Monday, January 9, 2012

In The Wild

We were 7 hours travel time from the apartment (we got lost a couple times) to Kabini River Lodge, near Nagarahole National Park, and the last 12 km were the worst road any of us had ever seen.  

But once we arrived, it was totally worth it!  So amazing!

 This is our cabin; half a duplex, complete with deck, mosquito repellent air filter (though we never saw a mosquito), water filter system and a shower & jet tub! Nice and big inside with 2 single beds pushed together to make a king.

 Jerome enjoyed the hammock, though he did spend some of his relaxing time talking to the Elders on the phone, arranging for some new apartments to rent.  (that's part of his office job)






I thought this was pretty funny, as they have taken one of the little fisherman boats and made it into a beach umbrella! How creative!
We had 3 very nice buffet meals here during our 24 hours. One lunch shortly after our arrival, supper at about 8:30 that night and breakfast at 9:30 the next morning.  

Each meal offered quite a good selection of food, with plenty of Indian food with some North American for some of us tourists.

Most of the food was veg, but there were 2 non-veg dishes offered at dinner (one chicken and one mutton).  
It was all tasty, though some was a little hot for me (but I'm dealing with it!), Jerome loved it.






Jeep Safari

 This is the jeep that we travelled in over some mighty bumpy roads to see the following wonderful sights of pure nature at it's finest!

 These were the gate checkpoint guards that had to check us in as we entered Nagarahole National Park.

 My first sighting of a Black-faced Grey Langur monkey. He's so cute!

 Doesn't the close up look so sad!

 But they are pretty laid back and calm even with a jeep full of 6 people looking at them.

 This is a Common Hoopoe, though it's my first time to see one.


 This is the momma scurrying off with her baby in her arms.

 'Langur' means long tail, and he sure has one.  I like this shot through the weeds.

 We saw so many beautiful Spotted Deer.  Here is momma and her baby.  
These deer never loose their spots like North American fawns do.

 Isn't the baby adorable!







 This is the female (and male below) White-bellied Woodpecker.








 I love this picture.  The White-bellied Woodpecker stood up so nicely like he wanted his picture taken.

 These Elephants were down by the lake which is formed by the damned Kabini River.

They eat grass and you can see them picking the grass with their trunks.  If they can't get enough grass, they start stomping their feet, and kicking up the tufts of sod, so they can eat it.  But this causes the grass roots to be eaten and then the grass doesn't grow back the next year.  This is becoming a problem as soon, the elephants won't have any grass left to eat.


 This mother is protecting her baby while he sleeps.  He looks too thin to me.

 But Momma is still trying to get some grass to eat while baby sleeps.

 This is a wild cow called a 'Gaur'.  Not the best angle to view this guy, but I love his colourful horns.

 This is a 'Painted Stork' and he looks so pretty in the almost setting sun.

This is a Stripe-necked Mongoose. Sorry that you can't see him very well.  He was running through the grass to get away from us.

 Indian Wild Dog or Dhole is found here in a pack of 5 dogs.

 This is the Momma, with 2 pups.  She looks like a fox, I think.
Jerome thought there were more, but I only ever captured 2 pups on film.

 Isn't this mother beautiful.

 The puppies would just run along to try to keep up with the adults.

 This is a gorgeous shot, don't you think?  The wild dogs are almost like a fox.


 I just loved the puppies.  They are so adorable!

 And inquisitive.  Here he is coming up very close to the jeep to have a good look.

 And adventurous!  He climbs up the log...

 ...and up some more...

 ...and up to the top of the log...
 ...oops!  Not such a graceful dismount!  But that's ok.  He's alright.

 One of the other adult dogs may be an older pup.

 As we were heading for home, we saw one more mother elephant and calf so close to us.

 And this bull elephant was only about 15 meters away.  That was so cool!

 He's getting enough grass to eat here.

 The light was almost gone, but I managed a shot of this Peacock.

 He is very pretty, but I really want to see him dance for his girl.  I haven't seen that display yet.

Our bumpy ride back to the Lodge was highlighted by the sunset as we paused at the top of the ridge for a quick picture.

Tomorrow, we go on a boat safari!

1 comment:

  1. How fun! The kids loved all the pictures. What an adventure!

    ReplyDelete