India, February 2008
Friday 15th
After weeks, nay, months of anticipation, the day had finally arrived! We all met up at Science School at 0900 as arranged, did a final check of crucial kit (Ed had forgotten his iPod, and James all his medicines!), and piled our bags into Alex's dad's minivan, and ourselves into the minibus. Simon checked that everyone's bags were on board, and we set off.
About five miles up the road, a serious concern was raised that Simon had actually forgotten to put Julia's bag in the van. So we called Amber back at school..and it was still there! Ooops! We stopped at the M3 services, and Amber very kindly drove up to us on a mercy mission...nearly a disaster at the start.
We got to Heathrow with loads of time to spare, and got thoroughly bored once we'd checked in and shopped hard. The flight left about 45 minutes late, at around 1600 - a BA 747 direct to Delhi!
Saturday 16th
On arrival at 0500, Sam was distinctly unwell - bilious and a nosebleed too! So he felt even grimmer than the rest of us. We changed our money, bought some water, and met Bunty, our local guide, who loaded us onto a bus. We made the short journey to the Ashok Country Resort Hotel (plush and anonymous) had breakfast and then variously slept, dozed, birded the garden or went swimming!
Lunch followed apace (for those of us who had slept), and we met Gurmeet from Travel Inn Ltd. and stuffed our faces again. At about 1500, we set off for a 'scenic drive' through New Delhi, taking in the Lutyens planned central plazas and India Gate, the memorial to the country's war dead. Via Humayun's tomb, we finally reached the train station, and successfully found our sleeper car - we had a whole carriage to ourselves, bar three unlucky locals!
After exploratory visits to the Indian and Western style loos (both OK, actually!), we settled down for a few hours before dark, and ate a rather dodgy tray meal involving chicken and chips. We were all exhausted, so we settled down to try and sleep quite early. Most of us managed a couple of hours, but not much more!
Sunday 17th
Shortly before 0700, we reached Katni, and, bleary-eyed, we boarded 4x4s and set off on the final leg. We stopped just a few miles outside town for some early morning birding by a big reservoir - lots of ducks and waders (including Comb Duck, Red-crested Pochard, LRP and Spotted Redshank), plus Indian Bushlark, Rufous-tailed Lark and Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark, Wryneck, Indian Robin, Long-tailed Shrike and (best of all) a couple of distant Indian Coursers. Rather few bushes for comfort breaks, however! Further stops along the road turned up Red-naped Ibis, Asian Woolly-necked Stork and Bronze-winged Jacana.
Finally, at about 1100, 44 hours after leaving Winchester, we reached Tiger Trails lodge at Bandhavgarh - hooray! Breakfast was swiftly followed by some garden birding and lunch (too much food...), and at 1500, we set off for the first of our nine game drives in the National Park - mornings are generally better for mammals, but there was lots else to see.
Very soon, we saw plenty of birds and mammals - Lesser Adjutant, Mottled Wood Owl, Indain Peafowl, Red Junglefowl, Changeable Hawk-eagle, Bonelli's Eagle, Long-tailed Minivet and Tickell's Thrush were perhaps the bird highlights, and mammals comprised Chital, Sambar, Wild Boar, Five-striped Squirrel and lots of Hanuman Langur monkeys.
We also got very excited on being shown huge Tiger scratch marks some 12ft up a tree - what a beast! - and also some very clear and impressively large footprints or 'pugmarks' - these beasts were really out there! The jeeps had fanned out a bit, and Simon's was stopped by the edge of a very thick bit of bamboo and sal forest, when we started to hear Chital alarm calls. Our guard was up. We waited for a while, then backed up to the open meadow to scan for movement. We saw none, but very quickly heard an engine roaring ahead of us, right where we'd been, and a cloud of dust - we were on!
We dashed up the road, just in time to catch glimpses of a vast (and I mean vast) cat shape in the bamboo - and then it emerged for just a few moments into the light - TIGER! Yes! Julia's jeep arrived just in time, but soon we were all careering off along the track, racing to get ahead of the animal, hoping against hope that it might reappear where the road crossed the shallow valley.
Some 30 other jeeps had heard the news and had had the same idea - there was a veritable gallery lined up and in wait! Three minutes passed... four... there he is! The massive male ('B2'), the largest in the area, sauntered out of the forest along a well-worn trail, right across the road in front of us, only about seven or eight metres in front! He sprayed the bushes, marking his territory, then continued, totally undisturbed by the awestruck tourists, flushed a couple of panicked Sambar, and after a short while disappeared into the jungle once again. UNBELIEVABLE!
What a great show - total elation all round - a huge male Tiger at point-blank range on our first game drive! There was much punching of the air, high-fiving and even some fractionally dubious language used, and it was all smiles as we trundled home through clouds of dust and the increasingly chilly evening air. Back at base, we had a big, slap-up meal in celebration, and went to bed exhausted but very, very happy!
Monday 18th-Thursday 21st
Our four full days in Bandhavgarh NP followed the same basic pattern - up at 0500, tea and biscuits at 0530 (to see a group of 14 Wykehamists up and alert (ish) at that time of day must be some kind of record!), then off in four jeeps at 0545 and into the Park when the gates opened at 0615. On entry, each jeep is allocated a route (A-G), which they are supposed to stick to (and do), before reaching the 'Central Point', a sort of roadside café stop with a forest ticket office, where the Park guide collects a chit entitling the jeep occupants to elephant rides, if (and only if) the mahouts succeed in finding a settled Tiger in the forest. The jeep then has to return to another stopping off point by some bat-filled sandstone caves, collect another ticket (the joys of Indian bureaucracy), and then (again, only if a Tiger has been pinned down), go off to rendezvous with the elephants....very complicated!
So we were split into four essentially independent units each morning, with jeeps led by Simon, Julia, Bunty and the hotel's resident naturalist. With four pairs of eyes, everyone eventually managed to see most things, but some drives were inevitably a lot more productive than others. The morning drives ended at 1030, and after a return to the hotel, we generally had an hour or two off before lunch - a superb buffet spread, excellent without fail. At 1500 we set off once more, for a more leisurely game drive, exiting the Park at dusk, and returning to the lodge for about 1830.
At the end of four and half days, we had accumulated a lot of great sightings - mammals added were Northern Red Muntjac, Golden Jackal, Ruddy Mongoose and Indain Palm Civet (the latter at the lodge), and the bird list grew spectacularly, covering such superb birds as Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Scaly, Orange-headed and Plain-backed Thrushes, Tickell's Blue, Verditer and Ultramarine Flycatchers, Drongo-cuckoo, Sirkeer Malkoha, Shaheen (=Peregrine) Falcon, White-eyed Buzzard, Crested Treeswift, Golden-fronted Leafbird, Brown Shrike, Blue-capped Rock Thrush, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Hume's and Tickell's Warbler's, and a whole range of common species such as Rufous Treepie, Red-vented Bulbul, Greenish Warbler, Long-tailed Shrike, Jungle Babbler, Red-wattled Lapwing, Alexandrine, Rose-ringed and Plum-headed Parakeets, Indian Roller and Jungle Crow.
On day three at Bandhavgarh, two of the jeeps had another excellent sighting of a Tiger, again a male (but a different animal), which crossed the track, roaring! Luckily for the rest of us, the mahouts managed to pin it down resting at Charger Point, and with a bit of patience, we were all able to board elephants and get astonishing views of the dozing cat from just a few metres away. A truly memorable experience for us all!
Over our lunchtimes, we also had a couple of extra activities - on day two we went for a walk to the local village, visiting the primary school and a family home, and on day three we drove round to the western Park gate and had lunch at Anant Van Ashram, a new eco-lodge which had just opened up. It was a stunning little place: all beautiful open plan rooms, traditional architecture, organic vegetable plots, shrines and sustainable technologies. We were shown around by Rosalind, originally from Cirencester, and a chap who used to be a sadhu, and had lived in a cave in the Himalayas for 17 years!
We enjoyed a truly superb lunch, and walked around the tree nursery, where we were shown how Druv (the boss - sadly not there on the day we visited) is working to reforest the grounds with indigenous trees. Most of us had never seen cotton bushes, Neem trees and Mahua seedlings before!
Other 'bonus activities' included a brief visit to the elephant camp on day four, where we enjoyed feeding the huge beasts with bread, and made friends with a very naughty one year old who took a liking to Alex W's trousers, and spent some time headbutting Freddie, before chasing our jeeps down the track when we left!
On our last morning at Bandhavgarh, we had our single most successful Tiger outing of the trip - two jeeps saw two well-grown cubs and had another sighting of the huge male, B2, while a third jeep saw B2 and also a tigress with three very young cubs - stunning photos were taken! Sadly, jeep four saw none at all today!
After our final ride on Thursday evening (during which we visited the statue of the reclining Vishnu high on Bandhavgarh Hill and saw Black-naped Monarch, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, Malabar Pied Hornbill and Peregrine Falcon), we had an early meal, checked out of Tiger Trails, and drove to Umaria in closed jeeps - a journey of about an hour. The 2045 overnight train to Agra was delayed, first by an hour, and then by 90 minutes, so we amused ourselves playing cards, chatting with the locals and in a few cases drinking lots of chai!
At last we boarded the train, and we all had a MUCH better night's sleep than last time.
Friday 22nd
We dragged ourselves up at about 0700 (apart from Freddie, who slept until 0900), enjoyed a half-decent packed breakfast, and tried to bird through the thick windows or the open train door - with some success. The undoubted highlight was a pair of huge Sarus Cranes, but we also saw Ruddy Shelduck, Pied Stonechat, Brown Rock Chat and Spoonbill.
We reached Agra at about 1100, and quickly transferred to our rather plush Hotel, the Trident Hilton. What a contrast to the train. At 1315 we drove a short distance to a restaurant with a walled garden..which Simon found oddly familiar: it was the one he had visited with Pip and Eric Billington back in 1994! And more than that, it had been the site of the famous fruit curry - which on enquiring, turned out still to be a house speciality - and we ate some! Cashback!
From here, we went with Sunny, our local city guide, to the awesome Agra Fort, where we all enjoyed the Mughal architecture, breathtaking views of the Taj Mahal in the distance, the tales of Crocodile- and Tiger-infested wet and dry moats, and not a few good birds - Little Swift, Egyptian Vulture, Common Buzzard, Brown Rock Chat and best of all, a distant Pallas's Gull on the Yamuna River.
After that, we were driven to a very plush (and expensive!) handicrafts emporium, where we learnt all about marble inlaying and Kashmiri carpet-making - but for almost all of us the prices were a bit steep...
Dinner tonight was at another restaurant, this one with a resident magician - who did some quite lame, and some quite good tricks - and then explained how they were done, and sold them to the boys!
On the way back, the entertainment continued, with a very noisy bridegroom's procession, complete with sound system, sousaphones, mobile firework trolley and highly decorated horse. Alex Carn managed to ignore a horn-blaring (stationary) car not two inches behind him for fully ten seconds - but apart from that we got home in one piece. A few other minor catastrophes today - the highlight of which was Josh leaving his moneybelt and luggage key on the train, although mercifully it only had about £10 in it, Julia's padlock key worked on his bag, and he had kept his passport separately. Phew!
Saturday 23rd
Simon got up nice and early to check us in on our flight tomorrow morning - courtesy of wireless internet in his room and the trusty Geography Department laptop. At 0630 we all met up and set off for the short drive to the Taj Mahal. After completing the last half mile in an electric bus, we enjoyed a good hour and a half wandering around the famous monument - mighty, beautiful and worth every moment of the wait.
Birding on the Yamuna River turned up some new species - Painted Stork, Bar-headed Goose, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit and the local speciality, River Lapwing. Josh recreated Princess Diana's cow-eyed moment of media manipulation on the correct bench in front of the Taj, and (of course) a hot was held, and duly photographed. This caused much amusement amongst other tourists, but at least we were not ejected..
Back to the Hilton for a massive breakfast, then a final wash and brush up before checking out, and heading off for yet more culture, first at Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb, or the 'Baby Taj', a much more manageable Moghul mausoleum just over the river. If anything, it was even more exquisite - and certainly less crowded!
From here, it was on to Fatehpur Sikri, the abandoned city of the fourth Moghul emperor, some 50km west of Agra. After escaping the city traffic and a late lunch en route, we enjoyed several hours wanderng around the fantastic ruins, dominating the land for miles around with their deep red sandstone towers and archways. Finally, cultured out, we returned to Agra, visiting a handicrafts emporium for some last minute shopping before heading for the train station.
The 2030 train was pretty much on time, and within two hours we were back in Delhi, where we were met by Ravi, the boss of Travel Inn. He very generously took us to the Taj Hotel for a round of drinks, a late night chat (it was almost midnight) and gifts of metalwork boxes all round.
Sunday 24th
It was time to fly home - we arrived at the airport at about 0100, to be greeted by the most awful queues in all areas! It took ages to get everyone's bags security checked and loaded up, and then to get through emigration - and James and Sam were feeling rather unwell....
We finally boarded at 0330 - and their illness got worse....the less said the better, but they both had a thoroughly miserable flight.
Finally, finally, we got home at around 0745 UK time, offloaded those who were being collected by parents at the airport or travelling into London, and returned to Winchester by minibus, courtesy of Martin. Everyone said goodbye, got their rides home - and this fantastically successful and enjoyable trip was over. What a holiday!