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Published: December 15th 2017
Safari 2 Day 15. Friday 15
th December
A lazy start. Breakfast at 8.30, I just had meusli & coffee – how very English of me. Have decided on eating less as am putting on weight with all the pakoras and fried breads between meals (& sometimes with meals). The others decided to walk into the village for the ATM to pay their bills here. I had a good chat with Satyendra & Kay explaining our whole adventure to them, whilst they exlained the huge arguament that had occurred earlier next door – apparently there had been a drunken party in the garden next door (disturbing Mal & Shirl) and afterwards an Uncle had made love to the wife, or some equally disturbing outcome… But more of village gossip later.
I finished my blogs of the last few days & a resume of Varanasi, and posted them (took a while!)
The others returned and it was time for lunch – puris and channa dahl with hot strange fruit pickle. The others paid their bills in Rupees (apparently the ATM would only let you get Rs10,000 at a time, but they
went in 3 times and got Rs30,000 each!) Their bills were Rs22,000 Mal & Rs26,000 Reedies. I paid £265 stirling. Glad that is settled – we leave tomorrow!
By now it was time to get ready for our afternoon safari at 3.30. The afternoon safari is much quicker taking only 2 hours, I wasn’t sure about what we would see in such a short time. Mal sat beside the driver for the comfiest seat, Rocco sat between Bill & Shirl, Esmee between Me & our guide (this was to prevent them falling out & becoming Tiger lunch).
We saw the odd spotted deer & lagur monkey, then saw some tiger footprints which our guide said were less than 90 mins old. Then we saw an small owl who seemed to be guarding a nest as it sat between 2 branches.
Ahead a few other safari vehicles had stopped and they were looking at some tiger cubs quite a distance away. This area has a mother & 3 cubs, although the “cubs” are 18 months old and look fully grown. I got a good shot of 2 of them dissapearing into the
jungle.
We didn’t hear it but our drivers & guides heard the mother calling them and drove away very fast. Eventually we found her, lapping at a puddle for quite a long time, one photographer on another vehicle had a fast shutter which clicked away incessantly, the tiger heard it and looked up, then ambled off in the direction of her cubs. That was the end of our Tiger encounter. We were all delighted, Esmee saying that this was the best christmas present ever!
As we drove back we saw a family of wild boar, a tad anti-climatic, but one more animal to cross off my list.
When we got back I found my wallet was missing! Searched my room, my bag, the safari vehicle, but no wallet. Saw Hakim, our driver and he took me off to the park entrance to see if it had been handed in. It hadn’t, but they told us the name of the guide who had found it. We went to his house but he didn’t have it either, it was the driver. We went to the drives house, he was out, but after 10
mins waiting, he showed up with my wallet (I gave him & Hakim Rs500 each).
Back at Skays Camp I discovered that I had orage hair! It was the red dust from the trail. So I had a good shower and change of clothes, then uploaded my films onto my laptop. Just then the chef knocked on my door to say dinner was ready. Good timing.
Had tomato soup, then rice, goats cheese and dahl with popadoms, followed by vermicelli pudding.
Esmee & Rocco had mashed potatoe & grated cheese, followed by honey pancakes (made by Satyendra without eggs).
After the kids had gone to bed, Satyendra & Kay told us stories from the village. I always thought that Indians were rather prim & proper, but not so. We heard of strange marriages arranged through each family having a son & daughter so just swapped. But one son wanted to marry a virgin and on the 3
rd night of their honeymoon, his wife asked him why they were there, he explained it was for lovemaking and she said “ we could have stayed at home and done it
in the fields as I’m used to doing”.
Satyendra is a real joker and even arranged a marriage with a friend (who was a womaniser) to a woman who didn’t exist. They got married whilst she was covered up but when he went to their bedroom he just found all he clothes hung up (they had used a transvestite to dress up). But he stopped his womanising for some years, still believing he was married. Other tales abounded, mostly tricks that he had perpetrated on folk. I am glad that I didn’t know Satyendra as a teenager…
It's our last day tomorrow and we'll all be sad to leave. We get the 9.30pm train from Katni Junction which is a 4 hour drive away, but that leaves us most of the day to maybe see the Maharajas museum although Satyendra says it will be closed & dusty... I'll let you know!
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Janice
non-member comment
Wow - tigers!
Glad to hear all ok - and they are fab photos of tigers. How lovely to see some. Tell Esmee that she'll have to tell me all about it when she gets back. And if she's lucky I'll smack her face! (a private joke - for those who don't know me or Esmee!)