At the lodge Jhuperi Ghar we could rest a while and Manoj informed us about the coming days at Kaziranga and it was clear that he is very engaged and really loves to share the beauty of his country with the tourists. We had an evening walk through the neighborhood and met some Assam macaque monkeys on our way. It is nice with all the tea plantations in Assam and the tea is very good, so I recommend bringing some home!

The following day the adventure started very early in the dark and it was quite chilly as well, especially sitting in the open jeeps at speed. We were on our way to have an elephant ride into the park through the very high elephant grass. Riding on elephants gives you a chance to get really close to the animals. The cute little baby elephants are coming with their mothers as well!

First we saw some water buffalos and then the rhinos. There were several rhinos, also with calves. It sure looks like they are covered with armor plates! We got CLOSE, but the animals were not alarmed and gave opportunities for some good photos. Continuing our ride we spotted hog deer hiding in the high grass, wetland barasingha and birds like green bee-eater and crested serpent eagle. We made two early morning elephant rides and we could cuddle with the baby elephants after. They can be a bit naughty but oh so cute!

We did several jeep safaris into different parts of the park and Manoj shared his knowledge about the birds and animals with us.  The sun was warming us up just too perfect temperature for a Swede. The wetlands and lakes provide a great opportunity to see many birds, and the open landscape around them allows for sightings of deer, wild boar, water buffalo and rhino. The best take away to remember was a barasingha just given birth to her little one and all her nervous dancing and watching around it. The park closes in the middle of the day and gives you a chance to rest. On one tour with the jeep we went up a bird tower and saw the pelicans flew by and land on the lake, super good opportunities for photos. Some of the birds we saw in the park were lesser and greater adjutant stork, black-necked stork, different herons and egrets, spot-billed pelican, cormorant, darter, different king fishers as well as dollarbird, red junglefowl, green-billed malkhoa, owl and owlet, vultures, kites and buzzards and the hornbills, like the great hornbill! The different parakeets were nice entertainers as well.

We also went out with the jeeps close to a controlled grass fire, since they burn the grass regularly. The flames were quite loud and the smoke gave the landscape a dramatic look.  It was exciting to come across a wild elephant mother trying to get her half grown calf to a safer place as well as a rhino which did not know what it needed to have a close look on – us or the fire! There were no signs of panic by the animals so it seems they are quite used to the burnings. Also, what a beautiful sunset to end the day with!

Brahmaputra

We also visited the very wide Brahmaputra River which is so important for India and got onboard a long boat close to a three kilometer long bridge.

Time to search for the long nosed and blind Ganges dolphins! I did not have any expectations to actually see one, but we did! And one of us with high speed camera managed to get a picture when they jumped over the water.  It was quite windy as well so we had coffee behind a rocky island before we went back.

On our way to the airport in Guwahati we visited the tiny Umananda temple island in the river Brahmaputra before we took a flight to Kolkata. During the boat ride we saw black kites and on the island they had some golden langurs. They had a beautiful fur and the males offered a show by chasing each other. We gave one of them some candy but it just sniffed on the candy and let it fall to the ground. Smart animals!

Kolkata

We did some sightseeing in Kolkata and visited Mother Theresa´s home, Victoria Memorial, a beautiful Jain temple and some alleys where they made clay statues of their gods to the Durga Puja festivity where they will immerse them into the river to become clay again. There were so many skilled clay workers there, and it was interesting to see how they worked and used straw to stabilize the sculptures, and how beautiful the sculptures were after being finalized and painted. We had a superb lunch at Macambo and the day ended with a walk along the river for those who wanted, while others could return for a rest at the hotel after all the impressions from the very crowded, loud and busy Kolkata.

So happy to be back in a park, and what a beautiful park with tall green Sal trees and bamboo brushwood! The landscape is absolutely fabulous! The dry leaves on the ground made you understand how perfect the colors of the deer are for camouflage. We stayed at a lodge outside the park, Celebrations Van Vilas that had a garden and a pool. We had several jeep safari tours to different parts of the large park and saw the hard-ground barasingha that is thriving in this park. We also met a lot of the very beautiful axis deer or spotted deer, and even though they were so many I did not get tired to watch them. Especially seeing an axis deer just given birth and how she licked the little one before it finally started to suckle. Here and there behind the bamboo you could see the very shy barking deer, or the large sambar deer. It was the sambar deer alarm calls we got most excited to hear since this indicated a tiger, but unfortunately the tigers managed to stay out of our sight during the whole visit in this park. We saw footprints, markings on the trees after their claws and tiger pooh, but no tiger!  We also saw footprints of sloth bear but no bear. Such is wilderness, sometimes good sightings and other times not. Other animals we saw were herd of the large gaur, some golden jackals, the beautiful grey hanuman langurs with babies and rhesus macaques. We also saw large half-moon shaped bee hives in the trees. Some of the birds we saw were black stork, red-naped ibis, black-winged kite, pallid harrier, changeable hawk-eagle, shikra, owls and owlets, barbets, drongo, red junglefowl, peafowl, yellow-wattled lapwing, green sandpiper, cormorants, kingfishers, grey hornbill, white-rumped shama, purple sunbird and many more. It was so nice to see the peafowl fly, since I have only seen ones kept in our city parks or zoos and they cannot fly.

After three nights in Kanha we continued to Tadoba. During the 5-6 hours’ drive we had opportunity to watch people throwing bright colors at each other since it was the Holi festival celebrating spring and the good Gods victory over the evil Gods.

We arrived at Svasara lodge and just threw in our luggage in the very nice rooms and entered the jeeps for the first safari tour. This park is also beautiful but in another way with teak trees and here and there the white ghost trees, dams and lakes. Manoj tried to keep the spirit up and tell us all kind of stories about tigers and leopards, but no luck during the afternoon. We saw a lot of birds and other animals of course such as the grey junglefowl, owls in a tree hole, kestrel, oriental honey buzzard, paradise flycatcher, bulbul, robin, fantail, open billed stork, darter, thick-knee, langurs, moongoose, different deer and the swamp crocodile or mugger. However when the dusk was approaching we had to return and then Manoj told us about an occasion when they saw both a tiger and a leopard not too far from the park gates. “Fairytales!” I told him with a laugh but what do you think happened: There they were on that spot – two tiger cubs in the grass!! I was sooo happy!! Finally!!

Next day we had a quite pointless chase with several other cars to try to see a tiger lady called Maya. I suggested to our guide Vinod that we should go and find us our own tiger. “OK” he said with a smile, and oh boy did we find tigers!! A whole family; the two cubs from yesterday, and their mother who actually started stalking towards a group of spotted deer. One of the cubs joined her after a while and then the time was out and we had to return since the gates were closing! We started to drive and I was so disappointed not to be able to see the hunt when Vinod stopped the car and pointed. There was a fourth tiger, the father lying behind some bamboo brushwood! He raised and went out into the open and then laid down again giving up three mighty roars “Aoouh! Aoouh! Aoouh!” and giving you goose bumps. I was so happy and excited I could not get a sharp picture of him!

Back at the lodge I told everybody about the tigers and the others had had another sensation: a Savanna nightjar with chicks. Did not beat my four tigers though…

My luck did not end there because after dinner we spotted what they first thought was a palm civet in the drainage system at the lodge, but I managed to see its cute and fair face so it was a small Indian civet.

Up early the last morning for one last drive in the park before it was time to go back to Delhi and now everything happened: First we spotted some dohles, the Asian wild dogs. I will never forget when Manoj said: “People, you don´t know how lucky you are!” The dogs were so beautiful in the morning sun, with their golden reddish-brown color and white patches towards the red ground. Instead of trotting across the jeep track they turned and trotted all the way to our jeeps before they went into the forest again!

After that we heard playing and splashing sounds in the forest and realized that it was the tiger cubs playing. Vinod discovered the mother behind some bamboo close to the track and waved for our jeep to join. Soon after, the cubs came out very curious. One went close to the other jeep and the other came close to us. So cute and yet so powerful paws even though they were cubs. We had super good opportunity for taking photos!

After a while one of the cubs started cautiously to cross the jeep track right between our jeeps, soon followed by the mother that did not seem to be disturbed at all. The other cub were a bit more hesitant but went over to join the family and right after the crossing the siblings continued their play by making attacks on each other.

All fun will have to come to an end eventually and it was time to go back for lunch and the transportation to Delhi. However this was a happy bunch of people that truly had had a “Grand Finale” of the safari tour in India!!

My friend and I had a later flight back home than the others in the group so we had the opportunity to do some sightseeing in New Delhi before our flight to Sweden. I liked the Hamayun´s Tomb from 1565-72 AD best, since it was very beautiful and said to be precursor to the Taj Mahal. My strongest memory from New Delhi was that I could only hear the coppersmith barbet, not the traffic. Manoj did say in the Kanha national park “You need to learn to stay tuned with the jungle”. I think I did!

Do I need to add that the next trip is already booked since I would like my family and especially my children to have an opportunity to see the tigers while there are still some to see and I really hope our and others trips to visit them will contribute and be an economical driver to keep and protect these magnificent animals as well as the other animals that enrichens our planet Earth.

Ann-Helen Engman, Sweden