Ranthambhore - Day 04

As the end of our time in India get closer and closer we begun to grow our expectations; we have completed all 5 routes of the Ranthambhore National Park and we had already our preferences by that time, but the route assignment was not in our hands. Summit showed up on the morning bringing the Route 4 permit, we should start repeating the routes, not necessarily in the same order.

Route 4 is quite interesting, the big waterhole formed by the dam in the middle of the route, the other waterholes spread all over the area and the highpoints that provided a different angle of the region, were a plus in that Route. We have followed the main track

In the end of the track there was a gathering of some vehicles and we could see already the people taking pictures frenetically – this could mean only one thing: Tiger! Summit approached the narrow track that crossed the site where a tiger was lying near the edge of a waterhole. The whole place was very dry and the water spot looked really like a magnet for the tigers in search of a refreshing bath or for the thirsty ones.

Beautiful Male Tiger


Tiger Reflection on Waterhole


Male moving around


The tiger sub-adult was quiet and did not show any intention of getting up to drink from the waterhole – we had to be patient. Peace was frequently broken by new jeeps arriving and jostling for a good position – it seemed that we were around the main attraction of that route as the audience also included a canter (big truck converted into a safari roof-less vehicle for 20 people). However, even with that agitation of the people, the tiger did not feel disturbed at all.

Female Tiger waking up


Unexpectedly, we noticed a movement in a bush near the tiger, it was another tiger. That was incredible, 2 tigers in the same scene. Summit confirms our suspicion that they were brother or sisters; actually they were 1 male cub and one female cub. The one in the bush as the female while, the other one lying, down was her brother. The story about them was that their mother had been killed by a male tiger that was not the father of the cubs, so to defend her siblings she fought against the male tiger and lost. Now the sub-adults were completely by themselves.

Female tiger moving


The female raised his head and after, the body, she started to walk to the right where her brother was still lying down and decided to go for a drink on the edge of the waterhole. That was a scene we were so anxious for: a tiger drinking at a waterhole. The reflex of her head in the water was not so crystal clear, but it was a superb sight indeed.

Female drinking at waterhole


It doesn’t take too long for her brother to join her in the edge of the waterhole and drink together. Then we had 2 tigers drinking in that waterhole, if we thought ourselves were blessed to witness one tiger drinking at a waterhole, that scene we could not even dream of seeing.

Brother and Sister drinking water together


Both tigers were very comfortable with our presence, and continued to drink peacefully until they got satisfied and decided to go away. Despite our attempt to follow their path they soon crossed the boundaries of the Route 4 then setting the end of that great sighting.

Male is gone, Sister will take off soon


We return to the central waterhole to try check on the other tigress domains, but we could count only on a flock of painted storks and other birds as usual. The time to return to the hotel approached and we speeded up to get to the gate, the Dev Vilas swimming pool was waiting for us.

Sometime before lunch we are invited by the resident mahout of the hotel to meet Pawan Khali, the resident`s old female elephant. She is 75 years old and belongs to Mr. Singh`s family since she was acquired by Mr. Singh`s grandpa when she was around 20 years old. Unfortunately this elephant saw many tigers get shot to death in the times when tiger hunting was still legal in India and hunters rode elephants to go into the jungle in search of wild tigers. Now she is retired, but Mr. Singh is still responsible by her welfare. The mahout who takes care of her in the hotel called us to give her a bath.

Presenting Pawan Khali


Elephant Bath


One of us scrubbed a piece of rock to remove dead skin while the other used a hose to give her a good shower. Interaction with elephants is always a grateful experience despite we felt sorry about Pawan Khali have to spend her last days in that confined space in the backyard of the hotel. At least they still take care of her as they consider her part of the family.

Be happy Pawan!


After lunch we return to the park with Summit again, but this time we were not so luck again. We have been assigned to Route 2, and we could just spend the game-drive time visiting the waterholes expecting to see tigers relieving of the day heat. There were only deers, birds and crocodiles in the waterholes, including a mating couple of Sambhar Deers.

Mating Sambhar deers


Rose-ringed Parakeets Flock


In the way out to in the checkpoint, the platform in the middle of the checkpoint square was full of rose-ringed parakeets, lots of them – probably someone have thrown grains on the platform for attracting them. The scene was interesting.

In the end the day we still felt happy for having witnessed the couple of tigers in the waterhole in the Route 4 in the morning. That was really a great moment. The next game-drive would be the last one in this trip in India, but as for compensating all our lucky we had across the whole trip so far, we would see nothing at all – absolutely nothing…As if to say goodbye to us, Nature has turned its back to us and only the warmth of the air and the constant deep sounds of the forest have been reserved for our last safari in India. We were happy.

End-of-game drives in Ranthambhore


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Bandhavgarh – Day 05 – Part 1

Last day in Bandhavgarh. We were feeling so happy to have been awarded with some many tiger sightings that we didn’t want to leave. We actually could never imagine that we could be so blessed with that luck – we have almost seen each one of the 12 tigers that live in the Tala Range and plus, the New Male who does not belong (yet) to that area.

We had still 2 game drives to happen, but felt like we could not live anymore without that routine – safari game drives are so exciting that everyone gets easily addicted to them – the process of meeting the crew early in the morning and get to the gate, the wind blowing on our faces, the searching for tracks and sounds, screening the sand for paw prints, the thrill on each encounter before the tiger materializes just in front of our eyes, the forest atmosphere, the hot colors and smooth light through the trees towards everywhere we look while the jeep advances into the jungle, the tiger eyes meeting ours through the lenses of our cameras…

It is a never-ending collection of memories engraved in our souls that we will never forget. In the last morning drive in Bandhavgarh we just wanted to keep the rhythm, at least see any tiger, could it be a same one, could it be far away, male, female, cub – the important was to close this part of the trip with one more tiger. It would be so sad if we could not see a tiger in our last they there…

Raj took us straight to Rajbhera Lake, the lake formed by the dam in the north of Tala Range, where we had already been many times trying to spot the Jhurjhura female and her cubs.




Jhurjhura seemed to be hiding from us, we always listened to other people having been able to see her in the past days, but we had only a quick glimpse of one of her cubs running across the road. But this should be our last chance to meet her, so she had gave us a break from the hide-and-seek game: as soon as we arrived at Rajbhera area, Raj found out that she was just up on the hill preparing to cross the dam wall.







In reality, we could not be sure if she would cross the lake or if she would come downhill towards the other side, so we alternated with John Aitchinson and Digpal’s to each one of us keep in each side of the hill and notify the movements of Jhurjhura.




More jeeps arrived in the meantime and after quite some time Jhurjhura decided to cross to the other side towards the lake. We rush to the lake just around the hill and when we arrived she had already made her way over the wall of the dam, but she was still waiting on the top of some rocks just in front, along the lake shore. BBC was already filming the scene, actually one of the most beautiful scenes we could see so far, because the whole scenery was outstanding and the tones were superb.







Jhurjhura started the descent path towards the water and the sequence of her moves triggers the excitement in everyone. The crowd got delighted with the scene just happening in front of us.







Jhurjhura hesitated to dive but quickly got into water and crossed to the other border of the half-dry lake always accompanied by her own reflex in the Rajbhera lake waters.










She briefly stopped after the crossing to watch potential preys not far from there, but that time of the day it was probably too hot for a hunt – we never know!







She vanished in the high grass field for a while, and then we just moved to where Dino and Raj expected her to reappear on the road side. Magically she popped up right ahead the vehicle as expected and walked to the bamboo thickets on the other side looking for a cover, where she would probably settle for the next hours until temperature would drop to more suitable levels for hunting.




That is exactly what she did, and we left right there just after she disappeared in the middle of the bamboos.




We drove back to the main gate with that feeling of having one more mission accomplished, and as we made the turn on Chakradhara Meadow and took the main road through Siddh Baba grass land we met some jeeps parked by the road. That was the same point where we did the Tiger Show 2 days before. There was a Tiger Show still going on. Despite the hours, it seems that there is no more people left to go, so raj asked us if we wanted to go with him to the Tiger Show – the park chief ranger had just authorized him to take us on the ride despite the gate closing hours, he just made a special concession. No way would we turn down this opportunity…

There we went for the last time on a Tiger Show. We took the same mahout, Janooh, and his elephant, Bendjeni, to take us to where the tigress was sitting. Yes, Chorbhera again. That was our first tiger we saw in our trip and it could not be more suitable to see her again on our last Tiger Show, to say goodbye.




Raj had promised that a Tiger Show with him onboard would be a totally different experience. He could better instruct the mahout to do what he wanted in order to take better positions for photography and made the ride longer, nobody else in the waiting list, so we had Chorbhera just for us now.




She was relaxed, laid down more or less on the same spot where we saw the New Male on the previous Tiger Show. She looked at us with indifference; she might have seen many other people coming back and forth in the last hour.







She was alert but not concerned with our approach, until the moment when the elephant started to break some bamboos to eat. She changed her face expression all of a sudden – she got up quickly and snarled against us, looking fiercely to the elephant as if she was telling him off. And she kept snarling until we backed off, then she just settled down again and we left her by herself again.







Raj guidance on the elephant made all the difference, we could have a great moment with Chorbhera and a lot of pictures. We looked behind as Bendjeni was taking us back to the jeep, one last look of Chorbhera, she will always be our first tiger.





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Bandhavgarh – Day 03 – Part 1

We rushed to the jeep outside the lodge gate, we are a bit late, but in fact, the guide Deepak was still sick, and that time, we would have no guide in the car with us. Raj explains that we can choose the ranger to go with us, which will be our only guide that morning. We ask Sujan, the driver to take Siddhu with us, and he arranged this at the rangers’ post and Route C was assigned to us. We missed listening to Raj and Deepak stories while standing by the gate waiting to enter the park, but there we go for Route C.




The sunrise is still under progress and light was very weak in the jungle. We drove through winding and colorful roads. The early sun beams hit this side of the park first, and we took the chance to enjoy the whole scenery as this area is very picturesque. Strangler trees wrap the other trees like a python snake does with its prey.




Nearby along the road we could see other animals that we have seen before but passing so fast since we had always the tigers as priority. The rhesus macaques run from us quickly as we pass by. A rhesus mother kept holding firmly her baby monkey while her friend joined her crossing the road as fast as he could. Against the early morning light, the vision of the monkey running was very beautiful.







After we left the dense jungle behind we passed along a low-grass area where we were caught by surprise: “Look, look the peacock exhibiting his tail to the peafowl!!” – a peacock was displaying its beautiful queue with very bright feathers that shined a lot as the bird turned around toward the rising sun. Despite being common to spot the peacock, we found that it was not so easy to see one displaying under such clear light and with no obstructions – we were in the beginning of the mating season, then that was the first sighting of such performance.




Arriving at the Center Point, Sujan went register his position of the order of arrival and then we can continue the game drive route-free. They guide and the driver take some time in the Center Point to grab something to eat and the “chai”. In this meantime, they get the information that tiger has been located by the mahout during the morning and it is lying in a dry river bed not far from the road at the area of Siddh Baba. The cars couldn’t go where the tiger was, but the elephants did. We would go for a Tiger Show!

The Tiger Show consists in getting on-board of a sort of cradle installed on the back of the elephant. There 4 people are settled and taken for a ride guided by the Mahout (the elephant’s keeper and owner). The mahout, with his ancient knowledge, is able to drive his elephant wherever he wants just by stepping slightly on the top of the elephant’s head, giving small kicks on the back of its ears and in some occasions poking the neck with a metallic stick.

The mahout quickly turns his elephant and positions the big animal side-by-side with the jeeps parked aside on the road waiting for their turn. The “guests” scale the cradle from the top of the jeep’s roof to achieve the top and take a place. The ride immediately starts after the mahout locks the cradle with an iron bar and skillfully takes the elephant across the grassland where the dry river bed is hidden behind the bushes.




The mahout, Janooh, rides Bendjeni, the elephant that took us for the Tiger Show, while Kutapan, was the other mahout, riding Vanraj, the big bull, alternated with each other to pick people up for the ride. Kutapan is the famous mahout of Bandhavgarh, he used to ride Gotham, another big bull, but Gotham has been transferred to another zone of the park.

The experience is different, this time we are taken towards the tiger not the tiger that comes towards us. Looks like we were being taken to the presence of the king for an audience! And there he was - a huge male tiger! Not at big as B2, but a respectable big cat. The male was called “New Male” by the locals. The New Male is called like this because he came recently from another neighbor area of the park (outside Tala Range, but still from inside Bandhavgarh). He approaches the areas of Siddh Baba and Chakradhara each time deeper inside B2’s domain. There is a theory that New Male could be son of Chakradhara tigress, coming back to his birth place, and also another theory says that he could be a male looking for the missing the tigress of his harem who has been recently transferred to Sariska Tiger Reserve. Younger than B2, whatever the theories say, New Male seems to have come to challenge B2 and try take over his territory. The New Male was following Chorbhera tigress that morning, but we could not see her around.




As we crossed the dry river, the elephant turned and there we were face-to-face with New Male lying on the ground. He was quite sleepy, but with our arrival he raises his massive head and looks straight into our eyes on the top of the elephant – he is not happy with us there, but he doesn’t feel threatened even with the big elephant so close to him. Of course there is an invisible line that sets the limit of distance the tiger will tolerate our presence, the mahout does not cross the “line”.




The Tiger Show can last around 15 minutes, but this short ride is unique. Differently of the other encounters, the tiger does not ignore the curious observers. The tiger stared the elephant and looked straight to the cradle where we were. Everything is very quick, the elephant does not stay absolutely still, so it is not easy to frame the big cat and the angle is difficult sometimes when the elephant is too close to the tiger lying down on ground, but the experience was great – having seen New Male is being testimony of the history of Bandhavgarh, maybe some time from now, New Male will manage taking part of B2’s territory, who knows?




We returned satisfied to the jeep, hopping off the elephant back to the car we still remain sometime looking the elephants going back and forth until New Male decides to move from there. The elephants take back to watch where he was going and we can see him cross the fire stripe at the grassland. He is going to look for Chorbhera, maybe, but our time is over, we have to go back to the camp.




Raj was around with other guests from the lodge, he said that the next day he will join us again and promised: “You will see how a Tiger Show is different with me on-board”. We couldn’t wait for it…





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A visit to David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

We reserved some time in the day before taking the plane to the Masai Mara to meet one place which we had already in our mind for a long ago. We admire the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for their work on rescueing young elephants in danger and their effort to reintroduce them in the nature.

Arriving a bit late after noon, we have caught the little orphans introduction already in the middle and the explanation about the DSWT done by the staff. There were 3 very young elephants under care of the staff underneath the umbrellas drinking water from a tank.



These young orphans are really very young and have a lot of problems and illnesses to be solved before getting out of danger. Some of them arrive at the institution after have fallen into man-made holes in the ground like wells or after being trapped in poacher’s snares, so their lives are still under threat, and are kept under medication and full attention of the Dr. Daphne Sheldrick.



After removing the youngsters back into their stockades, they bring the “veterans”,the ones that have already managed recovering from the first part of their tragedy. These lads now have to grow together, get stronger and socialize amongst themselves until they reach the right status for being moved to the Tsavo unit of DSWT to be introduced into a resident step-family constitued of other grown up orphans, prior to being releasedinto the wild.



In the first half of the time with the ellis they nurse them with the special milk prepared by Dr. Daphne (elephants cannot drink bovine milk under risk of having serious digestive probems). They freak out for the milk! They scream,they grunt, they run!



Finally, with belly full of milk, they go play in the muddy waterhole. They really enjoy being there, they look so happy covering themselves of mud!



They drink and splash water all over the place. They push, they fall, and they roll like your puppy playing in the backyard, but they are just a little bigger!



In order to complete the elephants’ bath a sprinkle of dust crowns the mess. This sort of bath ritual is actually a way elephants can cool down their bodies, remove the parasites from the skin and then protect them with natural sunscreen of mud.



Observing these youngsters playing is really a miracle provided the background of this elephants and the circumstances that took them there. But this is a real reward for the team of DSWT and the proof that this animals have another chance to go wild again - litterally.



Time flies when you watch these amazing creatures so close, and yet that you always have the feeling that your time there was not enough, you can still think that you can come back someday and in the meantime you can follow up the news about the elephants you have just met and help DSWT doing donations. This is the minimum you can do after you have profited of such unforgettable encounter.

Take a chance to meet the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and foster an elephant or help their other actions right now at www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org.