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Marion Dale travelled on our 'Not Just Tigers! Satpura - Best of Central India' holiday and submitted this entry to our writing competition.
Sloth Bear by Ian Williamson
After a long and tiring journey we landed on time at Bhopal and were quickly and efficiently transferred to the Jehan Numa Palace. A pleasant enough hotel for our overnight stop - pity about the wedding party, but we were so tired we managed to sleep through it.
Next morning - after our first birds in the hotel grounds - we set off for Satpura. I had forgotten the chaos of Indian roads. I’m sure there are rules but it seems that the first driver to flash their lights has right of way and the most important accessory is the horn. Twice we came to level crossings where the barriers were down - pedestrians and cyclists simply ducked under and crossed - motorised traffic queued up the whole width of the road on both sides but somehow when the barrier lifted and everyone set off, weaving in and out there were no incidents!
What a difference when we arrived at the peace and tranquillity of Forsyth’s Lodge. After a quick ‘wash and brush up’ we met for a briefing with Rishi, the manager, and David, our naturalist for our stay, to learn what we might see - one thing was the elusive Jungle Cat. The briefing was then interrupted by great excitement from the other naturalists, a Jungle Cat had been spotted stalking through the grounds, our first spot and no it wasn’t the lodge’s moggy or a tame Jungle Cat.
David turned out to be an outstanding naturalist. By day he told us about the animals, birds, butterflies (the number and variety of which amazed me) and dragonflies, trees, flowers and amphibians (his speciality), and at night he explained the night sky - all with infectious enthusiasm. Various trips found all the expected wildlife including Giant Squirrels and Sloth Bears (one of which ran and tried to hide behind a tree but subsequently came out into the clearing and continued his hunt for termites). The early morning starts were cold as we left in the dark to get to the river by sunrise ... and what spectacular sunrises every morning as we crossed into the beautiful, quiet reserve! The trip was called ‘Not Just Tigers!’ and all the literature stressed that we were unlikely to see Tigers, but on our second day we heard a cacophony of alarm calls and the roars of Tigers, which went on for some time. We repositioned several times. Did we see Tigers? No but it was great fun listening and imagining what they were up to!
A night drive produced a Rusty Spotted Cat and a Palm Civet. A great bird list culminated on our last morning with a high flying White Stork - the first ever sighting at Forsyth’s. Then it was time to switch lodges. None of us wanted to leave as we didn’t see how we could improve on this lodge. All the staff had been so friendly, with the naturalists all joining us for meals or in the common areas and all were keen to accompany us on our transfer. In the end all three came with us; the trainee lost out to seniority as someone had to stay at Forsyth’s.
So David drove us to Reni Pani and we were met by Aly, the manager and our naturalist there. Another nice lodge but very different being completely surrounded by trees. Aly was like chalk and cheese compared with David, being very quiet and calm but equally knowledgeable.
Trips into the reserve followed the same pattern except that the extra distance meant even earlier starts! The highlight from here was on our first day when, as we returned from a full-day excursion, a Leopard crossed the track in front of us then laid in a gully where we all had good views.
All too soon this lovely trip was over. We had a bird list of almost 160 and had seen all the animals we expected to see. I saw the others off on their extension to Kanha then I was transferred to Bhopal, as uneventful a journey as is possible in India; and after a stop at the Jehan Numa Palace for a meal and freshen up on to the airport for the long journey home.
‘Not Just Tigers!’ - perhaps ‘Everything But Tigers!’ would be a better title.
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