It was cool and dawn just beginning to break as we walked from our hut to reception, there we are all allocated our vehicle with driver. Once at the park gate, we collect a trained guide, and show our passports that have to match the permits we have each day.
As we entered the park, the sun rose and we could see its blood red face through the trees. We stopped to take shots.At the first lake we stopped and saw a Crested snake eagle, then further along, the guide shouted to stop, and right beside the roadway was a sleep Nightjar, blending in with the rocks around it.
We drove through the park, taking half an hour to reach the inner gate, then another half hour to reach a watering hole, where on the far side, a mother tiger was guarding her two nearly year-old cubs. They lay in the sun, half playing before going to sleep, and we all moved away.
Our guide knew of some out of the way places, so thanks to him we saw a fine White-throated kingfisher, and I spotted a wild boar, rummaging in the leaf litter. A pure white Paradise flycatcher delighted us, as it showed well in a tree above the main road, and later on I saw a Mongoose fleeing into the undergrowth, its black-tipped tail flowing behind.
We stopped for a late breakfast at ten, then went to check on one final spot before returning to the main gate to drop the guide off, then back to camp with an hour to kill before lunch.
Lunch was buffet curries, all different from each other and the day before, but most containing lots of vegetables, so all good.
Back into the jeep at two, in the full heat of the day. Something like 41 or so degrees, hotter than it has ever got back home by several degrees. And once moving, the breeze would have cooked roast chicken in half an hour or so it seemed.
A fairly uneventful safari, there was rumour of more tigers at the same watering hole as the morning, so we set course for there.
As did all the other jeeps, from our party and others like us, as well as day trips, there must have been 25 vehicles, all jostling for space. It was pretty unbecoming to be frank, and I would have said we gave up.
And left.But, a pair of tigers came, but lay down over the crest of a rise, so out of view, sometimes the back of the male’s ears were just visible.
Jeeps were three and four deep, and those at the back like us stood little chance of seeing anything, so two wardens arrived and insisted that the ones in front get out and let others, like us have a chance.
So we got to the front, both tigers had by this time escaped into the long grass, and again I wondered why we were wasting time, waiting.
The female broke cover, and ambled down the bank from the grass, down to the edge of the lake, then into it, to get to the small island the other side. Light was perfect, as the tigress began to stalk a family of barking deer the other side of the lake.
Step by step it went right, slowly and with deliberate steps, onto a line of rocks sticking out of the water. Remembering Xavier’s shots of the Arctic fox from Svalbard, I zoomed out slightly to get the tigress’s reflection. It was perfect.
The light, the tiger, the reflection, using the jeep as a tripod meant the shots were blur-free.The tigress stretched, doing kitty yoga like the mogs back home, and then continued inching towards the deer. They knew she was there, and also knew that in the event of an attack, they had a 50 yard head start, and the tiger would be running through water too.
Our time ran out before the tableaux could be completed, but pretty sure all deer got away and the tigers went hungry.
We made our way back, taking an hour at 25mp/h to get to the gates to drop the guide off, then finding the town jammed because of a bad parker on the 90 degree bend.
Horns sounded, and the bolshiest drivers got through first, ours was second, then hammering through the gloaming without lights back to the camp where supper of yet more curry was waiting.
We all celebrated with large bottles of cold beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment