Entries about wild boar

Having returned to Kipling Camp after this morning's game drive, we have time to take a little nap before lunch. David chooses to chill in a hammock while I snooze in a chair in the lovely shady courtyard.

After another delicious lunch of egg curry, spinach, pumpkin, dhal and curd, we go off for the last game drive here in Khana.

This afternoon we are allocated Kisli Zone, and Astrid (the manager at Kipling Camp) comes with us. Lyn and Chris, however, go off to spend the afternoon with Tara (more about that later).

The first thing we see this afternoon is a dead baby chital, who most probably died during the birth.

A few minutes later we see a female sambar with her offspring, and I can't help thinking about the poor chital who lost her baby.

Maybe this is her?My heart breaks.

Rahim stops the car to show us pug marks on the track – that looks promising.

The sun is getting low now, and we haven't seen a great deal yet this afternoon.

The spider's webs are enormous out here, maybe some 4ft across. While I don't mind spiders at all, I would hate to walk into that web!

Oriental Turtle Dove

Indian Peafowl

Indian Grey Hornbill

Yellow Footed Green Pigeon

All too soon it is time to leave the park behind, despite having seen no tigers this afternoon. We see the piglets again by entrance as we leave - it is almost pitch black now.

When we get back to camp, we are eager to hear how Lyn and Chris' afternoon went.

Tara
Lyn and Chris debated long and hard whether to come out on safari this afternoon, or to stay in camp and go with Tara, the resident elephant, for her daily bath in the river. I persuaded them to do the latter, and am so glad I did, for several reasons, not least of all the fact that we saw very few animals in the park this afternoon.

Lyn and Chris, on the other hand, are full of it. “It was the stuff that dreams are made of” Chris enthuses when I ask him about it. Here is a brief resumé of their experience:

Tara led the way for them down to the river, and the mahout made sure she didn't go in the water until Lyn and Chris – who were unable to keep up the same speed as their much larger friend on the walk through the forest – arrived. Into the deep part of the river she went, splashing about to her heart's consent.

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

Tara then made her way to the shallow part near the bank where both Lyn and Chris were able to get into the water with the elephant, and even assist in washing her.

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

She gets a good scrub with a rough rock every day to ensure she gets all the grime and dirt off her skin.

©Lyn Gowler

When her daily ablutions were over, she showed off to her new-found friends, before crossing her legs ready for her pedicure.

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

©Lyn Gowler

For Lyn and Chris this was most definitely a highlight of the trip, and I am so glad they got to experience this.

After a lovely dinner and a few drinks in the bar, it is time to tuck in for our last night at Kipling Camp. I am sad to leave but excited to see what our next camp, Pench Tree Lodge is like.

I slept very well last night, and wake up this morning to an alarm call by the lake: a deer of some sort making a lot of noises to warn other animals of impending danger.

When Rahim arrives, he tells us he saw a leopard when he was on his way to the lodge this morning on his bicycle. Gulp. I guess everyone here must learn to co-exist with wild animals.

Kanha National park

This morning we are allocated the Moki Zone, which is a long drive from the gate, almost an hour. But of course we can game view on the way.

Wild boar
It seems the wild boar we saw just inside the gate last night is still here this morning. And there is still not enough light to take a decent photo.

We hear desperate warning calls from the langurs, and can safely assume there is a tiger in the thicket of bamboo. We cannot see him/her, however, so when the calls stop we move on.

A few minutes later we spot a pug mark in the road. This is looking promising.

The sun is staring to come up now, teasing us with warm rays through the mist and the trees.

Spider
We've seen a number of pretty impressive spider's webs these last couple of days, and the largest belong to the Giant Wood Spider (Nephila pilipes). This is the female, who is about the size of a small dinner plate. Chris is not happy – he hates spiders with a passion.

We also see a lot of these odd shaped webs belonging to the funnel spider. We never see the spider itself though, as they are hiding in the bottom of the funnel.

Morning are really quite cold here in the park, we are all dressed up with hat and gloves and Kipling Camp provides a blanket for our legs. I love the effect the cooler temperatures has on the weather: creating some beautiful early morning mist, esepcially over water.

Cormorant

Tiger
Three game drives, three tigers. We can't believe our luck when we spot another one this morning. He is very much hidden behind the vegetation, so it is not quite such a good / clear sighting as the presvious two, but we are still very excited.

When he makes his way towards the road, Rahim races ahead to see if we can get closer for a better view.

The tiger is certainly very much nearer, as he explores the undergrowth in great detail.

There are now a number of vehicles on the road, but he doesn't seem to be the least bit bothered.

He crosses to the other side of the road and continues his exploration.

He sniffs and sprays and sniffs again.

And continues his early morning stroll.

Making funny faces while yawning.

It looks like the tip of his right front tooth has been chipped off.

And spray...

This is a most amazing sighting in terms of distance, activity and time span: we are so close, the tiger is not just walking in a straight line, he is actually doing things, and it has been several minutes already.

He certainly is a pretty boy.

And then he was gone.

Wow! 18 minutes in total from the first spot until he disappeared out of sight again.

We continue our quest.

Collared Scops Owls, beautifully camouflaged in a tree

Male barashinga with their magnificent antlers

At a designated site, we stop for a breakfast picnic. The toilets here are somwhat unusual – a fence made from long thin sticks joined together vertically encloses a small square area for 'doing your business'. No pit, no long-drop, no nothing. Just flat ground. Great if you are just having a pee...

You'll be grateful that I don't take my camera when I go, and that I can't be bothered to go back.

Alexandrine Parakeet - a new one for us

Jungle owlet

Rahim stops the car for us all to sniff the air – the smell of a fresh kill. But there is nothing to see, unfortunately.

Indian Pond Heron

Large Cuckoo Shrike

Green Bee Eater

Black Hooded Oriole

Hanuman Langurs

Giant Wood Spider

White Bellied Drongo

Male Sambar

On our way out of the park after this morning's session, we spot the same (maybe, they all look alike to me) Wild Boar as earlier. They must live just inside the gates as we have seen them in the same small area on every visit.

And so it is time to return to base (Kipling Camp) for some rest, followed by lunch, before this afternoon's game drive.

After a restless night full of meflaquine dreams (nightmare-inducing malaria prophylaxis), I wake to a knock on the door. Thinking that Ahmed will leave our coffee on the table outside the door, I just shout out “thanks” to him. It is several minutes later that I realise he is still standing outside waiting for us to open the door, and I feel really guilty about leaving him there.

Kipling Camp has its own Gypsy (specially converted safari vehicle), driven by Rahim, who is not just an excellent driver, spotter and identifier, he speaks good English too and is a thoroughly nice person. This morning we are also accompanied by Jeswin, the resident naturalist at Kipling Camp, whose enthusiasm is highly contagious.

Rahim ensures we arrive first at the gate, in the pitch black, some 50 minutes before they open. As time goes on, a huge queue forms (but unusually for India, it remains orderly), and by the time we are allowed in (after having passports checked and tickets issued), there are dozens of Gypsies behind us.

Drivers queuing for tickets

Long line of Gypsies behind us

We are finally let through the gate

Kanha National Park is divided into four zones, and visitors must drive the circuit stipulated on their tickets. This morning we have been allocated Kanha Zone, The first animals we spot, just inside the gate, are a pack of jackals and some cheetal (Indian spotted deer). It is still very dark, so the pictures are extremely grainy as a result of the high ISO (ISO 32,000 for my photography friends).

Sunrise

And then the sun comes up, and what a sunrise it is, culminating in an elephant and mahout appearing out of the mist. Such a magical moment.

We continue driving, seeing more animals and birds along the way.

Cheetal (Indian Spotted Deer)

Eurasian Golden Oriole

Hanuman Langur

Cheetal

Tiger

Before leaving the UK, I had warned Lyn and Chris that seeing tiger is not easy, and to expect maybe one tiger sighting for every five game drives. And here we are, before 07:30 on our very first drive when we spot a tiger in the undergrowth. Wow!

The tigress strolls along, taking no notice of us whatsoever.

She heads straight for us initially, then veers off to her left, pausing briefly to turn towards the elephant that has appeared behind her.

As the tigress saunters down the path, Rahim manoeuvres the Gypsy to a better position, anticipating the she will cross the road right in front of us.

He is right, of course.

You can see from the fact that I have caught part of the car in the bottom corner of the photo, just how close she is.

And then she's gone. After nearly four minutes of sheer adrenalin and excitement, we are left with just one word on our lips: “Wow!” “We can go home now” says Chris, “we've seen what we came to see.” What an amazing experience and such a clear and close encounter. What a beautiful animal!

How can you top that?

We continue on our game drive to see what else the park has to offer. At least the pressure is off now as far as finding tigers go.

We get quite excited seeing these Blackbucks, as they are a new species to us in the wild.

The male is black, while the females are a more neutral fawn colour. Here seen with a male cheetal.

Hanuman Langurs

Red Wattled Lapwing

Gaur (Indian Bison) sticking his head above the long grass

At up to ten feet long and seven feet tall, the gaur is the world's biggest wild cow. They are HUUUUGE

Scaly Breasted Munia

Wild boar

Indian Peafowl

Jackal

Jackal

Cheetal - apparently there are some 22,000 of these spotted deer in the park

Cattle egrets flying

Stonechat

Stonechat

White Rumped Vulture

Scaly Breasted Munia

Paddyfield Pipit

Indian Roller

Common Kestrel

Green Bee Eater

Female Stonechat - very much more dull than her husband

White Fronted Kingfisher

Breakfast picnic

At the Visitors Centre, we stop for a picnic. Kipling Camp made us some lovely scrambled egg wraps, plus fruit and juice - the best packed picnic on the whole trip.

The monumental arch is made from antlers from cheetal, sambar and barashinga deer. Very impressive.

Back on the road again for a little bit more game viewing before returning to the lodge for lunch. Unlike African safaris, Indian national parks only allow visitors to enter for a few hours in the morning and again late afternoon.

Black Storks

White Rumped Vulture

Indian Roller

Sambar

Changeable Hawk Eagle

What an amazing morning's game viewing, not just a tiger, but also quite a few lifers (new birds to us) to add to our bird list. Well done Rahim and Kipling Camp.