhore

Thanks sach.sri. Lovely image of the tiger. When was this taken?

Originally Posted by naveenvenkatesh

It rained black panther on all three days

Thanks naveenvenkatesh. I saw Jayanth's photos of the Dark Lord. Looking forward to your travelogue.

[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Thanks sach.sri. Lovely image of the tiger. When was this taken?

.

Thanks Stryker. Shamelessly promoted my pic
This was taken in Feb.

The lady is emerging behind the bushes and we were fortunately at a good height relative to her. Resulted in a nice pic.

[RahuKetu]

Spellbound!! Excellent Captures. Stryker strikes fantabulous just the way the Tiger does.
Loved all your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[ARAY]

What a great post with such amazing pictures. Kabini has always been very close to my heart.
The plan was to visit in 2020 however everything dropped.
Keep traveling and sharing such memorable threads.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by RahuKetu

Loved all your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks RahuKetu. Loved your handle! Why this name, if I may ask?

Originally Posted by ARAY

What a great post with such amazing pictures.

Thanks ARAY

[RahuKetu]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Thanks RahuKetu. Loved your handle! Why this name, if I may ask?

You have to have something abnormal to get Team BHP membership. Since I don't own any car so tried to get membership by way of unusual handle. This was not thought of, just came to my mind while filling registration form.

[snr]

Wow! Just wow! Such amazing photos! We were lucky too last June. Post lockdown, hardly any tourists, amazing weather, and we got so lucky! Spotted 4 tigers in one location and had the time of our lives! We almost decided to let go of the safari. We finally said let's try one last time and voila! We stayed at The Bison, Kabini and they helped us book a safari for two days. It was an amazing time!