We reached the place by the time the clock struck mid day. The ticket cost us only 160 rupees and included a safari ride and entry to a small zoo, quite contrary to our premonitions built from the stay in the expensive city of Bangalore.
After a short wait we boarded the bus and found ourselves seats at the back. The rear window and to side windows offered us ample view. The only thing we missed in this perfect setting was a camera.
Right at the beginning of the journey we were greeted with sightings of a pair of chitals, spotted with white marks on bright honey drop coat. Moving on the jungle trail, we met a family of Sambar (antelope) crossing the road. One of them, probably the alpha male, with a magnificent display of horns, stopped midway. It gazed in our direction for sometime, as if to ensure the safety of the others, until the whole group had crossed. We had more sightings of the chittals and Sambars . A Gaur bison was seen standing idle, all the muscle hidden under a glistening dark hide, with enough power of tipping the bus. Seeing it standing alone, forlorn and lonely, I could only imagine what a grand sight it would have made to see it among a full herd.
A crocodile was seen basking at a distance on a rock on the side of a stream. A nilgai (antelope) passed by us, catching our attention with that breathtakingly beautiful hide. I then understood why it was one of the most coveted prize hunt in India.
The scenery around offered no lees a feast to the eyes. We were going through a narrow trail amongst troughs and crests of a plateau region. Large and ancient trees around with a small slow stream flowing through the jungle only to join a sort of naturally formed water reservoir. Once upon a particular high spot we found ourselves looking a marvelous sight of the whole valley, forests broken by the array of high rocks.
We then came on to an area, so as to say, 'infested' with bears. I saw about a score of Indian Sloth bears rumbling about or siting idle . Some of them were curious enough to come over to the bus when we stopped and take a few curious sniffs and peeks at the bus tyres and doors. The bears seemed harmless at a casual glance but a closer look would reveal its arsenal of the talons on those large paws. A particular one seemed quite unhappy with our approach, reacting with grunts and snorts and a strange swaying motion with its head.
The biggest excitement of the day came from the big cats. We caught sight of a pride of lions, 5 lionesses resting out in the shade of trees and a solo lion sitting a bit apart from the rest. They seemed to hold very little interest in us, preferred to rest in the shade rather stroll over to us. Looking around from that spot we also found a white tiger, deep in sleep, in a peculiar pose, sticking a hind leg up in air. The camouflage was so amazing that we hadn't noticed for all the time we had been there looking at the lions when the tiger was just a few yards away. All the shouts of the children or the excited chatter of other co passengers couldn't rouse it, all movement we saw was a casual twitch probably to shake away a fly or two. We were busy gazing at this magnificent beast when we discovered a second tiger, a younger one with a bright stripped fur, lying low under a bush, watching us silently. I reflected in horror that it was actually stalking us, and had this meet been under different circumstances of me being on foot instead of the safe haven of the well protected bus the day would have ended in bloody encounter.
We were about to move on from that spot, leaving behind the two tigers and the lion pride, but suddenly the stalking tiger seemed alerted by something else. Out of a bush suddenly came along this huge white tiger, a magnificent beast in its prime days. It by far the largest one i had ever seen in my life, including all of the ones i had seen in the numerous zoos i had visited and the stuffed ones i had seen in museums. The beast truly seemed regal in its movement, strolling casually, taking little care of our presence. We were in his dominion, at his mercy. A second bus have had caught up with us and was just rolling in behind us when this lordly tiger went unto its front, freezing it and the passengers within with a soft growl. Even the little unruly children were frozen with fright. The tiger then jumped onto a road side raised rock, easing itself into a royal posture. It seemed the king of the jungle on its throne. It seemed to be enjoying all the subsequent attention, the flurry of flashing cameras busy to capture every bit of the majestic scene. That went on for a while but soon got bored of the whole show, gave a huge yawn, displaying its array of those huge fangs. A bite would have ripped through all my scanty flesh and easily ground the bones within. With a short leap it went off into the depths of the woods. A lord tired of the pestering of the subjects.
We started once again only to meet with more tigers, some lazily lying as if on a weekend rest, one seen doing the ceremonial territorial marking, though that effort seemed futile with so many tigers present in that reserve. I had crossed the dozen mark only to give up counting and employ the attention to capture every bit of the sight of the magnificent beasts, en effort to make up for the absence of a camera. We came across another tiger, unmistakably a Royal Bengal by the rich yellow shiny coat and the heavily built body, as if a wilderness counterpart of a body builder, pacing along impatient with something.
The journey then came to an end, leaving us dazed with the experience. The wild seemed to call us to return visit the place and we made up our mind to come back for more, to have a greater adventure of staying in one of the jungle lodges in the reserve.
The end of the journey brought us to a small zoo. However after all the grandeur of the day we were little taken by all that in the zoo. Few of the notable ones we saw in the saw in the zoo were a few leopards, though they were also there in the jungle we didn't get a single sight of these highly stealthy beasts of prey. We also saw a large collection of snakes including a particularly interesting King Cobra. A few imported animals were also there in the zoo like emu, ostrich and zebra.
We covered the whole span of the small zoo in a short time and started back home, running the memories of the day in our mind. A day of adventure, a day of fun, a day alive...
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