India Wildlife and Medieval Tour for Mr. Aladdin
Mumbai – Rajkot - Sasan Gir – Alang - Ahmedabad – Delhi – Corbett – Delhi - Neemrana – Jaipur - Ranthambhore – Fatehpur Sikri – Agra – Delhi - Bandhavgarh – Kanha – Pench – Nagpur – Mumbai
34 Nights – 35 Days
Cut short to 30 days due to VISA issues
Day 29: Pench
After breakfast, take safari at Touria zone and Jamthara zone enjoy Bird Watching and Jeep safari
to the national park for wildlife viewing, the Tigers of Pench are the main attraction and have a
reserved territory for the habitation and preservation of these endangered species. Later return to
the resort. Enjoy dinner & overnight stay at resort.
Tuesday 2nd of February 2016 and my alarm went off at 7 thirty. I could have slept longer because we're not leaving for the game drive until 7 thirty. But I was full of vim and I opened my last bottle of Mango juice.
My driver was at the parking lot with the other drivers and there 3 or 4 jeeps there. I took off with my driver. We stopped at the Indian Grey Hornbill tree on the way to the park. And the trees were full of the Indian Grey Hornbill. I tried my luck with the camera before we continued to the gate. But they are very hard to get on picture.
There are many of them but as soon as we approach the tree they all flew to the next tree. But it was funny to look at them. Well, we were in a hurry and we left the Grey Hornbill site.
Indian Grey Hornbill
Indian Grey Hornbill
Indian Grey Hornbill
Same procedure, handing him the passport and he went to register. We were waiting just next to the souvenir shop where I had bought Kit Kat yesterday and they were busy selling tea and making food. They made the food outside the shop and it looked like fried rice. And as it was yellow I suspected that they were using curry.
I don't know when they cleaner the area last time, or when they washed their hands last time. And I didn't care as I wasn't going to eat any of the food.
I never saw anyone buying the food, but the tea was popular. And it was tea Indian styled boiled in milk and sugar. Yeah, I have been drinking it before and it is too sweet for me. I choose a cup of Earl Grey tea anytime
The clock was soon past 8 and I asked the Driver/ Guide/ Naturalist what was going on. He told me that they didn't open until 8 thirty, a totally different time from what he told me yesterday.
- You told me 8 o'clock yesterday
Well, I told him that we could go back to check out the birds back in the fruit tree. Better than to sit around here waiting so we left. We were soon back at the Indian Grey Hornbill. We also spotted a Greater Coucal in the Hornbill tree. Well, the day started good.
We pass a tent on the way back to the tree
OK, if you live like this the Pench Jungle Camp might “apear” as unparalleled in its luxury and comforts
Indian Grey Hornbill
Indian Grey Hornbill
Indian Grey Hornbill
Indian Grey Hornbill
Greater Coucal
Indian Roller
The Roller can really look angry and sullen like no other bird
Black-rumped Flameback
Black-rumped Flameback
Black-rumped Flameback
Operating the boom
Time to enter the park
We were soon back at the gate waiting and I had a Black-rumped Flameback Woodpecker checking out one of the poles supporting the roof, well, pile of twigs over the area where they were cooking the food. So I was quite close to the Woodpecker
The Black-rumped Flameback are usually very shy but this one wasn't and it was fun to watch the Woodpecker. The jeeps were soon start to move and the guy at the boom got busy pulling and slacking the rope to the boom.
And below we can find some of the pictures from this morning's safari/ game drive
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
Black-rumped Flameback
Black-rumped Flameback
Black-rumped Flameback
Jackal
Pench River
Pench River
is an Indian tributary of the Kanhan River. It originates in the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh and flows across Pench National Park, which is a reserve for the Tiger Project of India.
The two big dams of the Pench River supply water to the city of Nagpur and to the big thermal power plant located there
The river separates Pench National Park into two halves, east and west Pench. The Pench Tiger Reserve derives its name after the Pench River, which flows from north to south across the reserve. The reserve is situated on the south of the Satpura Hill Ranges in the Seoni District and Chhindwara District in the Madhya Pradesh state of India. The topography is undulating, with most of the area enclosed by small hill ranges and abrupt slopes on all the sides.
The Pench River flowing through the centre of the Reserve is usually dry by April, but a number of water pools, locally known as dohs, are found along the course of the river. These serve as waterholes for wild animals. A few perennial springs also exist in the region. Recently, a number of earthen ponds and shallow wells have been created, providing well-distributed sources of water across the reserve.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pench River
We drove down to Pench River and the river was almost dry. We drove out on the river bed but it was still too far to the remaining water. We could see that there were many birds. Egrets and Herons and I saw a Grey Heron, the second Grey Heron since I arrived to India. We saw a Painted Stork and a Asian Openbill.
Asian Openbill is a large stork, but when the Painted Stork landed next to the Asian Openbill the Openbill looked very small. The Openbill got scared and ran away.
I was a wee bit disappointed that we could not get any closer as I would have loved to observe the birds. And we saw a River tern and this is a bird I would have liked to come close to.
Painted Stork
Painted Stork landing next to a Asian Openbill in Pench National Park
Painted Stork
Painted Stork landing next to a Asian Openbill in Pench National Park
Painted Stork
Painted Stork landing next to a Asian Openbill in Pench National Park
Painted Stork
Painted Stork landing next to a Asian Openbill in Pench National Park
Grey Heron
Grey Heron chase away a White Egret
Grey Heron
Grey Heron chase away a White Egret
Grey Heron
Grey Heron chase away a White Egret
Pench River
Alexandrine Parakeet
Alexandrine Parakeet
Alexandrine Parakeet
A nilgai baby (Boselaphus tragocamelus), sometimes called nilgau
A nilgai baby (Boselaphus tragocamelus), sometimes called nilgau
Ruddy shelduck, Brahminy duck
Ruddy shelduck, Brahminy duck
A long tailed Langur monkey with a baby
A long tailed Langur monkey with a baby
A long tailed Langur monkey eating fruit
A long tailed Langur monkey eating fruit
A long tailed Langur monkey eating fruit
A long tailed Langur monkey eating fruit
A Sambar Deer on the back legs eating
A Sambar Deer on the back legs eating
Crested Serpent Eagle
Spotted Deer
Spotted Deer
Spotted Deer
Spotted Deer
Spotted Deer
Indian Gum Tree - Indian Ghost Tree
Sterculia urens
is a species of plant in the family Malvaceae. It is native to India and has been introduced into Burma. A small to medium-sized tree with a pale-coloured trunk, it is commonly known as the भुत्या in Marathi (meaning ghost tree), kulu, Indian tragacanth, gum karaya, katira, sterculia gum or kateera gum. The specific name urens refers to the stinging hairs present on the flowers.
Indian Gum Tree - Indian Ghost Tree
Turtles
Spotted Deer
Spotted Deer
Little Cormorant
Among others I have used Peter Ericsson's web page Birds of Thailand These galleries contain 668 species of the Birds of Thailand and have been of a great help to identify some of the birds as the birds in Thailand and India are, well, many of them are the same.
I have had most help from my friend, the bird pal I met at Suan Rot Fai. Sending pictures of birds I have not been able to identify to him via Line. 3 minutes later he and he have managed to identify most of the birds I have had problems with. THANKS! Visit his web page m☥lever for his beautiful pictures.
And my new aid, maybe, and I say maybe the best aid. I brought my mobile phone as my SIM card have stopped working and I tried to get it to work again so I can use the internet. Thus I had my phone in my pocket on my first game drive in Jim Corbett National Park.
We saw a bird and I asked my Guide and the driver if they had a pen and a paper as I had forgot my pen and paper in my room. I remembered my LG phone and I recorded the name. And thus I will always bring my phone. Writing the name in the car and I have found more than once that it can be hard to read what I had wrote when I'm back in my room.
So now I always have my mobile in my pocket and it has been a great help.
Of course, all bird pictures available on my Indian
bird checklist of bird I have seen by clicking HERE
Of course, I have seen many many more, but this list is for birds I managed to get on picture
Some of the pictures are OK, and some of them are straight up in a very poor quality
It was a beautiful morning in the park, the best sight today was the Spotted Deer drinking water. We drove back to the hotel and we passed under the Grey Hornbill tree. But it is too hot and the birds were all gone. We will see them tomorrow morning again.
Now I will have to spend the afternoon in my room until 2 thirty when we are back in the park for our afternoon game drive. I stopped in the mess room to see if they had tea, cheese & onion omelette and toast. I was reaching for the salt jar and I discovered that the salt jar was filthy by old food remains and, well, it was not an appetizer to see that.
The toast was OK, but I will not come back to the mess room again.
The clock was soon 2 thirty and we took off to the gate for yet another safari.
We stopped at the Grey Hornbill tree so we continued to the gate. Afternoon and the birds are having their siesta in the midday heat. That's why I was upset about the opening times. 8 thirty and it is soon time for the bird's siesta. Tigers and leopards don't like the heat and they are not moving so much during the day time.
So even if it is a pain in the arse it is better to start the safari at 6 thirty.
Rufous treepie
Controlled fires
Long tailed Langur with baby
Long tailed Langur with baby
Long tailed Langur with baby
Long tailed Langur with baby
Long tailed Langur with baby
Indian Scops Owl
On the way back to the gate
We has a beautiful game drive during the afternoon and time passed very quickly. The sun was disappearing behind the trees and we drove back towards the gate. We spotted a jeep on the way back and they had stopped in the dirt track and they were looking at the right side of the dirt track.
My Driver spotted a tiger mom and 4 baby tigers just about to cross the road and he was very excited. I could see the tigers but it was impossible to take any pictures. It was a bumpy ride and when we stopped they had crossed the road and they were now on the left side of the dirt track and we were parked on the right side of the road.
I cranked up the ISO speed but I didn't cranked up the ISO speed enough as I was afraid for grainy pictures.
Mama tiger and one of the babies
2 of the babies
Mama tiger and one of the babies
The tigers disappeared over a hill and we took off to see them from the other side of the hill as we were so lucky that the dirt track did a U-turn around the hill. So if we were lucky we would see the tigers coming down on the other side of the hill. And we were lucky, we saw the tigers again.
We just watched them crossing the road and then we had to take off to the gate as we were already late. And again, I had to tell the people in the jeeps behind me to be quiet. TWO TIMES! And this is not my job, it is the Guides that should keep them quiet and to make sure the rules are followed in the park.
Mama tiger coming down the other side of the hill
3 of the 4 tiger babies
3 of the 4 tiger babies
Mama tiger and 1 baby
Mama tiger and 1 baby
Last tiger baby running after the mama tiger
Last tiger baby running after the mama tiger
Among others I have used Peter Ericsson's web page Birds of Thailand These galleries contain 668 species of the Birds of Thailand and have been of a great help to identify some of the birds as the birds in Thailand and India are, well, many of them are the same.
I have had most help from my friend, the bird pal I met at Suan Rot Fai. Sending pictures of birds I have not been able to identify to him via Line. 3 minutes later he and he have managed to identify most of the birds I have had problems with. THANKS! Visit his web page m☥lever for his beautiful pictures.
And my new aid, maybe, and I say maybe the best aid. I brought my mobile phone as my SIM card have stopped working and I tried to get it to work again so I can use the internet. Thus I had my phone in my pocket on my first game drive in Jim Corbett National Park.
We saw a bird and I asked my Guide and the driver if they had a pen and a paper as I had forgot my pen and paper in my room. I remembered my LG phone and I recorded the name. And thus I will always bring my phone. Writing the name in the car and I have found more than once that it can be hard to read what I had wrote when I'm back in my room.
So now I always have my mobile in my pocket and it has been a great help.
Of course, all bird pictures available on my Indian
bird checklist of bird I have seen by clicking HERE
Of course, I have seen many many more, but this list is for birds I managed to get on picture
Some of the pictures are OK, and some of them are straight up in a very poor quality
We were back at the gate late and the Drivers and Guides risk to be banned for a month if they are late or if they drive on the wrong routes etc. But it was no problem today and we were soon on our way back to the Pench Jungle Camp for my last night at the place.
Tomorrow will be my last safari here in India. And we made a stop at the Grey Hornbill tree but by then it was too dark to see any birds. Anyway, the birds are sleeping by now so we were soon on our way again.
The evening was spent sitting in my bed with my laptop on my “self made” desk made of 2 cushions on top of a small stool and a bed side table. Neo-ethnic interiors is what they call it!
Well, it is the last day in my tent and I will go back home to Bangkok after the safari tomorrow with a stop at IBIS hotel in Bombay. I have asked for the car to come pick me up at 2 o'clock for transportation to the airport to Nagpur.
But we will start with a morning safari so this might turn out to be exciting. That's the thing with game drives, you never know what's around the corner, and suddenly you step in to an unexpected and sudden excitement and adventure. Just click HERE to find out if there is any excitements in Pench National Park. I wouldn't mind to see a Leopard before going home.
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.
Jiffy (also jiff)
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas
Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!
Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!
Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra
Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!