The chirping of more than 250 birds wake you up very early in
the morning. We get ready with all the gears and bazookas to photograph
the wild. Expert drivers and naturalists guides us in the 4x4 open top
gypsies by hearing the alert calls and watching the pug marks. Suddenly,
the gypsy stops. All the binoculars and cameras point in the direction
of the chital (spotted deer) which has its tail up. Chital strikes his
front left leg on the ground and his sharp alarm call interrupts the
morning peace. Other deers move their tail up instantly and turn their
eyes and ears in one direction. Behind the bush, there is a slight
movement! Everyone from the herd including you and me are curious to see
whats there behind the bush... That’s called the excitement of spotting
the Tiger…
This was my invitation to all my friends
who were keen to witness this excitement. The response was overwhelming.
Everyone wanted to get the taste of wild life and the anxiety of
getting the glimpse of the wild cat.
With all bookings
done, we a group of 38 young folks aging from 3 yrs to mid 40s met at
Pune railway station on 26 Apr 2014. The group was young and was just
perfect for the camp of this type. Our destination was as perfect as the
group. The national tiger reserves of Bandhavgarh. This forest has
never disappointed me and my iCampers ever. With the same hope and
excitement we started our journey.
Pune to Mumbai
Journey was so quick and started with 2-3 cups of Tea and ended with
lot of junk eating. The दिवाडकर वडा पाव at Karjat was most awaited food of this small journey . With lot of eating and chatting in the train, we arrived at CST around the noon time. As we
were resting in waiting room for the next train, the cameras were first
used..
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| iCampers waiting for train |
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| Traveling Light |
The train journey is always full of fun.
We all jelled with each other like a single family. We played many card games together. The most complicated game called गणिती झब्बू took almost 30
minuets to complete. Our dear friend Gitesh got his new name as 'मुघल बादशाह' when we got to know that he has most of the queens from the packs. We pulled each
other's leg very often and everyone took it very lightly..
We also played a game called challenge where people placed सोळा पंजा in just 2 packs of cards.. It was amazing...
भेळ at Nashik was something
which was promised but did not appear to be available in there. But was
finally found in Igatpuri..
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| गणिती झब्बू |
We also had a Lungi dance with the young
enthusiast dancers who never said no to the dancing in the train. Mukul's bluetooth speaker was buzzing all through the journey with the
background music. The "itemized" collection of Mac rocks!!
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| Adit, the Lungi Dancer |
With this fun filled train journey we reached Jabalpur. The brand new AC bus was waiting for us. This was a new experiment to see how the bus
journey fits in our overall camping as against the Innovas. But indeed
it added lot of comfort and togetherness that we cherished till the end
of the camp.
We had a decent breakfast in Jabalpur.
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| Orders Placed |
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| मसाला डोसा Please |
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| Waiting for food to be Served |
Our
next stop was planned at Bhedaghat for a boat ride in the rushing
waters of Narmada through the Marble rocks. We extended this ride to the
maximum possible point where the force of water makes the boat to take
a U turn. The funny commentary of the boatmen makes this journey an
unforgettable event. The classic scenes of the marbles and guzzling
waters made our day.
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| The Boat |
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| Rowing the boat through Marble rocks |
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| Guzzling water through Marble walls |
Few of the wonderful jokes by boatman were,
भेडाघाट देखने आओ तो Welcome
ऒर जाओ तो भीड कम...
And some philosophical ..
आदमी ऒर पानी जितना गहेरा उतना शांत
ऒर जितना उथला उतना आवाज करता है
The bird watching started right from the Bhedaghat. We spotted few birds before reaching the Jungle..
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| Wire Tailed Swallow |
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| Little Cormorant |
Even the ghost tree was first clicked during the boat ride
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| Ghost Tree |
As
promised by the boatman, he rowed the boat an extra mile to show us the
special beauty of Bhedaghat, that was the Eagle Owl. I was knowing that
the Barn and Eagle owls perch here, so I had requested the sighting for
these while heading back towards the parking. Finally the boatman
spotted the beauty and we could caught it in cameras...
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| pick-a-boo Eagle Owl |
As we returned from the boat, we gathered together for a group photo.
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| The Group |
The Bus added lot of fun to the journey.
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| The Enthu group |
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| The Bus Ride |
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| Young Campers |
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| iCampers |
Then
we had a next halt at Dhuwadhar waterfall. The fall was in full flow.
The force of water was enormous. The hot day was suggesting us to get
ourselves wet ASAP...
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| Dhuwadhar |
With
some जिलेबी and सामोसा, the journey towards the National Tiger
Reserves started. We played lot of games in the bus. The jokes like अब
कि बार, साहेबांचं धोरण, प प बदकातला and lot of singing made our bus
travel very enjoyable. With one lunch break at one of the Dhaba, we traveled all the way to our resort. The hotel staff was waiting for us
and welcomed us with a chill drink..
Post room allotment,
everyone settled in their rooms and came back to the canteen for dinner
where the गावराण chicken was making all of us more and more hungry. Post
lunch we had a small meeting to explain the program for the next 2-3
days. With all doubts clarified, the campers hit the bed to wake up at
4AM next day, from when the real excitement was to begin..
No
one complained about the 4AM wake up call. Everyone was ready with
their cameras, binocs and sun gear. The Gypsies were also ready at 4.30
AM sharp to pick us up from the hotel. Post Tea / Coffee, the breakfast
was packed in each of the gypsies along with the water bottles. We made a
final noise before queuing up in the gate of the jungle "गणपती बाप्पा
मोरया". The group was divided into 6 and all the 6 gypsies started their
travel in the jungle. With 5 such rides in the forest we got to saw
many birds and animals.
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| All Set.. |
Every time I enter the
jungle we do see these animals and every time I do photograph them.
Don't know why, but they are just too cool and I cant resist myself taking their photographs.
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| Spotted Deers |
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| The Royal Stag |
Pea-fowl is another beauty of the jungle and especially when they display. The male displays the beautiful feathers and dances to attract the females. The energy and the colors are unmatchable.. Summer camps have this great offerings..
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| All-round Beauty |
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| The Display |
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| The Elegance |
Also saw other birds like..
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| Sirkeer's Malkoha.. First time for me.. |
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| Indian Scops Owl |
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| Honey Buzzard |
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| Long Billed and Red Headed Vultures |
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| Lesser Adjutant Stork |
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| Plum Headed Parakeet male.. |
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| Yellow Footed Green Pigeon |
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| Flameback |
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| Eurasian Thick Knee |
The favorite food of the big cat also presented itself..
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| Wild Boar |
And the sloth bear for which I never had luck to spot in the jungle also presented itself momentarily. Before I could get its head shot, it turned back and started walking inside the jungle.The walk was bit abnormal, but I had spotted it for the first time, I was happy to see it. Post the camp when I saw the photos, I got to see the baby on its back. That explained the abnormal walk it had.. Must be the mother carrying the baby..
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| Sloth Bear piggybacking a baby.. |
And finally the big cat showed up.. In this camp I did not get any good shots like the other campers but happy to see it every time I visit their territory..
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| Walking away from us.. |
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| Illusive.. |
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| The Alert Sambar Deer.. |
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| Indian Langoor, The Eyes of the Jungle.. |
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| Always curious..Bonnet macaque |
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| Deep Inside |
We missed a family of 5 tigers moving together in the morning ride and were expecting to see them in the later ride. Towards late in the evening we spotted the male and female cubs of महामन female. There were 3 of those walking together, but we could spot only 2 of them. The light was deteriorating and I had to use my Camera at max ISO. The ISO noise kills the quality of the photos, but still was very happy to see them together.
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| Finally gave a look in the low light.. |
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| Finally in one frame.. |
And our enthusiast iCampers Aparna, took my photo to showcase the smile that you get on your face when you spot tigers..
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| Me with the capture.. |
Also this time we were very lucky to spot another beauty in the jungle. We were doing some bird watching while this guy started hopping towards us on the main road.
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| वेगे वेगे धावू नि डोंगरावर जाऊ |
And there was someone ready to race with the hare :)
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| हि शर्यत रे अपुली... |
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We did not miss an opportunity to even click at the blossom inside the forest
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| Forest blossom |
In
the overall trip my daughter Shreya has listed down the birds
we saw in this whole journey and her list grew up to 101 before reaching back in Pune..
1. Rock pigeon
2. House crow
3. Black kite
4. Common myna
5. Red vented bulbul
6. Pond heron
7. Little cormorant
8. Rose ringed parakeet
9. Grey hornbill
10. Black drongo
11. Red wattled lapwing
12. Jungle myna
13. Laughing dove
14. Red whiskered bulbul
15. Cattle egret
16. Little egret
17. Dusky crag martin
18. Magpie robin
19. Great egret
20. Common coot
21. Jungle crow
22. House sparrow
23. Great tit
24. Ashy prinia
25. Indian roller
26. Common hoopoe
27. Red collard dove
28. Ashy drongo
29. Bank myna
30. Bush chat
31. Alexandrine parakeet
32. Shikara
33. Jungle owlet
34. Purple sunbird
35. Intermidiate egret
36. Barn swallow
37. Greater coucal
38. Rock thrush
39. White browed wagtail
40. Eagle owl
41. Malabar parakeet
42. Green be eater
43. Purple rumped sunbird
44. Rufous treepie
45. Lesser adjutant stork
46. Asian openbill
47. Tree pipit
48. White breasted kingfisher
49. Wire tailed swallow
50. Skyke’s lark
51. Spotted dove
52. White browed fantail
53. Indian robin
54. Indian pitta
55. Brain fever
56. Yellow wattled lapwing
57. Coppersmith barbet
58. Plum headed parakeet
59. Black hooded oriole
60. Orange headed rock thrush
61. Indian peafowl
62. Jungle babbler
63. Indian silverbill
64. Yellow throated sparrow
65. Long billed vulture
66. Crested treeswift
67. Red headed vulture
68. Crested serpent eagle
69. Sirkeer’s malkoha
70. Oriental turtle dove
71. Asian paradise flycatcher
72. Racket tailed drongo
73. Yellow footed green pigeon
74. Changable hawk eagle
75. Indian scoups owl
76. Black rumped flameback woodpecker
77. Honey buzzard
78. Oriental white eye
79. Brown fish owl
80. White eyed buzzard
81. Stork billed kingfisher
82. Tikells blue flycatcher
83. Tailor bird
84. Jungle prinia
85. Gold fronted leafbird
86. Bronzed drongo
87. White bellied drongo
88. Red jungle fowl
89. Lotens sunbird
90. Black ibis
91. Eurasian thick knee
92. Hill Partridge
93. Yellow wagtail
94. Black naped monarch
95. Grey headed fish eagle
96. Scarlet minivet
97. Common kingfisher
98. Common rosefinch
99. White rumped shama
100. Purple rumped sunbird
101. Black winged stilt
With
all this fun filled and excited travel we said good bye to Bandhavgarh
post some swimming in the pool and after dancing along with the folk
dance artists..
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| Folk Dance. MP and MH did it together.. |
We
loved the idea of Bus travel so much that, we booked a bus from Nashik
to Pune and also had the final bash in the bus before we reach Pune. Thanks to Snehal for doing the required arrangements..
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| Last meal together before reaching Pune |
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| And one more bus.. |
Without the help and co-operation from all the campers, this camp couldn't have been that successful. Thanks to all the campers for being the part of this wonderful Journey..
Thanks all for reading it till the end...
