I'm all set to take off for my first forest safari to see a lot of animals and THE tiger!
I stayed at a place called The Bamboo Forest Safari Lodge (http://www.bambooforest.in/ ), which is full of things to remind you of tigers
It has big tiger paintings at the reception
Miniature tiger paintings in my bedroom
Centuries old tiger doors
Wooden tiger panels
Life size sculpture of Sumatran tiger
And tiger door knobs
But it's the REAL tiger that I'm waiting to spot at the Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve
Moma says this park has the highest density of tigers in a given area, so I'm really happy that I will soon my tigers...
We drove past a tiny tiger shrine that nearby villagers built in respect of the powerful animal
This is where the villagers used to stay till they were shifted out safety to give more space to the tigers
And then I saw the tigress paw. I was told it was fresh, which means she walked across this place just a few minutes ago.
Moma told me to be very verrrrry silent because tigers don't like to hear noise. It reminded me of my school teachers
But as I waited for the tiger, there was a spotted deer called Cheetal, silently eating grass
It turned around and saw many more Cheetal with my binox (binoculars)
These two were busy saying hello and not eating grass
DC (Daddy Cool) said they're not saying Hello but are actually busy fighting. I loved so much action! It was pointless waiting for the tiger where there are so many Cheetal...because they always run away when the tiger comes
So we went to a nearby lake where the tiger often comes for its afternoon splash
Here too, the other animals were drinking water fearlessly
We waited....and waited...
Soon the Cheetal came in for some splash and sips too
Then the monkeys called, Langur, came in too
But they all looked like a beautiful painting and they were all silent and happy, it seems
I was happy to see the bigger deer called Sambar. They're always busy eating grass and are not shy of us
A second one hopped in and they kept staring at me before vanishing into the woods
I found this bird very funny and very brave. Its called the Savanna Nightjar and sleeps on the ground through the day with half open eyes. It doesn't feel that it needs to hide because it is very confident of its camouflage.
When I raised my eyes, I saw a blueish grey colour animal. I recognized this animal because I had seen it in Bharatpur as well. It is called the Nilgai and it looks like a half cow - half deer
I liked this white colour tree called the Ghost Tree
For me, the tiger was the ghost who kept playing hid n seek with me
I was feeling a bit sad and thirsty
I drove back to my lodge, dreaming about the tigers...
My open-sky bath tub cheered me up a lot
I sank into my cozy charpoy, reading my Jungle Book with DC
And did some colouring with Moma right outside the green patch of my cottage
I swang a bit under the tree
And then bathed my Spiderman in this fountain
My dinning hall had a large painting of Leopard cubs
And my reading room had more toy tigers
With a tiger rug to roll on
And shelves full of animal books
I picked the book on tigers and sat on the tiger couch, before ending my day
The next morning, I woke up excited. The tiger tiles on the floor gave me hope to find the real tigers today
I spent some time at the deck with the cool morning breeze
Moma and I spotted some cows grazing at the faraway lake
DC and I sat at the frog-fountain pond
But DC ran away because of the tiger behind us. Hehehe...I knew that this wasn't real
We sat in our Mahindra jeep which is specially designed to make the ride safe and comfortable
I saw another deer eating grass. But this deer is much more shy than the others
It is called the Barking Deer. I really liked the white colour next to its bottom. It noticed my staring at him.
So he soon hopped over and ran away
I saw another animal busy chewing some grass again
It's called the Bison and it looks like it wear white socks
But when it looked up, it was very scary and fierce
I drove away but the monkeys (Langoor) decided to block our way. So we waited till their meeting was over!
Luckily, there was movement in the grass. Like a black shadow, it was hiding from us. Moma says this is a Sloth Bear which is rare to spot and even the tiger is scared to eat it
It looked back at me once to say hello before it got lost in the grass
With a bleeding nose and a hot head, my search for the tiger continued
I made a stop for some breakfast and cold milk
Back on the road with eyes longing for the big cat
That's when the unexpected happened. It was a big cat but another one, emerging from behind the tree
His colours match with the dry grass and the trees and I could hardly see it
His name is Collar-wala because he wears a collar gifted by the forest uncles to keep track of him
He walked slowly across the dry grass. He was in no hurry. And he didn't run into the woods, shy or scared.
He gave me one last look with his yellow eyes and strolled deeper into the grass
I saw the leopard, I saw the leopard, I saw the leopard
We came across a traffic jam in the jungle! All the cars were silently waiting for the tiger but they never came....
The tigers that I missed seeing were these popular ones. Gabbar, the big male and Maya, the mother with her cubs
Moma was very unhappy but DC said this poster is the moral of the story.
Thank you Moma and DC for taking me to my first animal safari