Off to Nagarhole

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We set off from Coonoor at 7am, bidding farewell to the oasis that is the Taj hotel. Needless to say, as this is the day we are leaving there is not a cloud or patch of mist to be seen and we enjoy distant views across the Nilgiris. We have to stop after about an hour at a charming spot next to a stinking bus station for the driver to buy yet another permit. While he does so we eat our packed breakfast box given to us by the hotel. Finishing this up David, being British, espies a bin and sets off to put the box into the bin. He finds he has to step his way carefully in his open toed sandals to avoid the cow, dog and human turds along the roadside. Getting to the bin he finds it is overflowing, with two dogs with their heads in excavating the contents and there is no space for the box, so he offers the remains of our breakfast to the dogs. Might as well just have thrown the box out of the car window as the roadside is already covered with litter.....

We sit for a few more minutes enjoying the stink of diesel fumes from the belching buses, and survey the groups of huddled people waiting on the corners for the gangmasters to arrive looking for day rate workers. Eventually we set off through the beautiful rolling Tamil Nadu national forest (or something like that). The scent of pine and citronella wafts periodically through the window as we wind down to the valley.

Sara is having some bowel problems. This is every Westerner's dread on an Indian road journey. She manages to render three roadside toilets (one in a petrol station and two in a hotel, which was really antisocial) unusable, but what is a girl to do? There is no running water so you just have to do what you have to do and run away. The fourth toilet defeats her though as many previous users' shit is already piled up to the level of the seat, so after the sight and smell of that her body appears to tell her that she can hold on for now. Nothing other than a bluebottle would want to enter that stall.

The temperature is rising and the journey passes hour after hour. We pass through dusty little towns. In one town we have to stop to buy the Karnataka permit. A legless beggar sees us waiting in the car and drags himself over on his knuckles to scratch pathetically at the car door, while a wretched looking crone with a baby bangs on Sara's window. We resist the temptation to give out cash. Working Indians greatly disapprove of beggars and get really cross if you give them money. Mr Hussain returns to the car and shoos the crone away. I hope he saw the legless creature and didn’t run over him....I hope the squeal was just our tyres burning on the tarmac and not the cries of a squashed beggar.

Eventually we find the turning off the road to Mysore that we need to find. However now the journey gets a bit tricky as all road signs are now in Kannada not Tamil or Malayalam, and Mr Hussain neither reads nor speaks Kannada, so stopping to check our direction of travel becomes a bit trickier. Eventually we find ourselves driving through Mudumalai Tiger Reserve followed by Bandipur Tiger Reserve (this on the main highway to Mysore!). We scan the forest but see only a couple of elephants in the distance. At one point a couple of thuggish types flag us down and ask if we would like to take a jeep safari into Bandipur. It seems unlikely they are kosher as they are not in uniform and it is midday when no one goes offroad in the park, and we decline their kind offer.

After six hours we roll into our lodge in Kabini, which was formerly the Maharajah of Mysore's private hunting lodge. It sounds very grand but unfortunately these days it is run as government of Karnataka enterprise. The result is that it is overpriced, the food is bland and unvarying, and the service is what you would expect of a state enterprise. But it is the place you need to stay to be sure of getting on safari. The number of visitors per day is limited so you don’t want to find you are staying in a nice lodge but cannot get into the park! We have a nice cottage fronting the lake; this place could be so much better with private management. Such a shame.



We have arrived though in time for our first game drive that afternoon. So some lunch, a short rest and then we are kitted up and ready to go out in the jeep. We see a tiger, but it is a long way off in a clearing and our view is somewhat obscured by a tree. Still, it feels like a good omen.

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