[Coooolcat21]

Hello everyone,
I have been reading all the interesting travelogues here on Team Bhp since a while. The amazing travelogues on wildlife have inspired me to relive my experiences of having visited Kanha and Bandhavgarh for over a decade.
Visiting wildlife national parks have always topped my list of holidays.
I shall here try making my best efforts to walk you all with me, along the trails of "The Tigers Own Land"

As a child have been visiting Ooty almost every year from Bangalore. It is the closest and most beautiful hill station from Bangalore
Now why would I be mentioning a hill station in a travelogue I dedicate to wildlife.
Everyone who has been on the route of Bangalore to Ooty would have known by now.
I would always see huge heards of spotted deer right near the entrance of bandipur forests , and would insist on stopping there for long to watch them. Then be thoroughly thrilled to see wild elephants. I have even sighted a Bison by the road side once.
I think these childhood memories took me to the grand national parks of MP way back in 1996,it being my first visit to the Kanha National park.
Since then I have been visiting as often as possible and will always continue to .

Let me take you down memory lane starting with my Bandhavgarh trip in Feb 2010

[mallumowgli]

Great. Waiting for more of the decade of wildlife trips. Nice snap of the sambhar

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by mallumowgli

Great. Waiting for more of the decade of wildlife trips. Nice snap of the sambhar

Thank you Sir,
The journey has just begun, hope you enjoy it.

[Coooolcat21]

Let me first introduce all the wildlife enthusiast of my group which went to Bandhavgarh.
I would start of with myself ofcourse and to join me were my husband, son ( 3 and a half years old), brother and my parents.
That made a group of varied aged members on the lookout for the beautiful bhandhavgarh tiger reserve..
We started from Nagpur on the 6th of FEb 2010 at about 7 AM in an Innova and with all our food and tea stops we reached at the MP tourism resort " White Tiger resort "at about 6 PM.
The resort is nice but the staff takes its time to get into a mood of giving information of the safaris and places to be visited. Hubby got chatting with them and told them that we have been Kanha loyalists for years and how we hope to not miss Kanha here, I think that kind of sparked the senses of the employees there and they told us about places to be visited and the fantastic sightings people have here in Bandhagarh. So the platform was well set for our morning safari and the adventures were surely looking out for us in the land of the Tiger............

[Coooolcat21]

Its early in the morning,very chill and all were up well in time as our gypsy was waiting for us. Tucked my son and mom into a large shawl and we proceeded towards the gates prepared for a interesting safari not knowing that it would turn out to be a memorable day of our lives.
As the gates open as always many gypsy drivers break the Q to get sooner thru the gates. Anyways breaking Q's is an intricate part of our lives daily here in our country.
Finally we break thru and ZOOMMM into the national park. We almost find ourselves lost in the dust of the still dark morning....
We pass glances at each other not knowing what was the rush all about, after a couple of mins we asked the driver to slow down as we were not on a rally and wanted to enjoy the sheer essence of the jungles. He was upset that we were not in a rush to just see the tiger, thats when we realised that every gypsy driver had only one agenda that was to sight a tiger at the earliest. Cannot really blame them totally as thats what most of the tourists want to do...
So here We entered the park zooming into the dust or i shall rather say our RUN to the park had just begun...............

[maddy42]

Wow. The initial pics are some teasers.

[Ragul]

Looking at his ears, don't you think he would listen to you better than your husband ..?

Kidding ...

What camera? Lens? filters?

Cheers

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Wow. The initial pics are some teasers.

Thank you so much. Lots more coming for sure.

[Coooolcat21]

Originally Posted by Ragul

Looking at his ears, don't you think he would listen to you better than your husband ..?

Kidding ...

What camera? Lens? filters?

Cheers

Actually I would hope all my fellow Bhpians are all ears to the story coming ahead.

Camera used is Canon 50D with 28-80mm and 100-400mm L sries lens.

[Coooolcat21]

We finally slow down and save ourselves from the abrupt brakes of the gypsy.
The jungle is very beautiful , we wanted to take in the surrounding with the morning sun filtering in thru the the trees and making them look a shimmering gold . The birds added to the scene, while we strained our ears to hear to the calls announcing the presence of the Tiger.
But then nothing came through , we saw a few sambhar and spotted deers taking in the sun and thier eyes and ears at the same time always on an alert.
We drove around and saw pug marks in plenty but no sight of the stripes.
We were surprised to know that there were no bisons in the jungles, they had migrated out.
This jungle comprises of various terrains which give a very adventurous feeling, as one is out looking, to be surprised on every given turn.
We proceed to have tea and pakodas , and as always the looks on every person spelled out loudly if they had sighted a tiger or not.
Our faces surely said out aloud, that we had not seen the Tiger.
We move on and wait...

[Coooolcat21]

We got back to the resort and had a quick bite and all of us hopped back in to the gypsy looking forward to see the Bandhavgarh fort.
The incline is extremely scary i thought ,until i experienced the same as a decline, on my way back. Its an adventure all by itself. Visiting the fort is a must when in this national park.
While we were merrily taking in the various spendours of the jungle , the gypsy stalled. The driver and the guide tried checking out the problem , while we all sat in the gypsy in silence looking into the jungle. It was really quite out there, only the sound of the dried leaves falling down slowly to the ground. Occasionally we could hear and see some movement in the bushes . After a couple of minutes we kind of got used to the silence that could still be heard.

But then the Jungle always has its own game plan in store.
And so it played.....

[StarVegabond]

Hi Coolcat21

Amazing pictures. I simply amazed by the emotions on the face of that baby monkey. Yawn of the Tiger is simply fantastic. The pictures of the dear are also very nice.

Look forward to read more. Thanks for sharing.

[Wanderer78]

Amazing pictures. I recently visited Bandhavgarh and must say that it is some place. Looking forward to read this post and view more amazing pictures.

[MohsinRoadster]

Ah.. another Tiger treat. The pic is just waaaw.

[sarmarishi]

Great stuff.. Looking forward to the other posts. That Tiger certainly doesnt look to happy

Also, very happy to see that you have put all other animals as well on the thread and not just concentrated on the Tiger. People need to see the other fauna as well to appreciate the wilderness.