Tigers in Bandhavgarh!

After an exciting time of a night in a posh hotel suite, a very overly persistent phone number stealer and caller, the most vomit inducing smelling/looking railway station, and a train journey with interesting people to talk to, I found myself again in search of tigers. Had I been alone, I think after Kanha I would have given up on the tiger hunt in the hope that perhaps another day I would be able to go in search of them again. However, thanks to a very enthusiastic new tiger searching friend I decided to try my luck in another National Park - Bandhavgarh.

Here our luck changed.

In Kanha we'd discovered that guides were automatically assigned to each vehicle and so it was complete luck as to whether you got a good one or one of the seemingly many not so good ones. So as we set off on our first safari at 5.30am in Bandhavgarh, we weren't at all sure what to expect from our guide. Our hopes of a particularly good safari lessened as our driver turned out to be a lover of speed, or so we thought, and raced so fast along the little tracks that had there been a tiger to see we wouldn't have stood a chance of spotting it.

But then in the distance appeared lots of other jeeps and we knew something good was ahead. As we stopped we squinted through the bamboo and could just make out a big tiger walking past. Bonnie (my spotting partner) and I both thought that this would be it and the tiger would shortly turn and disappear into the vegetation. The tiger had other plans though. He decided that today was one of those days where he liked to be seen, and so out into the open he came. He had a bit of a lie down and then got up and walked closer to us before lying down again. After feeling rested he jumped up, leaped down a bank and crossed the road in front of us. On the other side he'd left a kill and so after retrieving this he finally disappeared into the bushes on the other side. He certainly was a top tiger!

Apart from our wonderful tiger sighting, we also spotted a couple of jackals (yes that's right Naomi Mountain Sickness Goat - Jackals!!!) sitting next to the road on our way out of the park and some very pretty birds, along with plenty of deer. The park itself was beautiful with mountains, and autumn coloured trees. Now with my mission complete I decided not to do any more safariing and carried on with the next part of my journey.