Tigers and Leopards - Dream Sightings at Bandipur II

A young couple walk by the reception desk. The manager looks at them and says in broken English:

Manager: "Why you not going to the safari this morning? I sent my boy to wake you - two times"
Lady: Oh! We wanted to get a head start and leave early for Bangalore. We didn't see much yesterday, so decided to skip it. Did we miss anything?
Manager: Yes! You missing LOT of sightings - 6 TIGERS, 2 LEOPARDS and 22 WILD DOGS!
Lady: YEAH RIGHT! Where did you see them, at the CIRCUS?
Manager: No-No. My other guests seeing them".
"Ask them" he says pointing to me, Saru and T&S.
We put on our best 'this-is-no-big-deal' smile and in the most fake-casual tone say "He is right! We saw all that!"
Couple : NO WAY!
We (in the same fake-casual tone): Yup. We first saw a pack of wild dogs chasing a leopard and its cub and just before we left the park, we saw a tigress and its 4 precious cubs. We saw the father of the cubs yesterday evening.










Couple: OMG...YOU ARE SOoooo LUCKY! We didn't see anything! Once we were in Corbett and an elephant charged at us. It was SO scary!
We: Oh yeah....we had 2 elephants mock-charge us. Today, we stopped to watch a herd and one got so mad, it trumpeted and almost charged at us. We tried to move, but our jeep stalled! It was damn scary!! Check out T's post.
Couple: Gosh! You guys had such a great weekend.

The couple was right about one thing and wrong about another. We definitely had a great evening, but it was not 'just' luck that resulted in these wildlife sightings! It was part-luck and part-strategy! Between the 4 of us, we have at least 30 years of corporate experience, so you could say we were smart people!

T: Saru, you are really lucky. NOBODY sees a tiger in their FIRST safari!!
Vam: I saw a tiger in my first safari at Corbett!
T: YEAH...like 10 kilometers away! - that does not count!!
Vam: Of course it counts! I saw it really close with a binoculars!
T(ignoring Vam): OK, we got really lucky today. Let's make sure we get lucky tomorrow too. All of you...even you Selva....wear the exact same clothes. No changes whatsoever! Not even your underwear.
Saru: Can we reverse it?
Shilpy: Oh God! This is gross!
T: Ssssh. We make sure we do everything the same way. Shilpy and I will sit here, Vamsee - you sit in the front seat like today and Saru were you foot-boarding on the left or the right side?.
Saru: Left
T: OK! Is everybody CLEAR?
YES!

Next morning, we woke up extra early and were in the jeep by 6:15AM. It was our last safari of the trip before we headed back to Bangalore. I love morning safaris. It is nice and cold, the fog is just lifting and the birds are just waking up.




Vam: Saru....Are you hoping to see another tiger?
Saru: The odds of that are really really low.
Vam: I know
Saru: I don't think we will see a tiger today, maybe a Leopard, but not a tiger.
Vam: Right....because the odds of seeing 1 of the 98 leopards in a 100sq km park is so much higher than seeing 1 of the 100 tigers!
Saru: I am telling you - we are going to see a Leopard!
Vam (muttering); Whatever!

About half an hour into the park Saru and Thomas screamed:
Saru: HEY....look, FOX!!
T: It is a wild dog!
A second later, we saw another dog cross the road and it was followed by another and yet another.
Selva counted 22 dogs! It was like "Who let the dogs out! woof! woof! woof! woof!'


T: I think there is a kill, let's follow the dogs!

We followed the general direction and by then, two more jeeps had arrived. Our view was obstructed by bamboo trees and lantana bushes. We could not see what was going on, but could hear loud alarm calls by langur monkeys. They were jumping from branch to branch and screaming in fear. The wild dogs were growling and very animated. We switched off our jeep engine and waited.


A few minutes later:

'OMG! It is a leopard! It is so tiny! OMG It is a cub!!

Wild dogs were chasing the cub and the poor little terrified thing climbed up a tree as fast as it could. One of the dogs jumped at least 2 feet and almost reached the cub, but missed it by a thread! The dogs were upset.They were growling and circling around the tree. Langurs were still screaming like somebody was attacking them! A few minutes later, the dogs left. The little impatient cub should have realized that the safest place was up in the tree, but I think it was looking for its mommy, so it climbed down the tree as fast as it came up and disappeared into the bushes . The only shot Saru took had only its tail!!

By now, there were at least 10 jeeps in the area. We didn't know if we were in the best spot, but we had no way of moving, so stayed put and watched in the general direction. Nothing happened for a few minutes and then all of a sudden, the mom Leopard came into view!! It also, quickly climbed a tree and sat on a branch. Lighting was very poor and the animal was at least 40-60 ft away from us, so all the pictures are record shots and of poor quality!

It looked like the leopard was searching for its cub, so barely 3 minutes after it went up, it climbed down the tree and vanished into the bushes. We waited for a good 15 minutes, then drove to the other side of the road and waited there for a little bit, but saw nothing! By then the place was crawling with jeeps, so we moved forward.

Saru: What did I TELL you Vam!!
Vam: You are one lucky dog!!
Saru was basking in the glory of his good luck and was going on and on "I told you we were going to see a leopard and you didn't believe me ....I told you......"

They say that the best place to see a tiger is to go back to the last place you saw it. We went back to the previous evening's spot hoping and praying that it would still be there. Lighting was perfect and we wanted to get much better pictures than yesterday. We drove very slowly and focused all our energy trying to spot the tiger through the bushes. It was no where to be seen!
"That was too much to ask anyway" we said to ourselves and moved a little, when Saru, looking in the opposite direction whispered excitedly - "I SEE IT! I SEE IT!"

There it was, perfectly camouflaged in the bushes. We could barely see the tiger. If we were not looking for it here, we would never have found it! I was looking through my binoculars when I saw another tiger's face! I whispered in delight:
"I see another tiger!"
"Really....OMG Let me see!"
"Wait a minute...I see one....two....three!!
"It is a tigress with 2 CUBS!! OMG!! OMG!!
"Nope...Not 2, there are THREE CUBS!!
'Can you believe it!! We are seeing another tiger and 3 cubs!!
Shilpy was ecstatic. This was her dream sighting - a lifer for her. She was so thrilled, she almost cried.
The cubs were climbing on the mom and playing. They were SO CUTE! At one point the mom licked the face of a little cub. It was SO COOL! We just sat there and watched whatever we could with the bushes obstructing us. The little cubs were restless and wanted to come out the bushes. Five minutes later, the mom stood up and I practically froze amidst whispers of "It is going to come out, be ready with your cameras".
The beast slowly walked out, its head and part of the body came in sight. It looked at our jeep to see if we posed any danger.


It walked further, stopped to scratch its head against a tree and then crossed the road. Once in a while, it would steal a glance at us to make sure we maintained our distance. It was when the tiger came out in plain sight and the cubs started parading out that we realized that there were 4 CUBS and not 3!!





From the moment it stepped out, the tiger took less than 30 secs to cross the road. From the minute Saru spotted the tigress in the bushes, the whole viewing lasted 9 minutes! Saru was so busy focusing on the tigress that he neglected to take pictures of the cubs. This is the only picture I have of the tiger and all the 4 cubs. I am posting this inspite of Saru's disapproval (You can't post this - It is a bad image - I have a reputation to maintain...blah blah blah)




This was by far, the best ever wild life experience we ever had!!

Leave me a comment. It helps motivate me to keep writing and bug Saru to travel more.

To read Part 1 of this trip, visit my previous post.

Vacation with Stangers - Bandipur National Park

"Stop making these blog friends" said Saru one day.

Vam: Why? What is wrong?
Saru: You are already a travel freak. These people add fuel to the fire. You are traveling too much!!
Vam: Lakshmi says "There is no such thing as too much traveling" and you know....Jayanti wants to go on a trip every month and make 2009 the best travel year of her life!
Saru: Who is Lakshmi? Who is Jayanti?
Vam: My blog friends
Saru: Exactly what I am saying. These people are bad influence on you!!

Saru's complaint was not that I was traveling too much, but that I was traveling without him. After my Corbett trip, he wanted to go on a trip that would top it. I contacted T & S for ideas and they asked if we wanted to join them.

Vam: Do you want to go to Bandipur NP with T & S?
Saru: Who are T & S?
Vam: My blog friends.
Saru: Travel with strangers? Are you nuts? What if they are weirdos? What if they are crazy? OMG...What if they are man-eating cannibals?
Saru's overactive imagination kept going - What if they are not cool, what if they are messy, what if they are boring, what if they are serial killers.......
Vam (shaking her head): SARU!!
Saru: I am not going anywhere with strangers. This whole thing is very suspicious.
Vam: OK FINE! We are staying at home for the long weekend.
Saru: Those are my options - get eaten by cannibals OR stay at home!!
Vam: Yes! Otherwise, YOU plan a vacation.
Saru: OK, OK, let's go to Bandipur

It is hard enough to make friends in this fast-paced world, let alone friends with common interests, so I really wanted to go on the trip. I have an insatiable thirst to travel and I am slowly realizing that there are many more like me in India. What better way than to pair up with them and travel to my heart's content.

Thomas and Shilpy were not weird or crazy and definitely NOT cannibals (rolling my eyes at Saru's overactive imagination). They were absolutely wonderful company and we had a great trip together. Maybe it was because we were following each others blogs, but it didn't feel as if we were meeting for the first time. Conversation was very easy and we had some great discussions sitting around the bonfires in the night. You can check out their blog here.

We started really early on Thursday, April 30 and drove towards Bandipur. Day 1 was spent at the Ranganathittu wildlife Sanctuary and a beautiful forest house in Anaikadu. I will write about these in a separate post. We reached Bandipur in the afternoon. Our first wildlife sightings inside the park were the spotted deer that were everywhere and macaque and langur monkeys. Here is one doing some monkey business:





















Our stay at Tusker Trails included two safaris a day. One at 6:30 in the morning and another at 3:30 in the afternoon.

"Yesterday - very bad for safari. It rained like anything! " Said the manager in a very heavy Malayalam accent.
"Are you having any interesting sightings? asked Thomas.
"Yes, one jeep seeing one tiger 2 days back and my workers seeing a leopard outside the property. Leopard is killing a calf. Sometimes, elephants walking outside fence " he answered in broken English.

With lots of hopes, we all set off on our first safari in the park. Thomas picked the same driver he had used for his Dec 31 tiger sighting. Selva was very knowledgeable about the park and took us away from the beaten path. The rain from the last 2 weeks had given the park a green-makeover. Coming from Mumbai, where the hills were still brown, I loved being in the middle of this lush greenery. Every few minutes we would come across spotted deer and Sambar deer. The jungles seem to have a very healthy population of deer which pleased us.


Just as were enjoying the forest, the sky turned dark and it started drizzling dashing our hopes of seeing a thirsty tiger at a waterhole. We came across a herd of elephants - 4 adults and 4 calves. The sound of our jeep immediately put the matriarch on alert. It's ears perked up and it came closer to the jeep. It stopped just a few feet away and let out a loud trumpet. My heart beat went up and I was terrified that it would charge at us. Selva switched off the jeep and we all sat very very silently. Elephants are very careful when they have their calves around. Sensing that everything was OK, they crossed the road. The angry matriarch was about 10 feet away, Saru had the wrong lens 70-300mm loaded, and lighting was poor. But he managed to click a fairly sharp image at 1/20s exposure (go VR!).


A little later, we came across a herd of Indian Gaur - a type of Bison that Thomas joking referred to as a bison with white lipstick and white socks! For such a ferocious looking animal, it is very shy. The minute they sensed that the jeep stopped, they ran away inside the jungle at a lightening speed. Saru took these standing and action shots.

On our way back to the resort, Saru spent some time watching the Cheetal and got these great shots. I particularly like the one that is standing on two feet to eat the leaves on the tree.

Next day, we were up by 5:30 and on our safari by 6:15. Because of the rains, peacocks were really active. We saw this peacock sitting and preening itself.

We saw some more elephants along the way. This time also, they had babies, so as soon as they sensed our presence, they surrounded the babies and walked/pushed them away from us. How very protective!!

Just as we entered the main road to get to another trail, we spotted the most common species of mammals in the park - the human kind . An over sized Volvo bus was parked in the middle of the road and the passengers spread out a bed sheet ON the road in the shade of the bus and were eating a 4 course meal out of a stacked tiffin carrier while occasionally throwing bananas and leftovers to the monkeys and deer!! Only in India!!

A little ahead, we saw a group of people sneaking into the jeep trails on foot!! We stopped our jeep and I said "Guys, it is very dangerous to be on foot inside the forest. What if you startle an elephant or a tiger? Please go back". They looked at me as if to say "Bugger off lady...mind your own business". Just recently there was a case of an elephant trampling a British tourist in Kaziranga National Park. You DO NOT want to be on foot near an elephant. One of the guys was also wearing a red pant and white shirt (somebody with a very poor sense of fashion) - both colors that freak out an elephant!!
Thomas said to the group "Guys, you will be fined heavily if a forest department folks see you". Immediately the group started retreating back.
"What the hell? They don't get "life-in-danger", but they get "Rs 200 fine" ?? Only in India!


Tigers are very hard to spot in South Indian Jungles. A recent survey put the numbers at 105 tigers in the 100 square km park. I had made up my mind that we wont see the cat and I was OK with that. "Tigers are overrated!" I said to myself. In their last 20 trips to the jungles of Karnataka, Thomas and Shilpy said they saw tigers twice. We were driving on an isolated path and i could not believe my eyes when I spotted one hiding in the bushes.

"TIGER....TIGER"
"Where....where?"
"Sir....TIGER.....TIGER".
"There....there"

The tiger was soaking in a waterhole and was disturbed when it heard our jeep. It looked straight at us. I had the camera and the best view because I was sitting in the front seat. This was my FIRST time seeing a wild tiger that close. I tried to take a picture, but my heart was racing and my hands were shaking. I took a couple of shots, but both shook. I knew I could not focus, so I passed on the camera to Saru. I had a small camera and could have shot a video, but my mind was numb and it really was not my brightest hour. I just sat there silently watching the animal watch us.

We had 2 options - pass by it and get a clear view and good pictures, but we run the risk of alarming the tiger and it could run away into the bushes. Option 2 was to stay where we were and wait for it to come out. We decided to wait. We were preparing ourselves to wait for a good 30-45 minutes for the animal to come out, when the tiger suddenly jumped out of the water and ran to the other side of the road. The entire thing happened in 9 SECONDS (time based on Thomas's first and last shot)!! You can see the tiger running and water dripping from its body in these pictures.

The tiger went inside the Lantana bushes and settled down to take a nap. Based on how full the belly looked, Selva said " It had a huge meal. It is going to sleep at least for one hour". We decided to stake out there until the tiger came out. All four of us were photographers and loved wild life, so we did not mind sitting there watching the bushes for over an hour. The sun set and it was time for the park to close, but there were no signs of the tiger coming out, so we left. On the way back, you could see 4 beaming faces brimming with excitement.

Back at the lodge:
"How was your safari? Did you see anything?"
"WE SAW A TIGER!!"
" OMG Really? we didn't see anything! ''
"The tiger was a beauty...it was MAJESTIC!"
"Oh wow, you are lucky!"
"Yes, Vamsee sighted it. It was awesome!"
"You want to see our pictures.....see....here it is running with water dripping from its body....here it is disappearing into the bushes..."

After showing off to our heart's content, we sat around the bonfire with a drink and raised our glasses to a great day!

COMING UP PART 2 -Our dream run of sightings continue on Day 2

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Hallstatt – Heaven on Earth Of all the places we visited in 2008, if I had to pick one place that was the most beautiful of all, the one place that was so spectacular that it took my breath away at first sight, and the one place that makes me happy just by thinking about it, I have to pick Hallstatt. This tiny town in the lake district of Austria is a place you visit when you need a vacation from a vacation! At dawn, when the morning mist is just lifting from the snow peaked mountains and the golden rays of the sun hit the chalets in the village turning the still emerald green lake into a reflecting pool creating perfect mirror images of the beautiful scenery – you feel like you are in the most beautiful village in the whole world. Hallstatt, is two hours by train from Salzburg and Linz. It was a rich and famous salt mining town in its hay days. If walking on the cobblestone streets admiring the lake and mountains and the ivy lined rustic cottages is not an attraction enough, then there are a number of activities to pass time. There are numerous hiking trails and one can also take excursions to the historic salt mine and the Dashstein ice caves. For more information on Hallstatt, visit my article at http://letsgoforavacation.blogspot.com/2008/11/hallstatt-can-there-be-more-beauty.html