Leaving Bandhavgarh...sadly. From luxury camp to Ken River Camp...

This morning, we went on a short drive into the park in order to leave in time to have an afternoon game drive at Panna. The lesson of the day is that persistence pays off as we had our best sighting yet. We went back to the area we went to yesterday and heard alarm calls. Suddenly, the forest was alive with noise – monkeys shaking the tree tops and making low grunts, the sambar making a terrific low trumpeting, and the spotted deer with their higher pitched cries. Then, we saw a female tiger through the woods… and she was with three cubs, who are about a year old and not quite full sized. We had a nice view of one cub – probably the smallest of the three and a female – sitting under a palm front. There were glimpses of the other tigers though the trees. The one sitting suddenly stood up. Then, the mother was crossing the road, just in front of us. She stopped after crossing the road and looked back. One cub went running across and into the woods on the other side. Then, after a few second pause, the other two, including a larger male cub, ran towards their mother and with a growl disappeared into the woods. They were gone very quickly leaving only the monkeys calling in their wake. It was so fast but the tigers are amazingly elegant and powerful all at once, It was really the perfect end to our stay at Bandhavgarh.

Upon arriving back at the lodge, the people were wonderful again. They made a special fast breakfast for us, all came out to say goodbye, and even packed a little lunch for the car. The stay there was definitely the best part of the trip.

The drive to Panna was less great and I can now say that I have thrown up on six different continents. Thank goodness for Zofran. We arrived at Ken’s River Lodge, which is definitely less than stellar. I can’t really even say that this place is particularly clean. We met two guides from the as-of-yet-not-open CC Africa Lodge in Panna and went on a game drive. We did not see too much that was different. We saw two female blue bulls and heard a leopard calling. Then, we arrived back to Ken’s lodge and are going to see what is edible for dinner.