🙂 Magnificent Tiger sightings – 8 individuals a day!! Stunning location. Pair of jackals sighting.
🙁 No leopard sightings. No jungle cat sightings 🙁
Arrived at Pride Plaza Aerocity at about midnight and met by the lovely Mukesh and checked in – exhausted!
Sunday 9 April 2023, 25C
No peace for the wicked as we were up at 04h30 and out the door at 05h00 for our 07h30 flight to Jabalpur. Getting through the security checks with camera bags is an absolute nightmare – they make you take every little thing out…. very stressful as there is no queueing system either…. I slept like a log n the 2.5 hour flight!
The drive was very interesting as we passed market day in the villages.
We were collected by our driver at the airport – very chatty and knowledgeable about the tigers.
Our hotel was the SynaTiger Resort. It looks very glam on the website but is very definitely a 5 star resort catering for the local market … after the Sujan it was a bit of a shock to the system as really more of a 2 star type of place. Our room however was huge with a massive bathroom including a hamam bath. The pool was not very clean and lots of maintenance required but the pool chap switched on the filters every time we came down. The highlight however, is the General Manager: Mr Bhupender Bahl – he is an absolute star and really made our stay and we would definitely return just to enjoy the quality of his service again. A tiger had been caught on the camera trap walking right past the swimming pool the previous evening.
We had a quick nap and were ready for our night drive at 19h00. Nice safari guide but he spent the first 20mins of the drive on WhatsApp so Paul pointedly asked him whether he was tracking tigers on Whatsapp and that seemed to nip it in the bud… honestly?! We spotted x3 Indian foxes and not much else. We did turn off the car’s lights and listened to the sounds of the night with crickets chirping and while fireflies hovered all around us and wafts of jasmine floated around us – quite magical!
We had a little bit of rain just as we were getting ready to head back which was quite unexpected. Back for dinner at 22h00 – it really was delicious! Absolutely exhausted when we fell into bed at 23h30!
Monday, 10 April 2023 38C – 8 Individual Tiger sightings (which included cubs)! YAY!
Up at 04h30 and were first at gate at 05h00.
We had an Exclusive Full Day Jeep which meant that we could go to any Zones in the Park and enter and leave 15mins before and after all other vehicles in the park. Our Guide was Lola and both he and our driver knew Paul G very well! Within 5 mins we found Chakandra’s three cubs! She is a 7 year old female. They had been in the long grass waiting for their Mom but then walked on the road in front of us – stunning start to the morning
The scenery here is so different to Ranthambore which is drier and rocky.
We then had some nice general wildlife sightings. The macaques constitute a genus of gregarious Old World monkeys … I could honestly watch them forever….
Likewise with Langurs…
The bee nests are phenomonal!
We enjoyed the exchange ritual of this pair of bee eaters … it took a lot of patience to photograph!
Bush pigs reminded us of warthogs … we saw some huge males! They were camera shy and we struggled to photograph them.
The bird life is also very similar to that which we see in Southern Africa. here we have a Roller and a Night jar.
The Indian elephants were also a treat – they have relocated to this park only as recently as 2018 … interestingly the use of riding elephants for safaris was stopped in 2019.
The Indian Guar Buffalo are also huge! The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 mature individuals in 2016 and they have been on the IUCN Red List since 1986.
We were told that there are ALWAYS tigers in this body of water which changes from Green to gold depending on algae levels … would be amazing to have a tiger in that background!
The tranquility of the water scenes are so special.
It was SO hot – 38C that we just couldn’t take it any more so opted to go back to the pool and have our take away lunch there … Well, that got lost in translation and we ended up having waiter service for a full 3 course meal by the pool… BLESS!
We headed back to the park and found Tara’s 4 cubs which are 2.5 years old. Interesting story … she false mated with another male to protect her cubs but fell unexpectedly pregnant so also has two 9mo old cubs! Not only that BUT another female in the territory died leaving 3 cubs needing nurturing, so she also adopted them! So a grand total of 9 cubs that she is caring for – Just WOW!! Isn’t nature AMAZING?1
The traffic was building up so we decided to take our departure …. The park was also closing and we had this special sighting all to ourselves as we headed towards the gate as we were allowed to leave after the gates closed! Simply stunning.
TUESDAY, 11 APRIL HOT! 8 Tiger Sightings!
Up again at 04h30 – saw palm civets but did not manage to photograph them – very exciting! Another great morning! We headed to Zone 3 – we saw two different male tigers before 07h00!
We were very excited to find our first Indian Jackals!
Then we found Dotty and her 4 cubs disappearing into the grass – too fast for photos…. Lola predicted where they were heading and sure enough we found them at another body of water! Dotty is 10/11 years old and her 4 sub adult cubs are all female. They share a territory with an 18mo male who Dotty shares food with – AMAZING. There is another 3 year old male who also joins this little family for feasts! In the same Zone there was a male who fed small cubs when the mother died… fascinating behaviours…
The tigers were all around us – in the water, on the mound and then running past us into the grass – just wonderful!
We then headed to the breakfast spot and enjoyed our food.
After breakfast we headed back to the tigers but the black sweat bees were a terrible nuisance! The queue then built up to ridiculous numbers so it was time to leave…
We headed off on search of elephants … Great Success!! We were so excited that we asked to get out of the car and climb up the old elephant mounting station for better views as they were having dust baths and interacting … Fortunately the answer was ‘No” because at that precise moment we had a tiger poop up right next to us! AMAZING! What a great end to our 2nd day.
We headed back felling accomplished – another 8 individual tigers! On arrival we had a hammam bath prepared followed by our exclusive dining under the stars … BLESS – so wonderful. The BEST Butter Chicken we have ever tasted – DIVINE.
The next morning we had a lie in and were only required to be ready at 05h45! We headed to Zone 3 – quiet but different scenic routes which were really enjoyable…. evidence of sloth bear … and we heard alarm calls and saw fresh tracks but the tiger remained elusive… a beautiful final morning… and the tigers had definitely seen us….!
What an amazing experience – we WILL be back!
Go to: India
