The Jungle Book

As I mentioned in my description of my coming trip to Finland I want to do some more wildlife watching in the future and not just go running. And my trip to Finland has ended up not being the only one planned for this year.

Going to Africa I have always enjoyed looking for the cats because there is something very elegant about them. And whether you’re looking at a small house cat or a large lion on the African plains, they all have the exact same mannerisms. It’s quite funny when noticing it. But I have never seen a tiger in the wild.

That’s going to change this year.

28th – 30th of October

Flying out to Delhi, leaving morning and arriving near mid-night where I’ll check into the hotel where I’ll be staying for two nights before flying out to Nagpur where we’ll go on a 3-hour drive to Pench National Park. The full day in Delhi is the official start day for the tour so that’s when the group and guide will be meeting.

31st of October – 1st of November

The plan is to have 4 game drives in Pench NP during the following two days. Apparently this area was what was the inspiration for The Jungle Book. There are supposed to be app. 45 tigers and leopards, monkeys, deer and plenty of birds, so no risk of getting bored. That would be a bit too soon this early on the trip.

2nd – 5th of November

Transfer to Kanha National Park – a short distance but apparently a 4 hour drive. We are in no rush at all. Here we’ll be going on 5 drives trying to find any of the app. 500 tigers present in the park. Apart from tigers there are hundreds of wildlife species so we’ll have plenty to see along the way.

6th – 9th of November

Moving on, this time to Bandhavgarh National Park – a slightly longer drive of 6-7 hours. There are 60-70 tigers in the park, but due to the size of the park (or rather lack of it) it has the highest density of tigers in India. Also leopards, sloth bears, various other cats and up to 150 different kinds of birds. The 6 game drives here I suspect will be busy.

10th – 11th of November

Transfer to Katni where we’ll catch an overnight train to Agra. Getting there in the morning we’ll check into the hotel after which vi visit the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort.

12th – 13th of November

The following day we’ll be driving back to Delhi where we’ll arrive in the afternoon. The tour officially ends on the 13th after breakfast, but as I have a flight that day at 0200 (that’s AM) I’ll be leaving for the airport in the evening after we arrive at the hotel.

I am really looking forward to this trip. I have long wanted to see tigers in the wild and this is I hope will saturate that desire. It was surprisingly difficult to find a tour that only did tiger safaris; most trips included cultural stuff and days off, but wanting to solely do a safari that felt like a waste of time. Finding a tour spending two days on non-safari activities (Agra) is ok – considering we are in the relative neighborhood it would be weird not to pass by. 

I think this is going to be amazing.