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  India Wildlife and Medieval Tour for Mr. Aladdin
34 Nights – 35 Days Cut short to 30 days due to VISA issues
 Thursday 7th of January 2016 and it was so nice when I could finally close the door to my tent. It was a beautiful tent and there was an AC, but it won't be necessary to run the AC. There  was everything I needed, well, except Diet Pepsi. They were soon knocking on my door with 3 bottles of water for me
I asked them to wake me up at 05:15 and I was soon in bed and it was no problem to fall asleep. Maybe because I failed to find any Diet Pepsi. Maybe a good thing they don't have any Diet Pepsi available here, no problem to fall asleep  in the evenings when I have to wake up around 5 o'clock every day. We will see, but now it is time to say GOOD NIGHT!
 My tent at the Lion Safari Camp
 My tent at the Lion Safari Camp
 My tent at the Lion Safari Camp
 My tent at the Lion Safari Camp
They called me late. I was in the shower when they called the second time, I looked at my watch and it was 5 thirty. So we didn't leave the Lion Safari Camp until 05:45 something. My driver got  the safari permit from the reception and we had to go to the park office to register.
Yeah, 2016, and it is 28 years ago I was in India for the first time. And it seems like it is just the same again. Papers and stamps as it was 1800 something again all over again. Seriously, I was shocked to see all the people lining up to register. We already had our permissions but this was not enough. Now  we had to register, of course, pass port was required.
We will also get a Guide and I was losing my temper when they told me that I had to pay 1200 Scooby Doo dollars for a camera permit. And I was for sure not getting any happier to learn that Indians only had to pay 200 Scooby Doo dollars. Yeah, imagine if we had done it like this back in good ol' Europe. Hitler would have  been the nicest thing we would have been called.
Fascist and Nazi  would for sure have been used. I did not have any Scooby Dollars so we had to take off to an ATM. I will have 4 safaris here so I need 4800 woody dollars.
I was kind of cold and I was not happy to go back and forth on Sasan Gir “main” road in a safari uniform on the back of a Muruti 750. The temp was kind of OK when we had stopped the car, but as soon as we were moving it was cold in the wind. I made a mental not to bring a blanket tomorrow morning. I withdrew 10,000 and we stopped at a shop to see if they had any Diet Pepsi. Well, Diet Pepsi and they brought ordinary Pepsi with millions of calories. I can as well  shoot myself and throw the remains to the lions and the Leopards in the park.
The Lions would not look twice at me, but the Leopard. I have been told that the Leopards are killing 2 to 3 people every year and the Lions kill zero people in the area. We were soon back at the Gir Park office and it took some minutes and my driver returned with our Guide. The Guide handed me my passport and camera permit. Camera permit, these people, want tourists to come here just to scam them. If I had knew about this I would have, well, Africa seems like a beacon of development in comparison.  Camera Permit for Gir National Park
OK, let's duck off out of here! We drove to the entrance and we will take trail #6 today and it will take us about 3 hours. We must leave the park at 9 thirty and we will come back for another  3 hours safari later on in the afternoon.
I don't know how many trail they have in the park, but we will take #6 and according to people that know it is a nice trail It was just a 3 minutes' ride from the office to the park entrance and there were jeeps waiting to enter the park. We parked and the Guide asked for my pass port, I could not believe my ears. Again! Yes, not I had to show the  passport for a second time and there was a whole bunch of people at a small table stamping papers. Yeah, remember there were 3 people to pick me up at the airport in Bombay!
Yeah, easy to understand that I wanted to wait at the Bombay before passing immigration. Imagine having one day overstay here. Jeez, endless paper work. OK, we managed to enter Gir National Park, a huge park and we're only allowed to drive around on a small part. There is about 550 Asiatic Lions and 300 Leopards. Last count and there were 46000 Spotted Deer and more than 300 different birds. I was told that there are 23 tribal villages in the park and the lions and Leopards are eating their cattle and water buffaloes. Plus a few humans per year, a dangerous place and we're absolutely not allowed to get out of the cars.
We left Gir National Park and we left the park at a different gate than we had entered so we passed through the village approaching the hotel from the other side of the river. And there were many different birds. Brahminy starling, Common Kingfisher, Oriental Magpie Robin, Egrets, Red-wattled Lapwing and Wire-tailed Swallows plus many more. We had seen the White-browed Wagtail in the village and the very beautiful Purple Sunbird. Looks black and boring, but in the sunshine it was, yes, you guessed right, purple. I decided to come back here in the afternoon to have a look. We will leave for the afternoon safari around 3 thirty so I have time after the breakfast.  White-browed Wagtail
 White-browed Wagtail
 Brahminy starling
 Brahminy starling
 Wire-tailed Swallow
 Common Kingfisher
 Common Kingfisher
The Jeep would pick me up at 3 thirty and lunch was at 13:00 so I had plenty time for birding down at the Hiran River after the lunch. So I spent the time until lunch in my tent checking the  pictures from this morning's safari in Gir National park
I enjoyed myself in the tent, I had found a shop selling Diet Pepsi so I bought 10 cans so I was having a good time. Time turned quickly and it was soon 1 o'clock and time to go for lunch. I had spotted a Bee Eater from the restaurant when I had my lunch and this really made me want to go out there. So I hurried up to drink my tea and eat my naan. I took my camera and I went to explore the area. I had been told that this was the best bird watching area in Sasan Gir. So I expected to see a lot of interesting birds.  Green Bee-eater
I had misunderstood the time, the park opened at 3 thirty and we would leave at 2 thirty. Anyway, the birding was pretty pointless as it was hot and the birds from this morning was gone. I  decided to come here tomorrow morning straight after the morning safari.
I was back at the reception at 2 thirty and my jeep and driver was waiting and we were soon on our way to the park office to pay for my camera permit and register. My driver had my safari permit and the only thing I needed to bring was cash and my passport. We will also pick up the Guide at the Office and then we will take off to the National Park. And when we get the Guide he will tell us  which track we will take.
We took route #6 in the morning and it was a beautiful route and I was very happy for the colourful parakeet and the dancing Peacock. But no lions or leopards, maybe on this tour, hopefully!
When we went for the safari this morning it was dark so it was the first time for me to pass through Sasan Gir in daylight. The paper work went quicker than expected at the office so we had time to go look ofr more Diet Pepsi and a SIM card for my phone so I have internet access. Internet is very important so I can check up the birds I have seen during the safaris. So a SIM card is necessary to have as they don't have internet in the tents at Lion Safari Camp.  We stop so I can buy the last two cans of Diet Pepsi in Sasan Gir
 We stop to buy a SIM card
 We stop to buy a SIM card
So I have now officially emptied Sasan Gir of their entire stock of Diet Pepsi, the last 2 cans. We stopped to buy a SIM card and they will have it ready for me when we're back from the  afternoon safari in Gir National Park.
There were a few jeeps waiting outside the gate when we arrived. We didn't had to wait for long, our Guide registered us and we were soon in the park. And this afternoon we will take route #7. I hope we can see a lion or a leopard today, and I like the leopards better than the lions as the lions are only sleeping all the time. And the leopards are a more beautiful cat. Well, anyway, below we can find some of today's pictures.
A gorgeus day in Gir National Park has come to an end. We stopped to pick up my SIM card on the way back to Lion Safari Camp where I spent the evening check ing pictures and internet for the different birds. Wake up call tomorrow morning at 05:00 and you just click HERE to find out if we find any lions and leopards. Or anything exciting like beautiful birds or anything that wanting to attack us!
    
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011
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