Jungle Safari : What to Expect

Friends, Many of you seem to be interested in a jungle safari, after seeing my Bandhavgarh pictures. I am giving brief information about such tours.

Jungle Safaris in India are usually organised in the forests, which are under 'Project Tiger', as most of the tourists are interested in Tiger siting. The most frequented jungle are 'Kanha', 'Bandhavgarh' in Madhya Pradesh, 'Corbett National Park' in Uttaranchal, 'Ranthamore' in Rajasthan, 'Sasan Gir in Gujarat and 'Tadoba-Andahari' in Maharashtra. Most of these jungles are open for 9 months of the year and closed during rainy season, except Tadoba, which is open even during monson.

Most of these forests have very good accommodation facilities around the buffer zone. You need to at least have 4-5 trips in the jungle, twice a day to cover reasonable area. These jungles have katchha roads and you can travel in open Gypsies specially converted for such tours. Every forest has a Gate manned by Forest Officers. Every vehicle that goes inside is registered and a local guide is assigned to accompany you. You are not allowed to get down from your vehicle a any point.

These guides are well versed about the animals and birds that are found in that particular forest. They are well informed about the tiger movement in the jungle. It is advisable to talk very softly during these trips, as it is very important for these guides to listen to the calls of animals to ascertain the tiger movement. Usually people are only interested in seeing the Tiger and whenever the guide tries to shows them any other animal or bird, he is not paid required attention. Tiger siting is a sheer luck. Tiger movement is so fast that if you are late even by a minute, you will miss him. So first thing that you should keep in mind is don’t get disappointed if you don’t get to see the tiger. Experiencing the jungle is much more than that. There are more endangered species of birds than tiger, and so many animals, which are very rare to spot. If you get to see Leopard or a Jungle Cat, it is regarded as a rare siting than that of a tiger. So whenever you go for such safaris, talk less and keep you eyes are ears alert.

Usually you can take round in all these forests twice in a day. Park opens at 6am. So you should be ready in you Gypsy at the gate of the park at 6am. You have to finish your morning round by 10am. So you get almost 4 hours in the jungle. This is the time when the tiger movement is most expected. The park closes in the afternoon and reopens by 2-3pm for the evening safari. The park closes at 6pm, as after sunset the jungle gets too dark. No one is allowed to stay in the jungle at night, other that the forest officials.

Other than these rules, every park has its own set of rules, which needs to be followed strictly. Keep in mind, to leave the forest in the same condition as you have entered. No littering please.

The organisers Mr. Abay Joshi and Mr. Madhav Athavle with whom I went to Bhandhavgarh are going to organise similar jungle safaris to Tadoba, Gir, Kanha and Bandhavgarh in coming months. Please contact any of them if you are interested in participating.

Abhay Joshi : 9930561667 Madhav Athavle : 9819774814

So are you ready to fill your lungs with some fresh air?

Amritsar Trip - 10 March 2009 Day 3

Now be ready for the real twist in the story. We were enjoying the car drive on the Grand Trunk Road. Sugarcane, Wheat fields lined the NH1 and showed off the prosperity of this region. Between the fields, we could see huge bunglows or Kothis of rich Punjabi farmers. We saw all possible brands of cars on this highway. I was busy admiring the affluent countryside and then suddenly, I noticed Sheila, who was still a bit down because she did not get a chance to see snow in Shimla. While trying to consol her, I just remarked, “Why can’t we just go to Srinagar? How Omar Abdulla was skiing at Gulmarg that day?. There is a lot of snow in Gulmarg at present.”

That did it. Both Sheila and Yasmin latched on to this idea immediately. Even I did not need further encouragement and started making calls to Ajaz Khar, the houseboat owner, in whose houseboat we stayed last time. He made it look too simple. He asked me to go to Jammu from Amirtsar, which is 5-6 hours drive. From Jammu, he suggested me, to catch a flight to Srinagar. He also extended help in booking air tickets and booking accommodation at Jammu. I needed to think before I said yes to him. I went back to my friends and made sure that they really want to rearrange this program and go to Kashmir. Once I got their O.K., I went back to the storyboard (mentally) and figured out the new itinerary. I realised that we have to finish the sightseeing in Amritsar by noon on March 10^th and leave for Jammu. We should be on the flight to Srinagar on March 11^th for this plan to work. Now I also figured that lot depends on our driver. I pleaded with his to reach us Amritsar on time for the Wagha Border show in the evening. We started negotiating with his to take us to Jammu in his car. But he was asking us for the fare from Amritsar to Jammu and from Jammu to Chandigarh, as his car was from Chandigarh. This fare was coming to about Rs.2500/-, which was costly. When we told him that, he came up with a brilliant idea. He said “Madam, you don’t worry, from Amritsar, you will be able to catch a A.C bus for Jammu, which will take you in Rs.250/- per person.” He also said that he knew the bus stops and he will make sure that he puts us on that bus.

After making sure that it is possible and feasible to travel from Amritsar to Jammu, I moved on to the main part of this plan. I again spoke to Ajaz Khar to give us a 3 nights stay with car rental for Gulmarg and Pahalgam. He quoted me something like Rs.19000/-, which was Rs.3000/- per day for stay and Rs.3000/- per day for travel including airport transfers. I found this quite steep and told him so. I decided to drop a stay at houseboat and look for a hotel stay instead after we reach Srinagar. But we requested Ajaz to go ahead and book a room for us at Jammu JKTDC hotel, which he agreed to book. Now I dialed justdial services and got contact nos of all the low cost airlines like Goair etc. After calling one or two I found out that GoAir is a better option. They offered me fare of Rs.1640/- from Jammu-Srinagar, and Rs.6700/- for Srinagar-Mumbai sector. I went ahead and did the bookings by using my credit card.

Before I could finished tweaking the whole travel plan, it was already a lunch time. We were in Punjab, so what could be better than to have a lunch at a roadside dhabba., These dhabas or small restaurants, which are very basic in ambiance, cutlery and other auxiliary services, but they offer excellent local Punjabi food. Off course, you cannot be dead sure of theses restaurants either. You have to take a chance. We did exactly that, and were very lucky. We ate the local food with some Punjabi vegetable with Tandori rotis. You cannot leave a Dhaba without drinking the very famous Punjabi Lassi, i.e. Sweet buttermilk. It comes in a very big glass. We enjoyed the food and the lassi made us full to the brink.

After lunch the drive was a bit boring as there was a lot of traffic on the road. We were all anxious to reach Amritsar in time to drop our luggage at the guest house and then go to Wagha border before the evening show. By the time we reached Amiritsar it was almost 2.30 pm. He hurriedly kept our luggage in our room and after a refreshing tea left for Wagha border.

Amritsar Trip - 9 March 2009 Day 2

The next day we set out in our car for sightseeing in Shimla. Sheila had her fingers crossed till we reached Khufri Mountain. But as we were approaching the place in our hearts we already knew that we are not going to see even a trace of snow in his hot weather. So after reaching there, I did not even get out of our car and proceeded to Mall Road after momentarily stopping at Shimla House. As school exams were still going on, there were not many tourists around. We loiter on mall road, lakkad bazaar, did some shopping, and ate our meal in a famous restaurant Opp. Church on mall road. It was not very cool but windy, so we were still wearing our sweaters. We returned to our car by 3pm. The car dropped us at the Shimla station as we were supposed to travel back by the legendary Toy train “Shivalik Express”. There is only a 1^st class in this train, and this is a Rajdhani Class train. As a result of the very high fare (Rs.238/-) as compared to other passenger trains (Rs.39/-), the train was relatively empty. There are in all 18 seats in each compartment. There is one attendant in each one, who served us food and water. Our car driver was instructed to go ahead and wait for us at Kalka station. As we left our luggage in the car itself, we were saved from lifting the heavy bags. This is a different train journey with 108 tunnels. We enjoyed the scenery till we can, before it became dark. This train journey take almost 4 and half hours and take you to Kalka at 10.pm. Our driver was waiting for us who reached here little after 6pm. in just two hours. From Kalka the car took us to Chandigarh at our guesthouse.

Amritsar Trip - Photos

Please Click Here to view pics of my Amritsar-Kashmir Trip March 2009.

Amritsar Trip - 8 March 2009 Day 1

Even this trip was planned in my morning train travel. For Mumbaikars this is no surprise. We in Mumbai travel far for work. And being very social like other Indians, we cannot stop from chatting to the person sitting next to us. This is how we form long lasting friendships in these journeys. Since we have reserved compartments for ladies, we gel better sharing each other’s joys, sorrows and problems. So when Sheila and Yasmin saw a movie of Shah Rukh Khan “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”, and wanted to visit Golden Temple in Amritsar, they told me to plan for the trip. They also wanted my mother and My husband, Nandu to accompany. In short they wanted to relive the magic of our Kashmir Group.

I did the planning as per everybody’s availability. My mother opted out as she had visited the place before. The itinerary was Mumbai-Chandigarh-Shimla-Chandigarh-Amritsar-Chandigarh-Mumbai. This was a 7 days plan From Saturday, 7^th March to Saturday 14^th March, as we were going to fly to and fro Mumbai-Chandigarh.

Shimla cropped up in this plan much later as somebody told Sheila that in early March you would get to see snow in Shimla. She always wanted to see snow in India. We came to know just one week before that Nandu would not be able to join us as would be going to UK for office work. That left only 3 of us, Myself, Sheila and Yasmin.

We left Mumbai on 7^th March by Kingfisher and reached Chandigarh by 5.15pm. We had arranged for a car, which was waiting for us at the airport. We immediately started our onward journey to Shimla. Chandigarh – Shimla is around 3-4 hours by road. The road is totally through hills. It is well maintained and smooth. Every bit of journey is evident of Shimla being a summer capital of British Raj. We reached Shimla around 9pm. We were taken directly to the guesthouse we were put up at. Accommodation for this whole trip was courtesy one of our best friend. She arranged for our say in her company guesthouse. I am not going to divulge her name, not because of the fear of a long line of my other friends, at her door, but for purely selfish reason. I don’t want to jeopardize my chance for many more such trips.

We were served a nice, freshly cooked dinner and were provided a sufficient bedding to keep the chilly weather away from our bodies.

Valley of Flowers – The Valley

We got up early to find our prayers have been answered. This was the weather anybody will want to have in the Himalayas throughout the year. After looking at the bright sun smiling at us, we got in action and started our trek after a good breakfast at 7.30 am as decided. We packed sandwiches and stuffed parathas for lunch. In 15-20 mins we reached the gates of the valley. Here you have to register yourselves. Beyond this point you cannot take mules. So people who cannot walk much take pithoos to carry them. These locals, tiny fellows but they carry a load of 60-65kgs easily. If a person is really fat or big then they charge you more but they don’t give up. So nobody should avoid going to the valley because of the fear of having to walk or climb. If your pithoo feels tired or the climb is too steep, he would request you to get off his back and walk a bit. And no one really minds that.

This is one of the most picturesque treks that I have experienced. This reminded me of the Shivaji’s Forts of Maharashtra, that I have climbed. The path to the valley is a sand laden, narrow way. Its easy to walk on sand instead of the stone laden, mule tracks of Ghangria or Vashodevi. You have to get down one hill and climb another and then walk a lot (total 3kms) to reach a point from where the whole valley is visible. The total area of the valley is around 22kms. But as there is no facility of staying in the valley, we have to return to Ghangria before evening. So people with scientific interest of research on the flora walk deep inside the valley, but people interested in scenic beauty are easily satisfied. As you trek to reach this point, river Pushpavati is flowing beside the track. We pass between two huge mountain peaks after climbing this hill and we are presented with first view, though half, of the valley which is breathtaking. After this point we were so much motivated that we accelerated our pace. The funny part is the mountains are so huge; they appear closer than they actually are. So we kept on walking for another hour and a half. We passed a famous glacier, which is now broken and we didn’t have to walk on the snow as it has receded.

Walking for another half an hour we came to the point from where the valley is visible. Here there is a makeshift bridge on the Pushpavati, which you have to be careful while crossing. It looks quite jittery, but it is OK. You cross this bridge and walk a bit more to reach the very famous Rock that we see in most of the valley pictures. From here onwards a proper walking rock laden track leads you inside the valley. On both sides of this track we see loads of tiny flowers of different varieties. From this walk its further 1-hour walk to the Grave of the Mary Legge an enthusiastic botanist and explorer who lost her life in the Valley. In 1939, Miss Margarate Legge, a botanist deputed by the botanical gardens of Edinburgh arrived at the valley for further studies. While she was traversing some rocky slopes to collect flowers, she had a fatal slip. Her sister later visited the valley and erected a memorial on the spot where she was buried by the locals. The following words are inscribed on the stone:

"I will lift mine eyes unto the Hills

from whence cometh my help."

Actually everyone goes at least till this grave before returning from the valley. But we were tired so we decided to sit on a big rock and instead of just walk, walk, we opted to relax and enjoy the natural beauty around us. The weather-gods were still pleased with us and kept the rain clouds away. So I was able to keep clicking whatever I can. We all posed for the camera in front of different backgrounds, caused everything around us looked so beautiful. We finished our lunch and just started having the idea of walking further inside the valley, the weather around us started to change. Our guide told us not to venture inside the valley, because it can start raining anytime. He wanted us to return back to our base before it starts raining. It gets chilling cold after it rains here. We took his advice and thank God for what we got to see and without getting greedy, started our journey back very satisfied and content.

Valley of Flowers – Hemkund Sahib

I got up at 5am and looked outside. It was raining and everything was misty. I was very disappointed to see that. Bina was very much tired after the last days walk and wanted to rest. As suggested by Nandu, we decided to go to Hemkund Sahib on a horseback. We hired 2 horses as even Muneera wanted to stay back with Bina. By the time we sat on the horse by 7am, the mist was cleared a bit and we were able to see the mountain peak of Hemkund Sahib. This is a 6km of trek, pretty steep ascent that takes you to the height of 14000ft. This is a very narrow road. The pilgrims who were walking must be finding it very difficult to climb it at the same time save themselves from the coming in a way of horses. Many times my horse would go so close to the people walking that my shoes would brush their perfectly white clothes.

We reached Hemkund at 9.15am. Sun had come out from the mist. The gurudwara and the lake in front of that were looking picturesque. But due to the height, and our sudden rise, I started feeling giddy. Was not able to walk properly. I wanted to go around the lake and take pictures of the gurudwara from the other end but somehow I felt that I am not able to do that. Meanwhile Nandu got convinced by one young Sikh pilgrim to take a dip in the holy water. When he put his feet inside to see how cold the water was, he wanted to run away. But being the atheist to the core, he gathered the courage and took a dip in the Kund. For ladies they have separate arrangements for a holy bath. Then we went inside the Gurdwara covering our heads, which is mandatory. Here they give you blankets as almost everyone is out of the icy water and the air around you is icy cool as well. Here we went around the Granth Sahib and sat with other devotees. Though we could not follow most of the prayers, as they were being recited in Gurubani, but we lowered our heads and prayed. In the end we joined everyone when they screamed “Wahe Guru Di Fateh, Wahe Guru Da Khalasa”. By this time we have heard this so many times from Govindghat that it was by heart now.

We did not wait to have Lunghar food as I was not feeling comfortable. I now feel that if we had spend some more time there and had eaten some of the lunghar food, we could have got acclimatized. We started our descent and within no time we were down in Ghangria. By 2pm we reached the guesthouse, where warm food was waiting for us. We ate properly and took some rest after the lunch.

In the evening we went about loitering in the market place. Then we visited the Shop of Wild life Photographer and trekker Rajnish. We also attended a 45 min. documentary film on Vallery of flowers at the tourist center just next to our guesthouse. Before retiring for a day we spoke to one guide for the valley of flowers trek. He said he would arrange the packed lunch, water and two pithoos, one for Muneera and the other for our backpacks. We went to sleep early, praying that next day should be clear day, so that our Valley of flowers trek, the main attraction of this rigorous trip could be a success.