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-   -   Jungle Safari at the Simlipal Tiger Reserve in my Maruti Jimny (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/279732-jungle-safari-simlipal-tiger-reserve-my-maruti-jimny.html)

Jungle Safari inside the Simlipal Tiger reserve.



Trying to Jump start a very old but novel thread.

Just back from a visit to Simlipal with Hachiko (my Jimny), and thought of adding the experience here. I’ll try to keep it short and targeted, for the readers to get a fair idea and basis to try out this trip for themselves.

The route – Kolkata – Baharagora – Jharpokharia – Baribada – Lulung. This route is not the shortest. Still I preferred to stick to this simply because its all clean unobstructed highways all throughout.

The stay – Aranya Niwas (Lulung). The place is inside the reserve , one has to enter via the Pithabata gate. 5kms drive further through the jungle and you reach the resort.











Places visited – Balidiha Dam and Sitakund waterfall. These were done before reaching the stay. Since the check in time is 2 pm and we reached well before time, decided to finish off visiting these two before entry.

Joranda waterfall and baheripani falls – these were en route the Jungle Safari.











Jungle Safari – Now this was my prime objective. You can take your own car and drive through the jungle circuit. A guide is a must and quite that is quite justified . Booking counter and permits will be available at the Pithabata gate from 6 am – 9 am. The sooner one starts the better. There are three routes to select from and I chose the Pithabata – Pithabata route. Approximately 160 kms of it. There are other route options as well which exit via Jashipur. They have a requirement of minimum ground clearance of 185 mm, which I think is a very sensible criteria. For lunch one has to book for the same at the booking/ permit counter in advance. Two options- Veg or Non- Veg Thali. Lunch is at an eatery in Baheripani. That comes towards the end of the circuit.

Now for the fun part. The forest trail run is fantastic to say the least. Sharp , dusty, loose gravel and stone adorned surfaces, and long plane gravel surface in between. Almost all of the sections are narrow, suitable for only one vehicle to move. At times when the Bolero pickups came face to face, it took some time before we could squeeze ourselves through. The Narrow Jimny could manage these, not without a problem though, hard to think how difficult it might be for wider cars (almost every car is wider than Jimny).

Initially the terrain was underwhelming and I thought to myself that the people at the permit office and the warnings ( to drive carefully ), from the Hotel managers were just an exaggeration, but soon after a couple of kms, and a couple of climbs, as we neared the core area, things started to look serious. As the ground was pretty loose, stones and gravels, and the tremendous heat ensured absolutely zero moisture in the mud, this recipe created a surface that had very little traction. I decided to shift to 4H, left the TC on and activated the Hill decent control. There was enough slip throughout to peacefully keep the transfer case engaged. There is no absolute need for using a 4wd here, but when you have the scope, then why not?















To be very frank I did not even care to spot a single wildlife creature and that too in this heat only mad human species decides to go offroading. The wild animals are much more conservative. Still spotted a few, and sharing the same, just for the sake of it.

In continuation, posting a short compilation from the dashcam footages of the trail. I hope this will give a fair idea.

https://youtu.be/pPZSkBvOT6w

Wonderful write-up and a brave journey for sure! You are right, only humans were out off-roading in this weather :D But so lovely to see the Jimny in its natural habitat.

I was curious - how are the Jimny's highway manners? Since you took a longish route, do share your views on highway stability (and at what speeds) and if that infamous rumble strip and general 'floating' feeling I read about it on high speeds was there.
And any info on the dash cam - which brand and how did you install it?

Wishing you millions of miles and millions of smiles per mile in the Jimny!

Cheers.

Thanks for the kind words.

I am not aware of the ‘rumble strip’ feeling. Is it something to do with how the suspension reacts over rumblers on highways? If so then I must say - it doesn’t react at all. Just the ‘rumble’, like what its meant to be.
Now about the ‘floating’ part. I find it very amusing that someone ( where you read this) has actually said this lol:. All I can say is that the Jimny is anything but ‘floating’. You really need to experience the suspension on it and you will be pleasantly surprised actually.
Where the car falls short is outright acceleration on the highway. 90-100 is the sweet spot. No problem at all. But higher than that its just plain slow. Not that it cannot attain higher speeds but it takes its own time. (I am coming from a Ford figo 1.5 TDCi, so you can imagine the contrast)
But all of these is no hindrance and the drive is actually very effortless.

The dashcam- very basic one, got this from best buy, name is Gramin mini 2.

Regards

Hi Shourya, a very nice travelogue. The safari pics came out nice. The Jimny looks happy to be in its home turf.

The Aranya Niwas resort in Lulung is fabulous. I have crossed Simlipal through the main highway quite a few times, but I could never gather the courage to stay inside the forest. Am very scared of the deadly Plasmodium falciparum Malaria.
Simlipal is the den of these female Anopheles mosquitoes which is the primary cause of malaria.

Did you take any special safety measures? Any update on the recent status of how the Odisha govt is controlling this, or how the resort is keeping it mosquito-free for the safety of the tourists? I really want to visit this place, but am dead scared of the mosquitos!

Sharing a couple of pics while passing through Simlipal.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you found the post useful.
Crazy as it may sound, we did not come across a single mosquito during the length of our stay. Nevertheless, we did carry our precautions. Namely an insect repellent spray and a mosquito repellant spray. Whenever we were out in the open, sprayed them on the exposed parts of our body.

The place is fabulous in one word. I am sure to visit there again soon :)

Regards

Very detailed writeup, and great shots. Which camera did you use by the way?

Well, to each his own! Imagine going to safari in a tiger reserve and not caring to spot wildlife :) I haven't had this many sightings of a Maruti Jimny in the jungle! No offence shourya_lahiri, I just found that statement real funny!

BTW, isn't it the Similipal Tiger Reserve? You keep saying Simplipal, with a "P" in between.

Yup, Thats me! :) But I did spot one tiger you see....

That's hilarious! Wonder how this skipped my eyes. Hope the mods take notice of this and change it please?

Well to be honest I screwed up compressing the photos for uploading. There is a lot of dynamic range missing here. The camera is nothing fancy, RX10 MarkIV and my iphone.