44.Trip to Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

Tiger Tiger burning bright / In the forests of the night... (William Blake)

The lure of sighting the elusive orange predator of the forest brought me to Lucknow in the hot, hot month of May (sans Rajeev), for a visit to the Dudhwa Tiger Sanctuary, some 240 kms away. We (my sisters Paromita and Raka – my usual partners in crime) hired a taxi, packed an overnight bag and drove off in the wee hours of the morning via Sidhauli, Sitapur to Gola Gokarnath, where we met up with Raka’s batchmate Dr Rajeev. After a brief break at Dr Rajeev’s place (quickly digging into some soft spongy rasgullas) we decided to leave our taxi and driver at Gola and pile into Dr Rajeev’s car instead and travel together in one vehicle. The remaining 95 kms to the Tigerrhino Resort were covered in no time, or so it seemed. We were well stocked with food so decided to finish that first for lunch, though the guest house has a good restaurant.

Tigerrhino Resort - named after the sanctuary animals

The evening safari was scheduled to go at 4 pm so we decided to take a small drive upto the visitor’s reception area. Enroute we stopped on the bridge over the River Sharda and sighted a grey-headed fish eagle, drinking water from the river. 

Grey-headed Fish Eagle drinking water

Just emerged from a coccoon

A Blue Tiger !

I took it as a good omen and a promise of good sightings to come. We came back to the Guest House from where the safari was to start. The thrill of going on another safari on an open jeep made us oblivious to the heat. It was cooler than the city in any case. So off we went in pursuit of whatever the forest was willing to reveal to us. The teak and sal forests of Dudhwa, interspersed with large stretches of grassland make it one of the most scenic Tiger Reserves I have seen so far.

A Spotted deer blending in

The customary spotted deer (chital) and langurs could be seen but the forest was eerily quiet. Unlike us the animals and birds, unknown to us, had decided to venture out only after sun-down. Suddenly the quiet was disturbed and a bright green and red bird landed and upon closer examination we saw it was the Emerald Dove. The bird has a penchant for dark shady places so getting a picture from our perch atop the jeep was difficult. 

Emerald Dove

No visitor is allowed to get off the jeep, except at special spots, in a Tiger Reserve, and taking a picture of a small bird from a jeep is no mean feat. Though we saw the red jungle fowl with hens and the flame-backed woodpecker, tantalizingly, showed itself now and then, our guide wouldn’t slowdown in time for me to take a picture. He, however, took us to some sighting posts near the swamps and water-holes where we saw quite a few water birds and a herd of swamp deer resting. Incidentally, the forest was initially declared a sanctuary for swamp deer (1958) and much later (1987) declared a Tiger Reserve. 

Adorable Rufous-headed Bee Eaters

An Egret walking tall with a lapwing in the foreground

A Red Jungle Fowl making a run for cover

A Langur peering at us - he didnt have a camera unfortunately

The swamp lined with water birds

 

The evening safari proved to be by and large uneventful though as the shadows lengthened with the setting sun, the forest seemed more and more ominous making us whisper to each other, nervously, even when a blade of grass stirred. 

A Serpent Eagle perched atop a bare tree

Greater Coucal

Forest beauty

Taking flight

On the way back we again stopped on the bridge, and the disappointment of not having many sighting was alleviated to some extent. We heard our friend from the afternoon – the Grey-headed Fish Eagle, give out loud calls (much like a peacock). Then we saw 3 Nilgais grazing on the banks merging with the shadows of the dusk. Suddenly on the other side of the bridge we saw a lone jackal pacing along the river and wading into the water to hunt. It formed an amazing silhouette against the setting sun.

 

Nilgais

Silhouette of a lone Jackal

Cormorants drying their wings

The electricity situation in the area is not good. The guest house switched off the generator sometime in the night and we woke up in a sweat at 2 am instead of 4 am to get ready for the morning safari. Opening the windows and the front door brought in the cool breeze but also the mosquitoes. All in all we would have done well to bring the mosquito repellant cream as someone had suggested. On the flip side we were ready well in time for the morning safari.

Elephant tracks

Tiger pugmarks

A Sloth Bear foot print - looking like a yeti footprint

 

The morning safari was lively and the guide enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Starting with a little Taylor bird sitting at arm’s distance scolding its progeny, near the guest-house, we sighted a number of birds, and animals, some usual, others not so much.

We saw the footprints of the big three animals you look forward to seeing in Dudhwa – elephant, tiger and sloth bear – as a testimony to their presence. The forest stretches over some 500 kms and therefore sighting a big animal is surely a matter of luck.

Sunrise in the forest

A little Tailor Bird- harbinger of good things to come

The ELEPHANT SAFARI

We first went for the Elephant Safari to see the rhinos. Our elephant a coy, smiling female was called ‘’Pakhri”. She carried a Neem branch in her trunk which she delicately swung around to keep the flies at bay. We were lucky to see four rhinos grazing peaceably.

"Pakhri" our coy, smiling female elephant

Rhinos grazing

A railway line passing through the reserve which should definitely not be there

Back on the jeeps we went on our quest of the great feline. Suddenly we saw the black and white tail feathers of a large bird disappearing in the forest. Sonu, our guide got quite excited and said we have sighted a rarer creature than the tiger – it was the Great Hornbill! I felt a little disappointed not getting a picture of it. A little ahead an Indian Pitta, a very colourful bird caught our eye. It is rightly called “Navrang’’ in Hindi. Inspite of being so colourful its camouflage was so good, with great difficulty, only one of us managed a picture of it before it flew off. Some Yellow-footed Green Pigeons caused some flutter, unfortunately they sat directly overhead. At one point we saw quite a few Paradise Flycatchersfloating around. 

Our guide took a lesser frequented path where someone had reported hearing the tiger call and we were rewarded by – no not a tiger sighting but the sight of the great big bird we had earlier missed – the Great Hornbill. It sat there deliberately turning its huge beak first right then left then going all the way down. We sat looking at its delightful antics and clicked to our hearts content. My safari was a success!

Great Hornbill - the icing on the cake!

After a breakfast of delicious stuffed parathas at the guest-house, we retraced our steps to Gola Gokarnath to get back into our taxi. Dr Rajeev took us to see the ancient Shiva Temple after which the town is named while Mridula regaled us with the legend of Gokarnath.

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43. An overnight trip to Mahabaleshwar

If one is planning an impromptu overnight trip to Mahabaleshwar just make sure it is on a week day.

We have learnt how to travel without hassle – just travel midweek when there are no holidays. Well we made a short trip to Mahabaleshwar just before Holi, with our friends, Maggie and Dennis. The short drive of a 120 kms from Pune to Mahabaleshwar is quite pleasant except Rajeev did not do his homework and took the Wai route instead of turning from the Mahabaleshwar Phata, some 8 km before the Wai turn. Even then we reached Panchgani by 10 am (having started at 6am) after a breakfast halt of about half an hour at Satara.

Maggie modeling her new dress on the Satara highway!

The horse carts and the little pond on the Table Land.

Rajeev against the back drop of silver oak trees

The 2nd highest plateau in Asia after the Tibetan Plateau

A wagtail by the pond

The colourful carts broke the monotony of the landscape

The Table Land, a volcanic plateau (second highest in Asia after the Tibetan plateau), which we have always seen choc-a-bloc with tourists and horse-carts was totally empty and not dusty because of the heavy showers the previous couple of days. Panchgani gets its name from the five hills surrounding it.  From the elevation of the Table Land we could get a bird’s eye view of the whole area. Had fun walking from end to end; encountered a friendly squirrel and some wagtails and Syke’s larks. A tea vendor gave us a low down of the surrounding scene – the Krishna River meandering in and out of the surrounding ridges made a captivating sight. The fringe of silver-oak trees just below the Table Land glistened in the morning sun. Incidentally, the silver oaks were introduced by the British (as also the poinsettia) to the region, they retain moisture and help keep the place cool (free info supplied by the chai wallah and memorised by Maggie). St Joseph’s convent (made famous by bollywood brats – again info provided by the tea vendor), peeping out from between the silver oaks made for a pretty picture. 

 

St Joseph's school amidst the silver oak trees

A friendly squirrel which followed me around

 

The Krishna River meandering between the five hills of Panchgani

After a second breakfast of sandwiches and black tea which we had packed with us, we drove down (or up) to Mahabaleshwar. Some 10 kms before reaching Mahabaleshwar we saw a neat looking hotel called Travellers Inn. It looked new and clean so we decided to stay on (we got a rebate as incentive too). It was a wise decision because the Mahabaleshwar Market has become congested and noisy and all the hotels we had decided to explore were in the market area.

Traveller's Inn

The congested market

posing with the strawberry wine Rajeev bought

                                        Maggie's penchant for buying shoes. She bought,                                           as she says, a 'jhatak' dark pink one.

An old church near the market (estd. 1831)

After walking around the market for an hour or so and buying knick-knacks we had our vegetarian lunch at a restaurant called Poonam. A family with a shrieking child did its best to spoil the experience but we retained our good humour. Thereafter we thought of seeing a point or two, oft seen before. We decided to see the Haathi Mattha or Elephant’s Head point because I remembered having had strawberry cream in a shop there. Well at this time there were no shops, hardly any tourists, and we couldn’t find the elephant’s trunk! 

The shady wooded path to Hatthi Mattha

We did, however, come across a nice family and helped take each other’s group pictures. We walked through the shaded wood and heard a few bulbuls and the Common Babblers. There is a monument built in memory of General Peter Lodwich, first Englishman to set foot in Mahabaleshwar. The plaque on the memorial proudly lauds his achievements of defeating the Peshwa army and capturing the various forts of the region. To digress a little we went for a heritage walk along the river in Pune and saw the memorial built for the Peshwas under whose rule the Maratha Empire reached its zenith and who laid the foundation of the city of Pune. The statue erected in the memorial had probably been stolen and the place was submerged in garbage. I now understand why I detested reading Indian history in school – because we studied books written by foreigners giving their point of view (many a times purposely misrepresenting facts) and did not feel the glory and the sacrifices of the Indian side. 

The awesome foursome! (thankyou Sameer Bhatt)

Lodwich's memorial

Lodwich's laurels

Hathi Mattha

A road snaking along the mountain side

The afternoon sun proved to be a little too bright and we decided to take a siesta. On the way back we checked the breakfast timings at the Mapro factory and eatery and bought our first installment of strawberry from a young girl called Poonam (a popular name apparently) and they were so sweet we finished them all. The evening was spent playing cards in the room and just when I got a ‘’marriage’’ everybody decided to go out for dinner. A restaurant called Amantran sounded very inviting. It was very chilly outside and the shawls we had grabbed at the last minute proved most fortuitous. 

The next morning I strolled around the vicinity of the hotel trying to spot some birds. The others joined me shortly and we just loafed around taking pictures till it was time to go have the great grilled sandwiches served by Mapro. We bought our pre-ordered next installment of the garden fresh strawberries from Poonam for people back home.

Early birds are not always so lucky! waiting....!

Now we look pleased! The sandwiches are all they were promised to be!

Poinsettias in bloom

The Hirda tree

You may expect a post by Rajeev on this coin!

The colours of Mahabaleshwar

The beautiful Venna Lake

The return trip as usual was much shorter and we were back home for lunch much before the grilled sandwiches were digested.

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