Kabini

Kabini

On Christmas morning you would expect joy and happiness and people opening presents and just sitting down and relaxing. Well that wasn’t the same for us. On Christmas morning in our house there was joy and happiness and people presents but in a hurry. There was also no sitting down and relaxing and instead we were eight people crammed in a seven seater on a road trip which would last about 5 hours. And I was in the back. With like, no leg room.

I had no idea where we are going and then was briefed by my mom who was also sitting uncomfortablely in the back with me. We were going to a forest area named Kabini and a place called Nuggu dam. We stopped for breakfast and then we changed the seating and finally I got to sit upfront. I was navigator for the last stretch. We crossed the main town Sargur and then we came across the road we were going to cross every day. At first I checked if the location was on and everything to check if we had come to the right road or not. The road was not listed on the maps and when we checked with the guide on the phone we realized we were on the right road. Except that there was no road.

So for the next 15 minutes we were traveling on no road. Thank God we were in a SUV. I bet the Honda city would never even reached the main campsite. After travelling on a ‘kachaa road’ we finally reached the main campsite. It was nothing like I expected it to be. I expected to find numerous tents and many people but there was one central building and nobody there. After exploring we saw that there were two rooms with a big and a small bed. I was a little disappointed to find no tents but when we asked the owner he said we can pitch a tent on the ground and sleep. We relaxed for a bit and had lunch and then we left for a safari in the Kabini national park. We went there and got onto a cramped bus. There was no space and I had to sit at the front with the driver. We started out and we saw the usual samba deer, mongoose and Indian gaur. The guy sitting next to me said that he was sure they were going to see a tiger because he believed that if he saw two mongooses then he was sure of seeing a tiger.

We then came to stretch where there were peacocks and elephants at a great distance. Because I had a beginner lens of 18-55 mm, my lens was not able to capture such long distance things. So the guy sitting next to me actually gave me his big lens 100-400 mm lens to me to use to capture the pictures. I was star struck. It was so heavy and I could hardly hold it. I rest it on the grill and I took some pictures. It was a little shaky because of the excitement and the weight.

We then moved on and were about to cross a bridge when a jeep in front of us signaled for use to stop. They said they had heard the call of an animal like a deer or an animal that is running for its life. They sensed a tiger would be nearby. So we waited, partly because we wanted to see the animal, partly because they were blocking the bridge. And then the tiger emerged.

All that I could hear was the clicking of the cameras of the photographers. The tiger lay still in the undergrowth. Then it came out and walked out to the pond of water and started drinking. It lay there drinking for a while and then got up and started walking up. Meanwhile an adolescent elephant crossed the road and walked up to the place of the tiger. The tiger reached his position but then suddenly stopped. It sensed danger. It stood, aware of its surroundings and then sensing no danger it stopped. Then it got up again and went into the bushes. But when we thought the show was over, Shah Rukh Khan stepped in. “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost.”

The elephant made a war cry. It chased the tiger. The tiger ran for its life and then we didn’t hear from them ever again. On the way back one guy started crying. He told us how he has been a photographer for 7 years and how he thought of quitting because he had never seen a tiger before. Kabini’s tagline, “Kabini doesn’t disappoint” has lived up to its standards.

When we got back we quickly wolfed down dinner and then started star-gazing. I had never seen so many stars in my life! We had a bonfire too. After that we called it a day and went to sleep.

The next day we woke up refreshed, ready to take on the day. We quickly crossed the trench surrounding our camp and left for a morning walk.

For the next hour we just walked around the reservoir and then went back. After that we went for a drive to the temple. On the way back from the temple we stopped at a small channel of water. We quickly jumped into the water for a refreshing swim. We were going to lounge around some more when some forest officials came and told us that this was prohibited and this was a very dangerous place. Any animal could just come and drink water or get washed away over here. So we went back to our camp.

In the evening we went up a hill to view the sunset and that place just happened to be a temple. We went in and prayed and then came out and watched the sunset. We had a competition and we bet when the sun would set. In the end the winner was nanaji who got the exact timing of 6:06 pm. We stopped by the market to pick up some bananas and ice cream. We returned to camp and repeated the same process as yesterday.

This morning we went for another walk but in the opposite direction. We saw many birds and upturned many rocks in the hope that we could find some insect. We actually found a baby scorpion, beetles, frogs and many spiders. We also saw loads of bar headed geese that migrate from Siberia. We saw them in 100’s!

When we came back it was time to leave. I got up on the car and started tying the baggage to the carrier. Then we were all set. We got in and left the place.