Tadoba Andhari

Following the same routine as yesterday, we entered the reserve at 6:30 AM.

Our guide this morning was Shayam Rao.

The highlight of the morning was the sighting of the elusive leopard and twice at that. Another beautiful and graceful mammal with a gorgeous tail. She appeared and reappeared twice but I was too fascinated by their grace and beauty to remember to take pictures.

We also had a great sighting of crocodiles and one with a baby, basking in the sun by spring fed Tadoba Lake.





There were a variety of birds, the most memorable of which was the white throated ground thrush.

Back to the resort and after freshening up and a lunch of mostly Indian cuisine we were ready for the afternoon safari.

Afternoon highlight was the serpent eagle with large rat snake in its claws. Sudip got a great shot of it sitting on the tree with the snake still writhing in its claws.

It was followed by a Black headed oriole.


Dinner was Punjabi style, it was good and better than the Bengali dinner. Stopped and watched the camera feed from the waterhole, nothing exotic was caught on camera but still pretty interesting to watch.

Location:Svasara Lodge

Tadoba Andhari

Today is our first full day of safari. The gates open at 6:30 AM and we left the lodge at 6:00 AM after coffee and toasted short bread.

We will have the same Gypsy KL 04, the driver Atul and naturalist Chirag for the duration of our stay.

We checked at the gate and forest guide Vinod Uike was assigned to us, a quiet but knowledgeable person with a keen eye.

It is cool this morning to the point of being chilly. The norm here is to take packed breakfast with us. This was always some variation of paratha but all very tasty, boiled eggs, cookies, fruit and juice. We stopped around 9:30 at one of two designated locations.





After breakfast we proceeded on and pretty soon heard alarm calls and waited, Soon after a gorgeous tigress, with the un glamorous name of P2 emerged from the shrubbery on our left and proceeded to walk casually towards our Gypsy, walked about 3 feet from the front of our Gypsy and crossed the road. She was so close that I had to keep zooming out to keep all of her in the frame. What a beautiful, graceful animal and such a gorgeous sight.






We learned later that P2 was one of a liter of 4, consisting of 3 females and 1 male. She is around 3 years old and quite brazen.

We then proceeded on to view a Nilgai herd at the waterhole, the herd consisted of 6 females and one male.





We came to the resort, freshened up and went for lunch which was mostly European style. There is a board at the resort where the guides write up the sightings for the trip.






Shortly after lunch we left for the afternoon safari, with Pancham jiutode as our forest guide. We didn't see anything exotic, just the usual chittal, sambar and some common birds.

Dinner was Bengali style, it was good but somewhat average. The rosogollas were store bought and not that good.

Tonight's show was the feed from the camera mounted at the waterhole in a remote part of the resort. Not much activity there except a lone jackal foraging for food., it was nice to watch nonetheless.

Location:Svasara Lodge

Delhi - Nagpur - Tadoba

Our plans for the day are to fly from Delhi to Nagpur, and get driven to the Svasara Lodge and Resort at Tadoba Andhari wildlife sanctuary.

Our Nagpur flight was at 6:30 AM, we left the hotel at 5:00 and arrived at 5:30 AM. We had toast and coffee as room service and this turned out to be an excellent idea.

Security was slow but smooth

We are on GoAir 141. Seats 11A and B.

The aircraft is AirBus 320 with Vinod Singh as the captain. The flight was quite smooth, the breakfast was prepaid but unfortunately not that good or plentiful. Good thing we had the toast prior to leaving the hotel.

The flight landed slightly ahead of time and we were met by the local agent with a car and driver. We dropped the local agent off at his office and proceeded on towards Svasara Lodge.

Tadoba is Southwest of Nagpur. The drive took around 2.5 hours and most of the roads were in good condition except for a couple of small patches where bridge work was going on.

We were greeted at the Lodge by Nandini, the lodge manager. She showed us to our cottage #115. There are 12 cottages all laid out in a line.

All the cottages are furnished in identical fashion. They are spacious and well appointed and with ac. The temperature was 93, and the cool room felt very inviting after the road trip.






We freshened up, unpacked leisurely and went to lunch. The lunch was buffet style as expected and excellent.

At lunch I met Ranjit, who was the General Manager and Nandini's husband.

We got ready and looking forward to our first game drive into the forest.

We were assigned a Gypsy with Atul as the driver and Chirag as the naturalist for all our 8 safaris.




The safari hours are 2:30 to 6:00 which varies based on season. Only 9 vehicles are allowed to enter from this gate. At the gate we were assigned Pancham jiutode, as our forest guide.










There is a village on the way that is in the process of being relocated, and then that area will become part of buffer zone.

Pretty soon we heard alarm calls and we positioned our selves. The Langurs jumped up on the trees and a male tiger known Leopard face appeared.

This is a huge male about 6 years old, with corded stripes and face markings of a leopard and hence the name.

We were surrounded by many jeeps which seemed to appear from nowhere, which made Leopard face disappear after a short appearance. Sudip got a few good shots.






We proceeded on our way and Sudip was excited to get pictures of the green bee eater and stonechat.

We also saw some sambar and a large herd of chittal deer.






Back at the Lodge we were offered moist towels for cleaning our dusty faces and necks followed by tea, coffee, and snacks in the Teak House






Tonight's Dinner was Bihari style. I didn't know what to expect but it was surprisingly good.

The video of the Tadoba part of the documentary, The Secrets of Wild India narrated by David Attenborough, was being shown. Sitting in an open theater in tiger country and listening to the tiger roar in the film, was a neat experience.

We retired right after since we have an early start for the morning safari.

The bed was comfortable and we slept well.

Location:Svasara Lodge & Resort, Tadoba

Sightseeing in Delhi

We woke up early naturally, got ready and went down to breakfast.

Breakfast was expansive and the few items I had, which included eggs over easy and dosa, were all very tasty. I commented on how different and tasty farm fresh eggs were from the ones we get at home.

The cappuccino that followed the breakfast was one of the best I have ever had.

Today was a day of sight seeing and visiting with Sudip's cousin and his wife over lunch.

Our first stop was the National Philatelic Museum. Sudip had seen the museum previously and was looking forward to it. He was very disappointed with how they have renovated it. Only post independence stamps are displayed and it's setup in a thematic fashion. It appears to be meant to appeal more to school children than adults.

Our next stop was the Red Fort. I have always liked this fort and was glad to see that it is still maintained well and enjoyable.












Then it was on to Humayun's tomb. The renovation work on this is excellent and it was a joy to walk through.












Met up with Joy and Patralekha and had lunch at Karim's. We went to the main branch the last time we met up with them back in 2008. The kebabs were excellent and we stayed for a little over an hour and caught up.

We reluctantly said our byes and went over to our last stop the Qutb Minar. It was impressive and as beautiful as I remember.











We then went back to our hotel, Ravi and Jamuna came to discuss our itinerary and hand over all the related paperwork etc. we chatted for awhile and after parting went straight to the restaurants to have a light dinner and retire for the night early. Our flight lives at 6:30 in the morning and we need to leave the hotel by

Arrived in Delhi

In general the flight was uneventful and we landed 30 mins ahead of schedule in clear weather and pleasant mid 70s.

We were picked up by Compass representative Gaurav and taken to the Shangri La Hotel where we will staying for two nights.

They have complimentary high speed wifi for multiple devices for the duration of the stay, I am happy.

Dinner was at the Dhaba in Clairidges. The ambience was great and meal tasty, although we wanted something more uniquely Delhi/Lucknow style.

The restaurant was set in the style of the Dhaba's that are next to the bus and truck stations.

We were tired and jet lagged and retired early for the night.

Location:Shangrila - New Delhi

The Day Is Finally Here.

Sanjit came over to have breakfast and take us to the Wisconsin Coach lines Racine stop.

It was a very cold day and we waited in his car until the bus came. It was about 10 mins late but that still gave us enough time.

We arrived at O'Hare around 10:50 AM

Took us an hour and 10 mins from starting at standing in line to get checked in and then through security. The security went smoothly.

The name of the aircraft is Mizoram, a state in the NE part of India.

Boarding began within ten minutes of our arrival at the gate, I liked this as opposed to the long waits I am used to.

Our seats were 22J and 22K and I had a great view of the beautiful and huge engines








Boarding was smooth and for the first time in our travels on AI, the seat next to us was vacant.

The cabin crew, specially one stewardess was very pleasant.

We had lunch at 3:30 PM local time or 3:00 AM IST.

I took the vegetarian meal, it was very tasty but the quantity was somewhat inadequate. Sudip's non vegetarian chicken meal was neither tasty or adequate.

Somewhere in the middle of the night we were served snacks consisting of cheese and vegetable sandwiches, which were tastier than the main meal.

There were periods of turbulence which weren't that bad but the announcement each time was and woke us all up every so often.

Location:Shangrila - New Delhi