Finally it's Tigers
 

Dear all,

Well finally I am off to bandhavgarh, mahua kothi for 4 nights from the 20th...of december. will keep all posted regarding mahua kothi

Sonali

Lucky you! Best wishes.

Can't wait to read all about it. We'll be at Mahua Kothi from February 2 to 5. I'm particularly interested in whether jeeps carry enough binoculars so we don't have to drag ours all over India. I'd also like to know what time afternoon game drives start so we can be sure to leave Khajuraho early enough to get there in time. Any info on tipping during an Indian safari will be much appreciated as well.

Have a great trip!

Yay! I probably mentioned that we saw the Mahua Kothi vehicle out on training drives during our trip and then, on our last day, their first actual game drive with customer.

Courteous and very well trained drivers/ guides.

And no doubt the accommodation and food will be top notch!

And the tiger sightings, I'm sure, will be excellent!

Hello all,

HOPE TO SEE SOME FANTASTIC TIGERS

Marija, will definately answer all your questions once I am back

Kavey, keeping my fingers crossed for tiger sightings,

Lynn, thanks for your best wishes

Sonali

Sonali~Have a great trip and hope you see all the tigers! Aloha!

Hi Sonali

What a great Xmas treat! I wish for you some wonderful gameviewing! Love to hear the details on your return!

Kind regards

Kaye

Hi Sonali,

Enjoy!!! Pl keep us all posted with your sightings ........ also look forward to the details of getting to Bandhavgarh after your trip.

Two questions for you find out from the lodge - Opening date for their Kanha lodge and if/when they plan on doing fly in safaris (the lodge ppl at Baghvan told me that this being planned) .....

Thanks
Hari

Marija,

Your question on tipping - Taj safaris have a specific pool tipping at the end of your stay (unlike African safaris). Here you tip in total (including for your ranger/guide). Amount obviously is left to you ...... They are pretty particular about the above. My assumption is, without a proper salary package these educated rangers can find alternative employment without a problem in modern India.

Hari

Have fun. You seem to be going during the Xmas holidays which ensures you will have a lot of company (;. Are you planning to trek to the fort? (I do not know if it is off limits). Are you planning to take the canned tiger tour in the morning or taking your chances during the day? If you see a tiger outside the canned tiger tour, it will be a sight to remember. We saw a tigress with 2 cubs but we had two chance encounters at Kanha.

Sonali, finally back on the forum and off so soon on an exciting adventure. Have a wonderful time. I wish you many tigers!

Hari,

What do you recommend as a pooled tip per person per day?

Marija,

Just do that in Rupees ....... Rupees 5000 per person or something like that at the end of your 3 nights. The lodge people were really hesitant about making any suggestions in terms of the amount.

bearable, I'm curious as to what you mean by "the canned tiger tour"? When we were in Bandhavgarh last year we did morning and afternoon game drives and, with the exception of the first couple of hours of the morning, when the route was slightly restricted, meaning there were more vehicles about, we did our own thing and took routes that meant we seldom encountered many other vehicles, even though there were many in the park. This meant we had some great tiger sightings on our own or sometimes with just one other vehicle.

The only element that was hugely canned (and which we didn't repeat after the first experience as we didn't like it at all) was the elephant back tours - all the drivers were assigned a ticket number and then queued up on the road where the elephants had found the tigers. Each vehicle then took their turn for a 5-10 minute ride into the forest to see the tigers, take pics and come back. For this the vehicles had to wait for a considerable in parked line on the road. Uugh! Wasted time, very frustrating. Whilst we got close to the tigers I didn't like the experience at all.

hello all,

thanks kavey, I was frankly confused in answering bearable's question....I think kavey has answered rather well.

bearable, I have done the elephant sighting and the natural sightings of tigers in Kanha,

I think I saw atleast 5 natural sighting in kanha when I was there in feb/march 2006. I have posted a trip report on the forum.

I even enjoyed the elephant sightings, u get really close to the tiger and get good photos

CCafrica are known for excellent guides and trackers, so I think spotting tigers naturally on a four night stay should be very good.. as
bandhavgarh has the highest density of tigers per sq.km in the world

Marija, happy to see that hari has solved your tiping question

Hari, I am flying from ahmedabad to indore, then taking the narmada express(first class AC) to umaria and reach around 10 in the morning, giving me the whole day at mahua, returning in the afternoon 4' o clock train, so I can enjoy the last morning instead of rushing to catch the train...

I choose this because otherwise I have to fly to delhi take a flight to jabalpur and it is a long drive of 190 km on terrible roads to mahua, umaria is only 30 km from mahua, this seemed the best option.

I will inquire about fly-in safaris and keep u posted

CCafrica are also opening banjaar tola in kanha very soon, which should be terrific. IMO the ccafrica taj lodges, will be the best place in the world to watch tigers in a natural setting

Thanks dennis,Kayen,leely for wishing me a good trip, will keep you posted as I am sure u wanna come to see the tigers,

Sonali

Sonali
We definitely had some wonderful "natural" sightings of tigers during our drives.
Some of the guides/ drivers from other camps were atrocious (most, infact) but we were very lucky with our driver who was extremely experienced, a superb and safe driver, understood the concept of quiet viewing rather than shouting and revving, and was great at understanding alarm calls and getting us to the right place. Infact I think our guide really relied on him rather than doing much himself. Our driver was clearly very well known and respected by ever other driver we met. Mukesh was his name, I think, though I'd have to check in my trip diary.
The drivers/ guides from CCAfrica struck me as very well trained and with same sensibilities as our driver though they had the benefit of CCAfrica training. Our driver somehow broke the mold without that training!

Kavey, that's great to know you got a good fellow, even I was lucky in Kanha as I went with friends who go every year to kanha and they knew the best guide,otherwise it's really terrible... I believe we should have a kpsga type of training school in india with ratings, hope that will happen, Sonali

That would be great... the behaviour of some of the guides/ drivers was SHOCKING...

Dear all,

kavey,I hope that a training school which educates the locals,on guiding/tracking/languages are started by people who own properties,it would give livelyhood and education to the locals and prevent poaching,Sonali

marija, the afternoon game drive starts at 2:30 pm so you need to be at the lodge by atleast 12 'ish, and they do lend you binos(will check how they are, should be good),hope this helps,

Sonali