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My First Forest Safari (Tadoba)

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



This post first appeared on Kazuo-on-a-roll, please read the originial post: here

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My First Forest Safari (Tadoba)

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