We were up before the crack of dawn to head to the airport
for our flight to Jabalpur. The flight
actually left on time and we had breakfast on the plane. Then we had a four hour drive to Kanha.
We arrived early afternoon and checked into an awesome hotel. There are two camps with nine tent cabins each. The hotel was built to try to minimize environmental impact. All paths are unpaved dirt and are lined with little holders where they have oil lamps and solar lamps at night to light the way.
We arrived early afternoon and checked into an awesome hotel. There are two camps with nine tent cabins each. The hotel was built to try to minimize environmental impact. All paths are unpaved dirt and are lined with little holders where they have oil lamps and solar lamps at night to light the way.
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| Our Tent |
Our cabin overlooks the river and has a large deck with
lounge chairs. The bed is a super wide
king mattress sitting on a round platform; very decadent looking but a pain to
get in and out of. The bathroom and
dressing room is gigantic…almost as big as the bedroom/sitting area.
After settling in we boarded a jeep, along with four
others, and headed to the park for our first game drive. We picked up a local guide and headed into the
park.
After following a couple of jackals for about five minutes...
we headed on further into the park and immediately came upon a half dozen other jeeps, all stopped to watch a tiger. Our first. He was quite a ways away but we got a few pictures (well, lots, but a few good ones) and the experience of a lifetime. We were both glad Mary had splurged and got a good set of binoculars for the trip. After watching the sleeping cat for about an hour he finally got up and wandered into the bush.
After following a couple of jackals for about five minutes...
we headed on further into the park and immediately came upon a half dozen other jeeps, all stopped to watch a tiger. Our first. He was quite a ways away but we got a few pictures (well, lots, but a few good ones) and the experience of a lifetime. We were both glad Mary had splurged and got a good set of binoculars for the trip. After watching the sleeping cat for about an hour he finally got up and wandered into the bush.
We also saw a swamp deer (seldom seen),
a couple of spotted deer, and some wild boar.
When we arrived back at the hotel the welcoming committee
was waving to us (having been notified of our arrival by the front gate) and we
were treated to hot wet towels (to wash off a very heavy layer of dust) and a
glass of hot lemon and honey to warm us up.
After showering we re-boarded our jeep for a drive to a clearing in the
bush near our camp for dinner. The
trails and the trees surrounding the clearing contained many oil lanterns,
making the area look a bit magical. We
watched some locals performing their native dancing, accompanied by drums, and
then had a buffet dinner (in the bush, under the stars, tablecloths and linens,
candles, solicitous wait staff…very up-scale).
The food and entertainment were both great.
We headed back to our room early and crashed. We have another 5:00am wakeup call for
tomorrow…another game drive.
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