During the early summers i.e. in the beginning of the month of March, my friends and I went for a trip to Bandhavgarh National park, Madhya Pradesh. We were 12 of them and so we booked two jeeps for the Jungle Safari. The National Park is divided into 3 major zones, and each one of them has been named differently. Bandhavgarh National Park has mix vegetation from tall grasslands to thick Sal forests and variety of birds and animals. You get the opportunity to spot the majestic INDIAN TIGER and rarely seen animals like leopard, sloth bear, lambha, Black Lambha, Fox and many more as the park is widespread across the area of about 105km2.
There are more than 22 species of mammals and 250 species of birds found in the park, for e.g. Langurs, Asiatic Jackal, Bengal fox, grey Mongoose, striped Hyena, Jungle cat, Leopards and the tigers.
We had a fix schedule as we had to visit several more places in the surroundings. Accordingly, we had made the bookings for the safari rides according to the timings. On 3rd of March we left from Mumbai via train to Jabalpur. The next day morning we reached Jabalpur station around 10 am and from there we went to Bandhavgarh National Park in a traveler. It is around 170 km from Jabalpur station. We reached the hotel by 3 pm on 4th March.
On the very same day, we had our first safari at 5 pm. The jeeps were waiting outside our hotel and we were ready to leave for the first gate/section of the jungle. Our first safari was in TALA Zone.
Tala zone attracts highest number of tourists as the chances of siting Tiger are more in that zone. However, i.e. not 100%, just the chances are high as mostly local’s find tigers walking around. One thing, which I found funny the most, was that they were taking the reference of elephants to find out where the tigers were, as they believed that the chances of seeing the tigers was more where the elephants were seen. The tiger follows the elephant when the tiger is thirsty and wants to drink water as the elephant looks for the water easily and hence the tiger can find him and follow him easily to reach the lake and then drink water.
Our safari driver’s eyes were so sharp that they could see the footprints of the tiger from very far and then follow accordingly. For the first 1 hour we did not see any tiger, what we saw were just deer’s, monkeys, and birds. However, as the sun was about to set they got a call from the locals that three tigers are spotted drinking water near the lakeside. The safari driver than rushed the car towards the lake side. Moreover, there were around eight jeeps just to get the glimpse and capture the picture of the fearless and brave cat the TIGER.
Just as I saw the tiger, I was just not able to get my eyes off and I missed the most precious seconds to capture the images of the tiger but at the end, I got at least one shot of the tiger, and I was thereby happy. Then we started to follow the path of the tiger so that we could see more tigers and capture more images but guess what, it got dark completely so, it was time to leave as they had the call time of 6:30 pm. But we were happy that on the very first day we got to see the tiger and the images that came out were superb.
Then we came back and went for some shopping in the local market, where we purchased the BANDHAVGARH camouflage jacket and some handmade jewelry. Then we went back to the hotel and ate the dinner and then we all planned to do star trailing. So we took our cameras and tripods and placed them and started looking for the stars. After few shots, we got tired and it was getting colder so we packed up and went for sleep, as we had to wake up early next day morning for our next safari in Magdi zone.
The star trails came out to be the best star trail experience till now. As we learnt many new things from camera setting to star movements and stability and many other adjustments which are to be made physically within and the camera too.
During the night while capturing those star trails, it was just something very different but beautiful about the time and the environment . I was feeling like I should sit and look at the stars all night . It was so mesmerising.
Just awesome!!!
On the next day, as we had our safari at 6.30 am we all got up at 5 am and freshened up and then we left for the safari. However, this time for almost one and half-hour we did not see anything except the deer’s and monkeys. So we all were like full on bored and were just wishing to get back to the hotel and relax and everyone’s faces got dull as none of them got a single nice shot of the mammals but what we got were just of the nature and surroundings.
We came back to the hotel and relaxed for a while in our rooms and then we went for our lunch and then back in a relaxing mood. As after that, we had our third and the last ride in the Bamera zone, as we were going to leave the hotel the next morning.
At 5 pm, we had our safari outside our hotel and we were out there with our camera gears ready to shoot and enjoy the last segment of our journey. We left for the sightseeing and then firstly we spotted an Owl and then deer’s and some monkeys and while returning we noticed a bunch of vulture settled on a branch of tree and looking all around. We stayed there for a while as we had some time left, so we stopped our car right there and enjoyed the feeling of the environment and the sounds of the birds chirping and got relaxed, felt the cool breeze and started moving towards the exit. We did not spot any tiger again but we did enjoy this ride as we got some amazing shots of birds and sunset. We enjoyed and had so much fun during this ride.
We went back to the hotel, had our dinner and as we all were very tired we went to sleep early so that we can relax and wake up on time the next morning and continue the rest of our trip properly and with full energy. So on the next morning we woke up and left for our other destination i.e. the Khajuraho and then the Bheda Ghat.
The tour was amazing, we had a lot of fun, captured amazing pictures and saw historic monuments and carvings and witnessed different things to learn and get inspired. It was an honor to be a part of such a beautiful journey. I would wish to visit Bandhavgarh many times and capture the best and get the best out of the park with its beauty and my skills.
THE END!!
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