November 18, 2009
The park was not at its best. Recent rain meant that the better trails were not available. We saw Spotted and Sambar deer, common leaf monkeys, storks, and peacocks. Peacocks are everywhere in India, or at least everywhere with a bit of nature nearby. There were definitely no tigers.
It was a decent outing but I wasn't terribly impressed. Not with what we saw, not with the behavior of the guide, and not with the near 100% markup the hotel charged to book the safari. I decided not to do an afternoon safari since they are almost always inferior to morning outings. I would book my train for Udaipur and work with whatever time that left me.
India's rail system is remarkable for it's complexity and lack of accurate documentation. Walk into a “computerized” reservation office and you will find a table showing many trains, their sources, an their final destinations. Maybe they all come here but there's no way of knowing when or if they stop at any other station you might be headed. Looking at my handy map of the entire India rail system, a direct train to Udaipur should be impossible. But I have tickets. They aren't the day or class I wanted but I suppose non-AC sleeper on Tuesday will do.
It was too late to book a morning so, with another day to play with, I chose to relax and defer to the next day.
I went to the forest office to do an end run around the hotel markup. I was told: no advance booking. Getting up extra early and fighting for a spot was possible but not really what I wanted. I moseyed over to the Internet cafe to see if (forever broken) online booking might actually work. I am amazed and I have a confirmed seat for the morning. I will decide what to do with the afternoon later.
With an advance reservation, the morning safari was pretty straight forward. We were one of the first to the park with a pretty decent guide. He claimed to be a senior guide and did seem a bit more capable than the guide from the first outing. He was tracking a female tiger, sending our jeep down some very rough trail in the process but she outfoxed him, being glimpsed by a canter (big, noisy, open bus) but not by us. He apologized profusely saying he “never misses”.
In a long pause looking for tiger signs, we learned that a male tiger had been spotted. We zoomed to the far side of lake. Off in the distance we could see a small spot in the grass that might have stripes. I guess that qualifies as a ‘sighting’.
But the stripes moved and we were off to the other side of the lake. This time, the views were close and clear and Mr Tiger calmly but firmly maneuvered through the mechanized paparazzi and into the open wilderness. Not exactly an authentic wild experience but it did make for good photography.
For the final safari, there didn't seem to be time to book in advance. (I might have just made it but I was waylaid but one of the hotel staff who wanted copies of some of my photos and wanted to trade a couple of large paintings for my laptop. I gave him the photos but I declined to part with my laptop.)
Booking my safari in the free for all was overly complicated, time consuming, and a bit tiring but it worked.
We saw no tigers this time but we had a better showing of other wildlife in the park. Monkeys, crocodiles, peacocks. Near the end, our guide picked out a Jungle Cat. This kitty did not want to be photographed, strategically maneuvering himself behind crass and brush to thwart us. Still, with help from back and forth maneuvering by the driver and by nearly stepping on another passenger, I managed a couple of acceptable shots. In some ways this was better than the tiger. With just our jeep, it seemed vastly more natural. Two cats in one day: sublime.
That evening was spent cleaning up, packing up, and generally getting ready for the night train to Udaipur. Maybe I could have seen more if I had stayed longer but there will be other parks and this way I leave on a high note.