Enlightining

This was my second visit to these two national parks. Both with same hotels, same safaris. We started from Hyderabad early morning 6 PM and reached Nagpur by afternoon lunch. The roads to Nagpur is good except for a 10 kms stretch which will take you 1 hr and do some damage to your car. We started to pench national park first which takes you 4 hrs from Nagpur. The road is strictly avoidable , Please take another route. We stayed in MP tourism hotel which is very good. We booked in MP tourism counter in Hyderabad. We had next day morning safari booked, so we took rest in the night and started for safari. We were greeted by jackal on the way to Park Gate from our hotel, which followed with a group of jackals inside the park making huge calls which lasted for 20 minutes. we waited there to see if any tiger is coming but with no luck. However we spotted a leopard cub which crossed our jeep with in seconds and did not give us time to take picture. after safari we headed to kanha national park. We stayed in Bagira Log Huts which is inside the core area and a perfect location for wild life viewing. There were jackals, wild dogs, gaur, chitals around us all the time of our stay and we felt completely in the wild. we had 3 safaris booked 2 next day in kanha zone and one morning safari day after in kisli zone. Morning safari was boring with no activity at all, but evening safari was the best, we saw female tiger having bath in river 15 feet from us and walked in front of our jeep into other side of jungle. we saw tiger for atleast 30 minutes. but the best of the sightings is yet to come the next day in kisli zone. we saw Munna(huge male) , actually we followed her in reverse gear for a good 2 kilometers for 45 minutes. we saw it marking the trees.

Still Editing...

This trip was Long awaited since i am a frequent traveler to National Parks . The Reason for this trip is to see animals that i could not see in other places, So i have decided on three places First was to little Rann to see wild asses, then Lions at Gir and Hyena and Wolf from Velavadar.We have araived Ahmadabad by 8:45 in morning from Hyderabad. I had booked a Toyota Etios through Online for 6 days. , We booked a room in Royal Safari Camp in Little Rann which was 2 hrs from Ahmadabad Airport, . Our Safari was supposed to start at 4PM since it was hot in March, The Safari was part of package. Safari starting Point was 20 mins from Camp, They took us in their Jeep. Safari Charges were somewhere around 500 for 2 persons and camera. We saw mongoose at the starting of the forest, Once we entered the Wild Asses , cranes and Nilgais were all around , After spending 1 hour in Dry part of the park we moved to Wet Grasslands where we saw Flamingos, Eagles and some other birds. Later we went little deeper where the Salt preparations is done, After this we came back toHotel by 6:30. Some things about the camp , this is a fairly new Lodge was well worth for the price they charged 5000 including one safari and 3 meals for a couple. We were the only one in the camp since it is weekday but they made sure everything is perfect. Will Definitely recommend it since The rooms are good, food is awesome ,Swimming pool is under construction but it has huge space to play games. Some pictures below.

Next day morning we had breakfast and started by 8AM to Gir. it was 6 hr journey to the Park, Roads are excellent all the way till Gir. We booked room in Lion Safari Camp for 3 days mainly due to its location. you can see Crocs infront of the camp in the river, This is the best lodge for bird lovers as we spotted 60 varieties of birds near the camp. The hotel is 2 kms into the forest which we have to deviate from main road We were welcomed by Otters couple which ran away before i clicked, I have booked 5 safaris for 3 days through Online since we planned for somnath trip in half day. we reached hotel at 2, had quick lunch and went to safari straight away, By the way the accommodation is in tents which are decent. . I took the Jeep from the hotel which charges 600 more than normal ones. I recommend any one travelling to Gir to book online . Online fees is 400, Jeep + Guide 2500. If we take Jeep at Gir Center, they charge 1900 . Since we dont have much time i took Jeep from Hotel. There are total 4 routes in Gir, which they allow jeeps in opposite directions which makes it 8. Pick the routes that dont has Dam and dont pick route no : 1 . We picked route which cover dam and other side We did not find any animals in Dam side. after an hour we returned to other side of park where we saw Lions Mating. When we are returning , we saw leopard on a hunt near the Gate. After coming back from safari you can walk near the lodge to see some more wild life like crocs, nilgai, sambar. We had dinner and took rest for next day early morning safari. Next day Safari was a different experience altogether. We spotted a group of 12 Lions including 2 Big Male, 6 females and 4 cubs. Also we same same Pair we saw in the morning. The Pride was having a Buffalo which they killed in the morning from village.We came back from safari by 10 and had rest for evening safari. Some pics for this safari.

We started of for evening safari by 2:30 and again saw the same pairat the entrance of the route. We decided not to stop as we saw them already. We did not see any other animals untill we had a huge surprise at the end of safari. We saw young lions coming from inside forest towards the road and we stopped our Gypsy. they came towards the vehicle played there for some time . They were lying at the back of our vehicle . while i was busy taking pictures of them, my wife asked me to look front where we saw another lion coming towards us . It sat infront of our vehicle for couple of minutes and joined the other 3 walking inches from my vehicle it was amazing to see Lion inches from me.

We thought we had enough of sightings and cancelled the other two safaris since we covered all routes. next we wokeup leisurely , started to somnath at 2 . it was 1 hour journey from there and Roads are good. It took 1 hour for Temple darshan, triveni sangamam and Sri Krishna Vadh place. We returned back by evening 5. next day morning i went for guided walk in search of Birds and saw amazing collection of birds. We started to velavadar after breakfast. It was 7 hour Journey. We have to travel 4 hours inside the Gir Sanctuary where we saw some jackals and all kinds of Deer.

Velavadar story will follow shortly..Njoy pics for now.