After arriving back to the hotel late from the Taj Mahal, we turned right around the next morning and left the hotel about 7:00am again to catch our flight to the city of Nagpur. So the driver hurried us off to the Delhi airport and we were in Nagpur in no time.
Once again, we had an adventure once we all piled into the car. The car was a similar size to the one that picked us up at the Delhi airport, but instead of a back bench it had two seats facing each other. This ended up working out just fine. Chris, Kaitlyn, and I made our way into the back with almost all of the backpacks, stretched out our legs onto each other, and started our 2-hour car ride to Pench Camp.
It was an interesting way to ride...we got some looks from the many motorcycle riders that saw us. Kaitlyn and I even got an "OK sign" from a guy! We were having fun with it even though it was a little tight. We had fun having a different view from inside the car too. On the car ride, one of the things we saw was road construction - we were counting the number of Caterpillar machines, which there ended up being quite a few (which made Chris happy)!
Before we knew it, we were at Pench Camp for a few days of relaxation and going on safaris to see wildlife inside Pench National Park and hoping to catch a glimpse (and a picture) of a tiger - there is a tiger reserve inside this park.
We checked out our tents after we checked into the camp and were pleasantly surprised with what we found. These were tents, but definitely the nicest tents I've ever seen! They had several single beds, coat racks, chairs, coffee table, and also an attached bathroom with toilet, 2 sinks, and a shower. It was very nice! (Much nicer and more accomodating than I thought this "tent" would be.)
All 7 of us went on a safari pretty much right after checking into the camp. And I know all of us had a great time. That night we enjoyed some tea by a bonfire when we got back to camp (which I found out I really like Masala tea), enjoyed an Indian dinner later on, and then watched a little tribal dancing they had around the bonfire. It was already proving to be relaxing and a great time!
The next day we chose to wake up at 5:30 am so we could go on the morning safari! We weren't crazy about the time, but we were on the hunt to find a tiger so it didn't matter too much :) Rachelle was sick that morning so Grandpa stayed behind with her while the rest of us froze on the safari ride. (Yes, it does get cold in India. It is winter here right now. In this area of India, it got in the 40's at night which makes it very cold to ride in an open-air vehicle before the sun comes up to warm up the temperature.) But we had blankets so we did pretty well and didn't get too cold. We were thankful when the sun started to warm things up around 9 to 10am. We had fun and enjoyed the peacefulness of being in the jungle, but still no tiger or leopard spottings!
After lunch, the 5 of us headed back out to the park. Even though there were only 5 of us going, we still had to stay in our original vehicles. So Chris, Kaitlyn, and I were in one vehicle and Craig and Beth were in another. I think it was that safari that took us forever to get into the park. Each time we went on a safari, the government officials at the entrance to the park had to assign us a park guide and check our paperwork and passports. This proved to usually be at least a 30 minute process (especially since the park is so busy this time of the year). That afternoon we finally got into the park after about 45 minutes. Craig and Beth ended up having to waiting about another half hour because most of the tour guides went on strike. The head officials finally gave in to the issue the guides were mad about (hence the strike) and the rest of the vehicles were on their way :)
We were having fun that afternoon but still no tigers and we only had about an hour left that afternoon. Then we came upon a group of vehicles that said they heard an alarm call from a sambar deer about 10 minutes before we got there. We stopped for a few minutes and then decided to head on. Then we were passing another vehicle (it's common for the vehicles to stop while passing to see if either had seen any tigers) and they said they saw a tiger where they had just come from!
And we were off - racing down the road in the forest in hopes that we could see this tiger!!!
Kaitlyn and I were laughing and having fun because we were going so fast and bouncing around! The driver stopped the car to make sure we were ok with him driving fast. And we said "YES, YES, FAST!!!"
And off we went again racing through the forest! We felt like we were absolutely flying!
All of a sudden we started to go up a small hill and the park guide said "tigre!!!" and pointing ahead to a spot in the road at the crest of the hill! There it was!!! Oh my goodness!!! There's a tiger!!!
We slowed way down (to a crawl) as we finished going over the hill. The tiger was just as calm as could be. It walked along the road for a bit, went to the grass on the left, crossed back over the road to the right, walked down the road a little further, and then walked off to the left again and before we knew it the tiger disappeared back into the thick forest. It was absolutely amazing. I think we got to watch the tiger for about a minute. (It's hard to remember how long it really was but I took about 6 or 7 pictures and my camera is very slow when trying to take multiple pictures right in a row.) It was so great to see such a powerful animal and one that we don't see everyday (especially in the wild)! And the markings on a tiger are just beautiful!
We were so excited with what had just happened. Seeing that tiger definitely made all of the safaris and our trip out to Pench Camp worth it. After that tiger spotting, we actually turned around with the vehicle that had been behind us and drove for a little while. Then we decided to ditch that vehicle and we turned around to see if the tiger had come back out onto the road since we had left the area. No such luck.
But soon after that, we raced off again because we heard there may be another one in the area. We didn't end up seeing any other rare animals. For a while we felt like we were absolutely in the middle of nowhere and that we were way out in the park. We thought it was going to take forever to get back to the entrance since we had raced off so fast (and had traveled so far) when we raced to the tiger! But before we knew it, we popped back out onto the main road in the park and were back to the entrance :)
Craig and Beth told us that when they got back to the camp they had heard a rumor that we had seen a tiger! We thought that was kind of funny because the guides at the park entrance were talking about the "young Americans" who had seen the tiger :)
I think the 3 of us felt on top of the world for a while! We enjoyed another relaxing evening with tea by the bonfire and dinner before heading to bed for what would be another early morning safari.
