i have written millions of blogs till now, thou in my head, and like most of us, left them only in draft mode and discarded.
i hope i finish this and do post the same, will come to know soon.
let me start with the plan, the year has been tough on mankind, since mar 20 there has been a continuos fear in the air, people worried about near and dear ones more specially kids and parents, i too was very apprehensive of planning a forest trip, thou i managed to sqeeze in a couple of trips including GRK/LRK, Bhigwan Grasslands and Satpura and the short walking trip in the green valley park in navi mumbai.
mid feb a proposal was floated by mumbai travellers my favorite travel partner, for a trip to be lead by Jogi to Kanha, and as usual i was skeptical, for a couple of reasons, the top most is this is my third plan for kanha, the earlier plans I lost my deposit and tickets 100%, and this trip was no different, not looking very promising due to the travel restrictions, yet we booked our flight tickets. we is me and BT (BT Wild Art) my travel buddy.
nearer to the date, jogi did create a whatsapp group as a SOP so that all travellers share their details and get acquainted, but soon realized it was not a great idea as more information on why the trip cannot happen started flowing, and he made the group admin only. the plan for 16 Travellers, but due to forseen reasons 2 of them dropped off with more doubtful.
2 days before the start date, me and BT were not getting very good signals of flying, so we booked the always reliable duranto, and set off for nagpur, this train is amazing, the train was half empty and only 4 of us were taking the train, including Jogi.
we reached Nagpur a bit late in the morning, but were still within our schedule, the cars picked up the rest of the team and we set off on the long road to Kanha, Baihar.
we were put up at Camp Dev Vilas , Kareli, this place is special, as one of our own inspiring Saily from mumbai moved base there a couple.of years back, and what an example she is, you should meet her to know about her story.
https://www.google.com/travel/hotels/s/qXzEW
i had heard kanha is one of the most beautiful forest landscapes, hence i was looking forward to visit the same, and now finally, i was here, the mukki forest gate just around the corner. we reached midday, and the safari was in another hour and half, so we rushed thru the unpacking and lunch, ready for the safari.
by 3.15 the gypsy had arrived and we were ready, the schedule was mukki zone, i must say the stories of the beauty of kanha were like rani padmavati, you should see it to believe, the scape is vivid and runs thru many shades, tall sal trees and huge tracts of grasslands followed by sal trees, wow what a forest it is, you will just forget about the tiger absorbing the beauty of the forests.
the tiger is very elusive here, so was not expecting much from that end, but the feature of Kanha is Boorsingh the Barasingha, a swamp deep with horns in symmetry. the MP FD has done an amazing job with the forest as well as the trained guides are concerned, there were much more women guides at the gate then expected, and they looked confident.
our driver Irfan bhai was no ordinary man behind the wheel, he was like superman with antennas on his ears, the forest speaks to him, and he knew what we wanted, so it was an experience to bring back. we enjoyed the forest views on every round in the forest, and made plans of full day safari in winter, that is when the forests of central india are at their bests, shades of green and morning blues.
coming back to this trip, even with very little chance of tigers, irfan gave us front seat view of the DJ cubs and the chase by teedi punch on the evening safari of day 2, and 3 sub adult cubs in kanha area the day after, the vastness of the scape can compare kanha to corbett and the tall trees can be compared to Kabini.
camp dev villas is the most recommended stay at Kanha, with comfortable tented accommodation and food to look forward to. and the hostess is the most warm person i have met in a decade. Thanks Saily Gokhale.
do visit, like, follow and share story images on Instagram @vlotlikar.
https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=71bbou7ywmfk&utm_content=pqhls7
some images follow:
