Passage to India, part 3

The journey to Gujerat was reversed and we travelled for many hours by jeep, car and eventually plane back to Mumbai.  The usual Indian traffic was negotiated, daily life and traditional methods observed, with stops en route for a leg stretch and to meet and chat with villagers.

After an overnight stay in Mumbai, it was time to hit the skies and roads once again as we journeyed towards Madhya Pradesh in Central India.  

Driving through the forest gave ample opportunity to spot birds, gaur (the impressively horned Indian bison), deer, monkeys, wild dogs.  We searched and searched for tigers (they cover vast areas) but, whilst there was some evidence of their presence, they remained out of sight.  

One afternoon, after driving in the jeep for maybe 10 minutes, a leopard suddenly came into view, emerging from the bushes, just ahead of us on the track. 

Our tracker advised they are elusive creatures and spotted only fleetingly, high up in trees or on top of rocks or up in the hills in the distance before disappearing from view. 

This one was uncharacteristically sociable, keeping us company for about 90 minutes, just chilling, pooing, grooming.  Oh, for a cuddle.

It was a lucky day. 

But.  The main aim of the trip was to see a tiger……….

 

Passage To India, part 2

After the whistle stop tour of Mumbai, it was time to go in search of wildlife.  After a  short-ish flight, we hit country roads for six hours and then travelled by jeep for the final stretch to reach the edge of the forest in Gujerat. 

We arrived, miraculously unscathed.  Traffic in India is unbelievable and probably best experienced as a passenger (maybe even as a driver) with eyes closed.  Roads outside of the big cities are, at best, just wide enough for two vehicles travelling in opposite directions to pass each other. 

There are lorries, cars, overfull buses, bullock driven carts, motorbikes (no-one wears a crash helmet and often families including babies ride pillion), bicycles, tricycles and the ever present cows.  Road markings (where they appear), traffic lights and the usual rules of the road are 'optional'.  Basically it's a free for all.  Road users do as they wish.  And that can mean driving head on towards oncoming traffic on single lane roads and holding your nerve, trusting that the driver rapidly closing in you from the opposite direction will lose theirs and veer out of the way at the last minute.  Oh, and drivers flash their lights and honk their horns.  Constantly. 

So, Gujerat, India's westernmost state, with protected forest areas providing a home to a variety of wildlife.  Sambhar and spotted deer, langur monkeys, jackals, more than 200 bird species, crocodiles, elusive leopards, snakes and so much more.  

A new routine was quickly established.  Days beginning before sunrise, being driven by jeep through the forest for five or six hours, returning in the afternoon and staying until dusk, heads turning in all directions, eyes scanning for any movement.

The forest is also home to the Maldharis, the tribal herdsmen and their families who live alongside the wildlife, tending their cattle, occasionally losing some to predators, earning a living from the sale of milk.

But undoubtedly the biggest draw to this part of India is the chance of spotting an Asiatic lion.  Smaller than its African relative and hunted almost to extinction, there is currently a small population of several hundred lions living in the forest, the last remaining in the wild, subjects of conservation attempts but still hugely at risk, from disease, from poachers, from tribesmen protecting domestic cattle.

With high hopes and little expectation of seeing any (this wasn't an African safari), patience was rewarded late one afternoon when we were treated to  the spectacle of a sleepy lioness and her cub, resting in the shade of the undergrowth.  

Did I cry?

Er, do lions poo in the forest?