[saleem_k]

Then we came across the elephant herd. The sound of them eating, breaking the branches, walking in the tall grass, is an experience in itself.










See how one elephant crossed over to the other side.


Then the other came marching down straight at us on the same road that we were standing on


It was joined by other, by this time we sensed that they could surround us so we went further and stopped. If you notice carefully the curvey of the road, the place where these two elephants are now is the same place where we had parked our gypsy earlier. Imagine what would have happened if we had not moved. We clicked a few pics here and decided it was time to leave these elephants alone.


Day 3

Next day was again a foggy morning.








There were lot of clues in the morning, and we were told that one of the tiger had ventured near our campus area in the night. Wifey had told me in the morning before the safari began that she heard a tiger roar at around 10 in the night. I was fast asleep by then. I dismissed it but after being told that indeed there was a tiger that came quite close to the campus in the night, I felt she was correct.

There were lot of such pug marks around at this place.


The Sambhar was quite alert and we decided to wait at this spot for some time.



Later we were told by other gypsy safaris coming our way that they saw tigers near a dry nala that was just about 100 meters from where we were waiting. Immediately our driver zoomed towards that area but the 4th or 5th gypsy coming in the opposite direction told us that they went inside the bushes and are not visible. Nevertheless we went to that nala and stopped there for some time, 4-5 other gypsies were also standing there expecting it to come back. One of the guide in a gypsy was poining to a place and tellin that the tiger is sitting there, it had just raised its head but when someone switched on the gypsy, it sat down again. Everyone waited there patiently for about half an hour but no movement happened and gradually one by one left. Since it was our last Safari in Bijrani we waited for 5 more minutes and then there were alarm calls in the grassland and someone told that the tigers must have passed by from behind and must have crossed into the grassland. Phew it was too late by then.

The confirmation that they slipped away came from the fact that two deers there were in that area were walking towards those bushes and nothing happened. If a tiger was there it would have definitely pounced on them.

Tiger in the bushes??? Maybe!

[saleem_k]

On the third day of our trip, after a close miss wth the tiger in the morning in Bijrani, we were off to Dhikala. Dhikala is a different zone which offers stay 31kms inside the jungle. While Dhikala is more commercialized and offers better amenities, the jungle here is more of a different landscape, with tall trees, big grass lands and the Ramganga river which runs along the whole of Dhikala.

Crocodile point





We went on an elephant safari. The advantage of this is it takes you through the grasslands, which has tall grass. This offers a better chance of viewing a tiger because you can go inside the grasslands where no 4 wheelers can ply.


Saw some wildlife in the grasslands. Deers are aplenty here and therefore are a good spot for tigers to hide in the tall grass and ambush their prey.



A serpent eagle probably.


Turtle's foot marks


Again lot of tiger's pug marks, and they look fresh too in the first pic.



Some other wild life, this was outside the grasslands.



Got the opportunity to photograph one of nature's most beautiful phenomenon. Must say that pics don't do justice here and one has to experience this in person, especially in a jungle with tall trees. The experience is mind boggling.


Mornings in Dhikala are very foggy and till 10pm you will find the fog clearing and going to the hills. Notice the wires? Bane of commercialization of Dhikala.

[saleem_k]

More pics from 2nd day in Dhikala

Again an eagle.


This Owl was quite big in size. The pics may not show the scale but believe me it was quite big in size. Is it sleeping or thinking about something?



This is a different grassland on the other size. All this get submerged during the rainy season. The tree gets submerged 3/4th during the rainy season and the place where I was standing also gets under water. This is one point where they allow you to get off the vehicle, in Dhikala



This is actually the river, which is full of water in rainy season.


View from our room.


Can you see anything?


A crocodile resting on a rock. This was one was far away. Cropping brought me closer to this. :-)


Can you see the drag marks? A baby elephant was killed and dragged into the bushes by the tiger. Later we heard some alarms calls here and were told that the tiger must have come to eat. We were hoping to see the tiger come out on the road but we were again not so fortunate enough.


An eagle munching away on its meal.



A peacock dancing. This was the last scene we saw just before our Safari ended.



I will post some random pics from Dhikala later as this is a very scenic place and I'm sure nature lovers would love to see the beauty of this place.

[saleem_k]

After our 2 days in Dhikala and not spotting the tiger, it was time to leave for Pangot. Pangot is a quaint little hill station 15 kms further from Nainital. One can spend a relaxing time here and this place is quite famous for bird-watching. Lot of migratory birds pass through Pangot and for bird lovers this is like heaven. We didn't spot many birds though as we didn't venture out much. It was more of relaxation at this place. We spent 1 day and 2 nights here.

Actually we were supposed to reach Pangot by noon from Dhikala but we thought we will take a chance and go for an extra safari in Bijrani. By this time we were in love with Safaris in Bijrani. So we did the same, again a close call this time, we saw a deer giving alarm calls right in front of us and another in the bushes nearby but didn't see the tiger. Probably the tiger passed that way just then and disappeared into the bushes. Bad luck, well maybe but this has motivated us to go to Corbett once again not just for the tigers but for seeing the jungles too.

I will post some random pics in the following order.

The extra safari to Bijrani.
The early morning in Pangot
The sunset in Pangot.
View of the snow-capped himalayas from Pangot while on the way back to Delhi to board our train.

I will upload these soon once I resize them. Please bear with me.

[MX6]

The Owlet looks amazing. Never knew you could spot these things in broad daylight. Maybe that's what separates an owlet from an owl.

The forest canopy with the sunlight pilfering through is magnificent bit of photography. Way to go.

[saleem_k]

This was the final day of our trip. This day we chose to go on a small trek cum picnic. The destination was a small Shiva temple and a small stream beside it in the midst of the mountains. It involved descent in the hills along a specific track. This place was quite deserted now as the guide told us that this place usually comes into buzz during events associated with Lord Shiva.

The small village of Pangot



The trek starts with two of our helpers carrying food. We didn't like them carrying and told them we will do but they were too service-minded and wanted to carry themselves.


Some views of the mountains around and the path








That's a dried up path of water, not a walking path.


Our destination, the Temple.


Finally reached.


The pujari's abode. Obviously abandoned as it was off-season.


The stream beside the temple. Even this was just a trickle

[saleem_k]

Our trip ended with a relaxing day in Pangot. Our initial plan was to go to Nainital but when we saw Nainital enroute we knew it would be just like being in a city and we will not be able to enjoy. Hence, we decided on this small half day picnic, which was away from civilization, in the midst of calm and quiet mountains. We all were already feeling a little sad about the thought that next day morning we will start our Journey back to Delhi from Pangot and in Delhi will board the train to Hyderabad.

Our experience was wonderful the last 6 days and the thought of going back to the concrete jungles wasn't a nice thought. But yes, we all decided that we will once again come back to Corbett not just for the tiger but for the jungles and the scenic beauty

I will conclude this thread with some random pics clicked all through these 6 days. Not many replies but I hope people liked reading the experiences and viewing the pics. If anybody is interested in such a trip, please feel free to let me know so that I can guide you on at least few things that you need to take care of.

Chao! Hope to share some similar experiences with you all some time soon.

Enjoy the pics!

Pics taken in Corbett









White-throated Laughing Thrush - That's what the guide told us at Jungle Lore, the lodge we stayed at in Pangot.


View in the morning at around 9AM.


Sunset from the same point.






When we started back to Delhi, we saw these when we reached about 3 kms from our start point. We were told on the previous night that we can see the snow-capped himalayas from a place 3 kms from our place of stay, but we some didn't feel like going to a view-point and seeing them. But when we saw in the morning, we realised that probably we should have listened. These would have looked wonderful at sunrise and sunset.

[faithless_1984]

Hey nice pics Saleem.

The stay at Bijrani is about 9 kms from the main road. It would be tough for the elderly to cope up with the stay here, especially in the winters because electricity is only for 3 hours from 6pm to 9pm, no heaters, no geysers, limited choice of food, no cell phone signals.

I was there on 29th dec ,its a really beautiful place.
I guess they turn off the supply to the rooms to power the fence all night.

But yes, if you want to experience the wilderness, nothing beats Bijrani. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that there is a very high chance of spotting the tiger very near to the place of stay just outside the fencing around the campus and my wife claimed she heard the roar at around 10pm in the night, while I was fast asleep.

I agree ,although we did spot a tiger (well a glimpse actually) when we went on our safari in the morning but when we came back we got to hear the news that a tiger was spotted just near the fence ,people saw it and clicked pics while sitting and eating breakfast.!!

[k149in]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this travelogue! Thank you for posting such wonderful pictures.

[saleem_k]

Originally Posted by faithless_1984

Hey nice pics Saleem.

I was there on 29th dec ,its a really beautiful place.
I guess they turn off the supply to the rooms to power the fence all night.

I agree ,although we did spot a tiger (well a glimpse actually) when we went on our safari in the morning but when we came back we got to hear the news that a tiger was spotted just near the fence ,people saw it and clicked pics while sitting and eating breakfast.!!

Yes, you are absolutely right! Since there is no electricity and the only source is the generator, they use that during the 3 hours of power supply and all night for the fencing. Frankly speaking it is needed coz if you notice, the rooms there have one big glass window, without any horizontal metal bars. It is quite risky, at least in the night to be without the fencing.

Originally Posted by k149in

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this travelogue! Thank you for posting such wonderful pictures.

Thanks for the encouraging words buddy!

[manolin]

really nice travelogue. was in corbett at dhikala for two days December 24-25. The morning safari in the cold was brilliant.

[prsnck]

Originally Posted by saleem_k

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments. The first set of pics, around 10 of them are from a normal sony digicam. The rest of the pics are taken from canon 450D with a 55-250mm lens.

I know this lens is not enough for bird watching so I'm planning to buy a more powerful telephoto lens, suggestions are most welcome. I did not do any kind of photoshopping on canon's images except for cropping the bird images as I couldn't reach as near as I wanted even at 250mm.

As for the images from Sony cam, wifey dearest set the AWB setting to tungsten or something like that and they came out blue in initial 50-60 pics, so had to do auto color in PS to make them look nearest to reality.

I will post more once I resize them, resizing them is a bit of a pain especially when there are so many images to work on.

Coming to how the trip began and was planned. I contacted Mr. Sumanta Ghosh after reading Nabeel's corbett thread. Planned for January ending around 2 months back in November and was eagerly waiting for the trip to take off.

We started from Hyderabad on 16th Jan by AP express. The train was late and we were told that it would start from hyderabad only at 12:30PM, original boarding time was 6:30AM but it got delayed further and we finally started from Secunderabad station at around 1:45PM. We had to catch a connecting train to Ramnagar from Old Delhi station at 10:40PM on 17th January, which was a Sunday. But AP express gave us the jitters when it got delayed by further 6 hours and reached the New Delhi railway station only at 9PM on 17th.

We then had to rush to the Old Delhi station by taking a cab and luckily it was Sunday and the traffic was less so we reached on time. Had a quick dinner in McDonald's and then we realised that it was time to pull out our wollens and our Jackets.

3 of us also bought monkey caps at the station. Again commotion followed when Ranikhet express, which was supposed to take us to Ramnagar arrived and we didn't find our Bogey where it was supposed to be. Again there was a small sprint to the other end where we finally found our Bogey, phew!

Finally on the morning of 18th Jan at 5AM, we reached Ramnagar and from there we were picked up and we got fresh at Tiger Camp, which is again an awesome resort/hotel/lodge, whatever you can call it as.

We were given a gypsy, that could be opened from the top, and a driver, to accompany us throughout the stays in Corbett. Like I mentioned in my first post, our first 2 nights were in Bijrani, the next 2 nights in Dhikala and the next 2 nights in Pangot, which is about 15kms farther from Nainital.

It is quite late now so I will post more pics in the morning.

Saleem,

Really nice one and the pic's have spiced up the post too. Seems you have visited corbett in Jan 2010. I have made up plans to go in Nov 1st week. Would need some information regarding booking the accomodation in Corbett.

I have basic idea from posts as well outlook traveller about the zones and the ones available for stay.

I had heard about [FONT=Arial]Dhikala, Bijrani and Sarapduli FRH's. Also had informed that Dhikala, the main camp and reserve will be closed till Mid nov. So now coming to my queries : [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]1. What is the right approach to book the accomodation. I once tried e-mail way, no response. Do we need some influence to get the stay arranged in one of the FRH. Does being a central Govt. employee (DRDO) make things smoother.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]2. Of the three FRH's, which is best suited to stay for max view of all wildlife and not the least most elusive big cat to be seen. Its me and wife for this trip.[/FONT]

3. How good are the accomodation, considering family and all. You could have posted the interior pic's as well if you had. Is it worth staying with family, for say two days.

4. Also the most imp thing, t[FONT=Arial]he park closes for the monsoon season, from mid-Jun to mid-Nov. Does this hamper our activities inside Corbett. IS it that we cannot enter at all to park. I am planning to be at Corbett on 03 Nov 2010.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]5. Please give ur contact details, if you feel free. Mail as well phone.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]rgrds[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]prsn[/FONT]

[mpksuhas]

Hi Saleem,
Great travelogue, Corbett I feel is one of the most scenic wildlife reserves in India. Especially the view you get when crossing river Koshi. But guess its a always difficult to spot wildlife over there. I too had a similar experience even after roaming around some three hours inside Corbett last year. Guess that also has to do with the fact that all tourist vehicles are let inside the reserve together making it a very noisy convey of vehicles.

[joe1980]

Amazing pictures of the forest. I can feel the situation when you waited for the Tiger to turn out from the bushes. It gives me a feeling to visit Corbet once at least in my life.

[saleem_k]

Thanks guys for all the kind words and for digging up an old thread!

prsnck - Please contact Mr. Sumanta Ghosh on 9719243939. He is a wildlife activist and also maintains a place of stay called Tiger Camp in Ramnagar near Corbett. Few other TBHP members also have gone to Corbett through him and that is how I came to know and contacted him. He will arrange everything right from place of stay to your transportation in and around Corbett. Please give him my reference when you call him. If you need any further details feel free to contact me on saleem_k@rediffmail.com or call me on 9849423547.

We stayed in FRH so no need of any contacts and all that, this will also be taken care of by Sumanta ji. Yes, what you will have to take a call is how important is your comfort during the stay. I presume you will be visiting Bijrani and Dhikala.

Bijrani is a zone where tiger sighting chances are very high, but the FRH is very basic and you will have to stay without electricity all night, except for some 2-3 hours from 7pm to 10pm. Here you have two options, stay in FRH or stay at Tiger Camp, which is outside the jungle zone. Staying at FRH gives you a head start on other vehicles coz you don't have to wait till a certain time to wait for the gates to open. So basically you will have the first mover advantage when you stay in FRH. If you stay in Tiger Camp, you will have to stand in the queue of vehicles and wait for the gates to open.

In Dhikala, you have only one option and that is to stay in FRH, which is beside the river and also on the way to Dhikala inside the jungle there is one more FRH, which I don't know much about. Here you won't have any problem with electricity and will have 24 hours supply. This zone however, is vastly different from Bijrani and is more scenic but tiger sighting may not be as easy as Bijrani. But you should definitely visit Dhikala.

From what I heard in the news recently, Dhikala was submerged due to recent rains in Uttarakhand. So I'm not sure you will be able to stay here before Nov. 15th. If you go before Nov. 15th, you will have to compromise on few areas of the jungle where you will not be able to go due to the river crossing, which would be closed. Also, when you go in the winter months, staying in Bijrani would be a challenge as you will then have to rely only on the blankets provided. But again that is an experience in itself.

Regarding interiors and all that, please don't expect the interiors that you see in resorts, etc. Remember, except for Tiger Camp, rest are govt. forest houses, so what you will get is basic accomodation facilities, which are decent and cheap. But again, will you spend most of the time inside your place of stay? I don't think so. So take a call and feel free to call or email me for further queries, if any.