We had always planned of visiting Keoladeo National Park at Bharatpur, Rajasthan, but it never materialized. Until November 2018. Nights were getting colder and the afternoon Sun had started losing its edge. News of migratory birds arriving in India had started floating. The plan to visit the Bird Sanctuary was on spur of the moment, as most good plans are. Once we had decided, we had two days to prepare for our trip, which included booking the hotel, researching, planning the itinerary etc.
The first thing we did was book a hotel at walking distance from the gate of the National Park. We found The Sunbird quite interesting. It was about 500 metres from the National Park and was also recommended by other bloggers. Then we packed the essentials, which included the following:
1) Comfortable Summer Clothes - long-sleeved, cotton, comfortable
2) Comfortable walking shoes
3) Sunglasses
4) Sunscreen
5) Binoculars
6) Camera and lenses
7) The last thing we put in the bag was our copy of A Pictorial Field Guide to the Birds of India, and I will tell you why we needed more time to pack the book in a while.
The next thing we did was make sure our car was equipped for the longish drive (~180km) across the state border. We checked that the insurance was valid and the pollution check was up to date. We also made sure that that the petrol was topped up and the tires were fine. Ours is an old car (>10 years) but has never given us trouble. We have clocked more than 1.3 lakhs kilometers on it and have also taken it on long drives. But we aren't seasoned highway drivers so extra precautions are needed.
The last thing we did before heading out was that we went through the website Avibase, and marked out all the birds we may come across at the national park. At that time, we did this more out of excitement, but later found out that this was a really helpful activity. When we saw new birds at the sanctuary, we found it easier to identify them immediately. Almost all the time we were aware of what we were seeing, and what we should look forward to. Once we had marked the birds, we put the book back into our sack.
We started the trip before dawn at around 5am. We took the expressway and then took the exit to the Hathras-Mathura Road. Then we took the Bharatpur-Mathura Road to reach the Keoladeo National Park in about 3 hours 30 minutes. Following is the route we followed.
We reached Bharatpur at about 9 am. The hotel wasn't ready for us by then so we decided to have breakfast and head to the park. We only had one light backpack so luggage wasn't a problem. We discovered that breakfast at Hotel Sunbird was very expensive, so we headed to the nearby Hotel Om Sai and had some really nice parathas with Dahi there and then a cup of tea each. The food here was tasty, but the service was slow, so be prepared for that if you choose this option.
From Hotel Om Sai, the entrance to the park was only about 300 metres. We reached there at about 10:30am and bought our tickets and then started our walk immediately.
