It is a jungle out there
Impulse plans work out well occasionally and linger in our memories. We decided sometime mid-week to take two days off and drive down to Kabini.
As luck would have it, we managed to find a room at The Bison Resort. Staying at this particular resort has been on our bucket list for a while. We stayed for a night but came back craving more! The resort is lovely — a great mix of rustic and luxury. With a grand view of the Kabini backwaters, we couldn’t ask for a better setting for our short trip.
Going to any resort along the Kabini belt is incomplete without a jungle safari. Naturally, we sign up for all possible safaris (jeep, canter, boat) salivating at the prospect of sighting a tiger, a panther, or a leopard. We invariably come back saying, “oh deer” because that’s one animal that’s guaranteed to be spotted. Ha ha!
This time was no different. We reached the resort, had lunch and rushed to the safari zone. 3 hours, hitched breaths, excited sighs, and craned necks, but nothing remotely resembling black and yellow stripes. No one on our canter had tiger luck apparently. I truly believe that one needs tiger luck to spot a tiger in the wild.
A few years ago, I was with a group where someone had tiger luck. We followed a tiger silently for about 15 minutes as the beautiful animal sashayed along in front unbothered by all the adulation and paparazzi. I cried!
All was not lost this time. We spotted pug marks. This led to lots of excitement and the feeling that the tiger was just around the corner. Everyone in our canter swung their heads around and scanned the forest hoping they’d be the ones to spot the magnificent beast first. Nope. I guess the magnificent beast spotted us first, didn’t like what it saw, and went further into the woods.
Oh well. We consoled ourselves with the fact that no other jeep or canter had spotted a tiger either. Until! One jeep came along and told us they had seen the elusive cat. One smug man in that jeep went as far as to say they followed the beautiful cat for 20 minutes. I think a few people in our canter wanted to slap the man. I may have been one of them. There was no reason to provide such excruciating detail. What a show-off!
You know what they say about misery loving company. We were all reconciled to the fact that no tiger or any other cat was going to show us as much as a glimpse. All other jeeps and canters had similar long-faced people. Then this jeep came along and shattered the peace we had made with our bad luck. It just wasn’t fair.
Ah, well. It really wasn’t that bad. The forest more than made up for the lack of yellow stripes. The forest floor was unbelievably green and everything looked lush and beautiful. I gulped in huge lungsful of precious forest-cleansed air.
How could we stay at a place called The Bison and come away without sighting the gaur or the Indian bison? We were lucky enough to see a baby bison too.
The absolute highlight of the whole safari though was this duo. How cute they looked chewing on fresh grass and meandering about peacefully!
All of us in the canter fell into a hushed silence as we ogled at this amazing sight. The baby elephant was cuteness overloaded. We found out later that the baby was hurt. But the baby looked ok to us and we all prayed that it would get well and grow up to be a gentle giant!
We were happy with whatever the forest had offered us. At the end of a 3-hour journey, we were able to claim to have seen 3 wild dogs, millions of spotted deer, 3 sambhar deer, a few bright blue kingfisher birds, a couple of herds of bison including a calf, an elephant, and her baby, and fresh pug marks. How can I forget to mention the lush green forest with its shades of green and brown, aesthetically fallen trees, and puddles of brown, green, and other shades of water? Everything looked gorgeous!
With so much accomplished in a single safari and no tiger in sight, we decided not to book a second safari for the next morning. What’s the point, we thought. The tigers seem to be on vacation too.
Ha! You can imagine what happened, right? The next morning, we went for a lovely bird-watching walk with a local expert, had a fun time, and returned to The Bison for breakfast. And — at the dining area, there was a very noisy and extremely excited group talking about their tiger spotting experience in the morning safari that WE SKIPPED. They saw a tiger and her cubs! Arrgh!!
Such is life 🙂
Anu Anniah Writes 