a tiger hunting we will go....

(prewarning - terrible keyboard here - expect typos)

Right now we are in Hampi. Judy and Sureh went into the temple for '10 minutes' so that Suresh can do his thing. After an hour waiting in the blazing sun I decided to hit the internet, where it is guaranteed that we will never find each other. oh well, for blog purposes, we are still a week away from Hampi. On with our travels.

I believe that last we discussed, we were just entering the Ministry of Forests office on Friday morning to get something or other to enter Nagarahole National Park. Side note about Indian business hours. Pretty much nothing opens here before 10 am. Sounds awesome I thought when I first arrived, but I have been waking up by 7 am each day, so less awesome. Anyway, we had to wait til 10 to go to the government office. The office was hard to find and involved alot of asking random men on the street for directions. At one point we had three guys pointing in three separate directions. I wish I had gotten a picture. The is the exception to Judy's observation/rule that no matter who you ask or where you want to go, the person will say 'go straight'.

So after much backing and forthing, we found the office. (eeek, lots of yelling and arm waving, a black faced languor just came into the internet place!!!) When we arrived we had a vague plan; go to Nagarahole. I'm sure Suresh had more of an idea but either he can't convey this to us or he chooses not to elaborate. (I am going to have to write a whole post just about the foibles of Suresh.) We find the office and much gibber gabbing (I say that with the utmost respect for the various Indian languages but it really is incomprehensible). Suresh informs us that there is no space for two more nights. We wouldn't be able to go until Monday night. I should mention here that another man had arrived in the tiny office. He was just standing in the doorway, I didn't know why but it is fairly normal to have onlookers for all transactions.

The National Park Office for Nagarahole and Bandipur. It was just a partition at the end of a hallway.

Suresh and Ravipoor checking schedules.

The closest we got to an actual tiger was the stuffed dead one the Park guy showed us.

There is another park somewhere around Mysore ( I am fuzzy on the geography of this trip) so I got Suresh to ask about that one, Bandipur National Park. They had space for this very night. But by now (nothing happens quickly here) it was almost noon. We needed to discuss so we went outside and had a sit down. We were trying to map out our schedule to go to both parks. It turns out that 'booking' at this office is for a cabin but you can go to the park without a permit. Then the man who had been in the doorway of the office wandered over and talked to Suresh. It seems that he and his family were also planning to visit the park. There was much discussion about sleeping quarters. I believe that the man, who I have since learned is named Roopashree, and Suresh were going to share a cabin. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. Another future post topic - drivers and their sleeping arrangements. Anyway, between the three of us and our new friend we decided to spend Friday night at Bandipur, Saturday in the park, then back through Mysore, then a day trip to Nagarahole on Sunday. Lots of park, lots of birds - at least I hoped lots of birds.

So back into the office to book our cabin for tonight, a call to our current Mysore hotel to cancel and check out (fortunately they didn't charge us for a late checkout). Then off we went. I had noticed a sign on the office wall about 'safaris' through the parks from 6am to 9am and 6pm to 8pm. We got to Bandipur at about 6pm so we quickly checked in and got our cabin.

The view of the road and the neighbours from our cabin deck.

Unloading the car at the Bandipur cabin.

And then we leapt onto a 'safari' bus. Us and 40 Indian tourists. The bus was a 50 year old rickety school bus with dusty windows and a surly driver. At least I got a window seat but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting after our wonderful Africa Safari experiences. However, the bus was full so off we went, rattling like it was about to fall apart. I couldn't believe that any animal wouldn't run and hide from the noise 15 minutes before we were even close. We saw lots of spotted deer. And there were birds but we barely slowed down for the animals, let alone the birds. I had a theory that the driver had a weight criteria for animals - I figured about 40 kilos. He would stop for spotted bucks but not for does but he would stop for does of a larger species - Samba? - I guess they were big enough. Near the end of the hour trip, we passed a lake on the other side of the bus. I could see tons of ducks, but I couldn't turn around in my seat and he kept rolling the bus so even over my shoulder I couldn't get a bead on any of them. This has been my luck with ducks - I can never get to look closely enough. I have lots of birds but I just can't get a duck!

Judy and Suresh on the bus.

What I could see from my seat.

Valiently trying though.

By the time I turned around we were at the end of the lake with no ducks!

Spotted deer, lots of spotted deer.

Right before we got back to the station, I saw my first wild peacock. Very exciting - everyone on the bus got excited, there was much muttering of 'national bird' possibly for our benefit. Once we got back, we asked if another bus was going to go around that evening? - only if enough people showed up. After wandering around for awhile and avoiding very aggressive monkeys - one snuck up behind me and unzipped my backpack!. Eventually another bus load was ready. This time I got up front and our driver was nicer. We chatted him up a bit so he pointed out some birds for me. But the best part was that we saw wild Asian Elephants. Cool!! And a pack of six wild dogs. Also cool!! We didn't pass the lake again so still no ducks but we did see a serpent eagle (no picture of the eagle though).

Our unnamed evening driver. Even the 'shaky man' setting on my camera couldn't handle the park roads!

Wild Asian Elephants. Not as majestic as the African, but harder to find!! These were the only ones we saw.

A male peacock (technically that's redundant - it's a male peafowl)

Wild dogs.

Doesn't it just look like the family dog. But, apparently, they are vicious and a pack can take down a tiger.

We went to dinner in the park restaurant/buffet where we met up with Roopashree and family. We met his sister and her new husband, his mother and more. Dinner was unnoteworthy. Our cabin was 'quaint'. There were mosquito nets over the beds, mine had mice poop in it. Judy woke up in the night to something large landing on hers so were glad to have them. We slept in our silk sleeping liners. It was pretty cold. Judy had given her very scratchy blanket to Suresh - he had arranged with the guard to sleep in the ranger station - so I'm sure she was uncomfortable. But the cabin was plunked down in the middle of a forest/field and we were surrounded by deer which we could see by the full moon so it was pretty incredible.

Spotted deer surrounding our cabin.

Our netted beds

A blurry full moon.



The next morning I wanted to be on the first bus at 6 so I made Judy get up at 5 am so we would be ready. Breakfast would be at 8:30 so I figured we could get two trips in before then. Of course, I forgot where I was - India! We were there before any staff. Then after 30 minutes the guard showed up to open the office. Another 15 minutes for the man who controls the sign in book. Then 20 minutes to light the incense and do altery things. Then a few more minutes to get the book and the money etc etc before it looked like we might be able to buy our tickets. A tour guide/bus driver had shown up by then and was washing his front window so I got Judy to go stand near it. First in line for tickets I have learned does not mean first on the bus. All of a sudden Judy is getting on the bus and waving me over. We had been invited to go and open the gates before the first tour by James, the guide. Judy is such a charmer!!!

James, our coffee addicted, birding driver.

We didn't see anything too exciting on that trip but we did get to know James and he is very keen on birds so when we finally got our tickets and the real tour happened, he saved us the front seats - I got to sit in the 'guide seat' up front with the driver. So now we have our tickets, we are on the bus, there are other passengers but we still didn't leave. The driver needed a coffee. Fortunately, he invited Judy and Suresh to join him and they brought one back for me too. If one has to wait, might as well have coffee. Finally at 7:40 we started. Lucky we got up at 5! James pointed out lots of birds and stopped the bus while I looked at them with the binoculars. My binos always win me friends, everyone loves to look through them. And he was astounded by the bird book. If they weren't so bloody expensive, I would bring ten so I could hand them out. He knew his birds (at least to the family if not the species). When we got back, we dispatched Suresh to buy another round of tickets so that we could keep our good seats. Judy had a nap and I went off for more coffee with James. I think he is more of a bean junkie than me and Judy. The coffee shop was a cement hut and the coffee was served in metal cups like the ones they give you with dip at White Spot - just a quick shot. Second trip started at 10 am. More birds, more wild dogs but no more elephants and definitely no tigers, which are the big draw here. The park is actually called a tiger reserve but we had been warned it isn't 'tiger season'. We did come across some fresh prints in the road. They were big and the claw marks were impressive. We didn't get back until after 11:15 but breakfast was still available so we had a quick bite, packed up and headed out. We needed to pick up Judy's blouse (see prev post) which was at that time being made in Mysore. I will stop there. Judy is having some serious money issues. She can't access her main bank account here and her visa card was stolen out of her purse (at an ashram) so we are going to try to set up a money transfer via internet. Should be good. Next post - we finally get to the hinted at worst hotel ever.


Another monkey video. You can never watch enough monkey videos (it's true). That's Suresh's voice giving the commentary. 'Judy, Look! Judy!!