[Stryker]

Right, I'm back at my favourite jungle. Been a while since my previous visit, I'm really happy to be here. The usual suspects accompany me for this trip with another friend and his wife along from Gurugaon added this time. The BMW performed flawlessly on the trip and every time I drive it, my respect and admiration for the car goes up a couple of notches.

A quick note about the new Mysore highway
Awesome! That's the only word to describe it. No tolls for the moment, as it is not officially inaugurated yet. There is a small deviation near Mandya where you are forced to go onto the old highway and go through the town just like the old days. Just after Mandya though you reconnect back to the new highway all the way to Columbia Asia signal at Mysore (it is no longer Columbia Asia, it is now the Manipal hospital, but the name has kinda stuck). In fact, you can be excused for not recognizing the signal at all! There is no such deviation on the return journey though, it is six lane all the way from Columbia signal to NICE road in Bangalore. Yay! 130 kms of sheer bliss and the car ate it up in about 90 minutes. And I wasn't pushing it at all. Another 15-20 minutes can be easily shaved off that time with a little pressure on the pedal.

The first safari
There is something with me and the first safari I go on in most visits. We almost always end up not having a big cat sighting and the standard doubts about whether this trip will yield anything begin to surface. But that doesn't mean we skip the other beautiful citizens of the forest. Oh no! They are each worth several photos by themselves.


Like this young tusker basking in the evening sunlight along the back waters. Seems like he's been grubbing around in the mud a bit.




And this Darter who is relaxing on a small tree stump in the blue, blue water




In a first for me, we spot a Common Cobra winding quickly across the path and into its lair. I had never seen a cobra in Kabini even after so many visits, so this one is special.





A Tickell's Blue Flycatcher is keeping watch in the branches




A Yellow Bellied Wagtail in a culvert




A Racquet Tailed Drongo makes for a lovely silhouette against a bright sky.




No one ever stops for Jungle Fowl, they are treated less than Spotted Deer in the forest. But they have such amazing colours on them, especially when the light catches it just right. I insisted on waiting at this spot until the bird moved exactly the way I wanted it, overriding everyone else who wanted to move on. The glow on those iridescent tail feathers!




A White Throated Kingfisher seems to have caught a caterpillar for an evening snack



And we return to JLR, not exactly satisfied, but I'm happy to have seen the cobra.


The second safari
Zone A. The morning is cold and midly foggy. I was actually expecting a lot more fog than this. While it is certainly cold, it isn't bone chilling or anything like that.

We reach the famous power line and someone in the back seat goes "Tiger! Tiger!". And we are all up in a flash, wanting a glimpse of our national animal. It is walking on the narrow path that goes along the power line, so we follow at a safe distance.




It is a young sub-adult female, about three years old. Must be from the Russell Line female's (may her soul attain moksha, it was sad that ending for such a bold tigress ) third litter. Must be feeling thirsty after a decent meal the previous night.




Feeling refreshed now. "OK are these guys still watching my pretty behind?" Never fear ma'am we are always in attendance!




"Hmmm, this water smells slightly different. Maybe some other tiger was here?"




She walks for quite a time ahead of us. I'm burning through my memory card, clicking away at 10 FPS. A van approaches from the other side and she steps off the path.




Time for a bit of stretching before heading off for some much earned rest.




One last regal pose before she disappears.



We are high fiving each other, the kind of elation that comes from sighting such a majestic animal in the wild is indescribable. While we are busy smiling from ear to ear, our driver pulls me down and points at the trees.


Lo and behold, a Malabar Trogon! Another first for me, never seen one before in Kabini or elsewhere for that matter. Wow! I must have woken up the right way this morning!



Most of the rest of the safari is spent discussing the sightings and we don't get to see anything much apart from the usual deer and such. Back for a well deserved breakfast and bragging rights at Golghar over the Malabar Trogon.

[Stryker]

The third safari
After a refreshing bath and a good lunch, we head out again for our third safari. We have a tiger sighting in the bag, so we won't be too disappointed if we don't get to see one this time. But then it is raining tigers in Kabini. The population has literally exploded with multiple females having new litters of three or four cubs each.


While we are going around, trying to hear if there are any alarm calls, we see this Grey Headed Fish Eagle up in the trees.




And the ever present Crested Serpent Eagle. These birds are like Spotted Deer, you can see them quite often.




Driving around the jungle, we come across a pair of vehicles excitedly waving at us. And we find this!




The legendary Back Water Female herself! Out for an evening stroll. She has four cubs now, but they are nowhere to be seen.




There is a whole train of vehicles following Her Royal Highness, we are fortunate to be ahead of her allowing me to get head on shots. There is another train behind us too.




She has single handedly contributed around eight tigers to Kabini's population over the years. Along with the late lamented Russell Line female, she is a superstar here.




The golden evening light is kind and makes the entire forest glow, which is increased quite a bit by her presence.




And then she vanishes into the bushes, leaving us gasping for breath.



More high fives, more laughs. This time there are several other vehicles with whom we exchange notes about who spotted her first and where she might be headed next. The consensus is that she is probably going for a dip in the back waters, so one by one we all peel off and go in different directions. We are still headed in the general direction when another vehicle frantically flashes their headlights at us. That can mean only one thing right?!

We drive across quickly and we are greeted with this scene. Our guess was right, she was indeed headed to the back water for a dip. And for a bonus, there are two River Otters carefully watching the tigress walk along the river bank. It feels good to get multiple animals in the frame, especially rare ones like the otters and the tigress.




Oh what a lovely sight this is! Her hind quarter is dark because she has been sitting in the muddy water for some time.




She does the Cat Walk for a long time, probably her evening constitutional, before returning to her cubs and their needs.




Wow, can we ask for more? It is also time to exit the park, as it is quite late in the evening. There will be much laughter and the liquids will flow tonight at the Viceroy Bar!


The fourth safari
Right, the last one for the trip. We have had two successful safaris and we are eager to sight a leopard which has been missing from the resume for this trip. We enter the park at 6:25 am and it is still quite dark.

Within seconds of our entry, the way is blocked by this mother and calf. It is so dark that we spot the calf only after a few seconds! I try to get a shot and the shutter makes a cli-i-i-i-ck sound that means there isn't enough light. I boost the ISO and it is still not enough. OK let's see what can be done about this. I push the ISO to a ridiculous 50,000 (yes fifty thousand!) and get this. It is still at 1/10th of a second shutter speed.



It is a wonder the camera can see anything at all. We can barely spot the mother in this light! The photos are understandably grainy, but hey better a grainy shot than none at all right?

The light is slowly getting better, this one is at a more reasonable 24,000 ISO :-)



The baby must be only three weeks old, it can't even raise its head properly. It doesn't look back or even to the sides. Just blindly following its mom. Who turns and ensures we are at a safe distance from the calf. Which we are scrupulously maintaining. Mothers (of all species) are notoriously aggressive when there are small babies with them and we don't want another incident like the one that happened a couple of months ago.



In the midst of all this, the driver's phone vibrates and there is another excited driver at the other end, asking us to hurry to a particular spot. Apparently there is a tiger sleeping on the path. But we can do nothing about this. The pair ahead is blocking our path and seem to have no intention of moving off it! We follow it for several more minutes, knowing there is a junction ahead and she'll probably move off or least we can take a different route to the tiger. The problem is there are ditches on either side of the path which the baby cannot cross. So she has to walk to the junction. But another van comes from the opposite direction! Now she has to take a decision. Go ahead? Or take the risk of letting the baby cross the ditch?




She decides to cross right there, we later see that the ditch is much shallower here. She carefully nudges the baby across and kind of pulls it with her trunk to ensure it is safe.




We are happy that the baby has crossed and also our way is clear! This one is really tiny and moving slowly behind her. Maybe it is already tired of so much walking. Meanwhile we bid goodbye and rush off. I get this from the fast moving vehicle, that's why the image is blurred.




And what we rush nearly four kilometers for (and believe me that is a long distance when you are in the jungle and the vehicle is bouncing and swaying all the way!) is this!




She has moved off the road and is lying down in the grass. Presently, she gets up and moves towards the dense undergrowth.




And goes away without deigning to notice us in any way! Not a good sighting photographically speaking, but hey you don't get to see a tiger every day right?




Our hands are now paining from all the high fives we have been giving each other since the previous morning! More animated discussions about where she will emerge and we all go there. The eternal wait starts but she seems to have settled down in the bushes inside. We can hear the langurs calling their harsh alarm calls, but they slowly subside indicating the tiger is not moving around any more. She has gone to sleep and probably won't wake up any time soon. So we move on.

[Stryker]

Continuing from the previous, so that the image limit per post is not exceeded. We are still on the fourth and final safari.


A mating pair of Indian Gaurs are lit nicely by the early morning sun.




Stag party! A group of young stags are roaming around, no girls, aunts or moms in sight. Looks like they have just finished a night of high revelry and are now looking to get back to the herd.




A big male Wild Boar sprints across the path, you'll be surprised how fast these large animals can move.




A Black Drongo has caught breakfast, mostly a ground spider and has mostly eaten it.




Just as we are exiting the forest, thinking of breakfast and the exhilarating drive back home, a Wild Dog or Dhole pops out ahead of us. There are more in front and behind, these guys always travel in packs. The predator resume is nearly complete!




While on the public road back to the forest gate, a tusker is taking a mud bath in the morning.




Nice pair of tusks on him right?





That was one productive trip! As always, my equipment is the Nikon D500 and the Nikkor 200-500mm lens. I don't know if I will ever change this combo, unless something earth shakingly better comes along.

The tiger population in Karnataka has increased by 30% over the last census, as per data released last week by the Forest Department. That is quite evident here in Kabini. There are several new and repeat moms with cubs and most of those cubs are surviving to reproduce themselves. This has one unfortunate consequence. The leopard population in Kabini has gone down drastically, as the tigers are occupying more and more territory and driving the leopards away towards to the edges and beyond. That is why we are seeing a plethora of leopard sightings and attacks in the border villages and in the nearby cities like Mysore. Heck, there were a few even as far away as Bangalore! I hope there is some resolution to this, maybe make a separate leopard sanctuary or something, although that is not easy to achieve.

As ever, I hope you people enjoy these photos as much as I enjoy taking them. Until next time then, bye and drive safe.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[shankar.balan]

Superb thread Stryker.
Loved every word and every picture.
Absolutely soul filling. Thank you!

[AmGu]

Beautiful photos and a great narrative to go with it. I'm planning to go to Kabini in a couple of months and this has just increased my eagerness!

[deepak_misra]

Superb photos and narration.
I really liked the captions to the photos. Nice humour

[grshnehete]

Great sightings and amazing photo's.

I am also planning to do Tadoba Tiger safari this year, preferably in winter, and I can only hope to see atleast one tiger there.

[travelwriter]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Continuing ... Until next time then, bye and drive safe.

I can relate to everything here. More so as I was at Kabini with family between the 8th and 12th of January this year.

Everything was so expensive there - the stay at The Serai, food, safari rides, et al. But it was worth every rupee spent. We were lucky to spot tigers twice as also many other jungle animals.

I drove down from Hyderabad and, except for the roadwork at Mandya, the entire drive was a great pleasure. Great roads with quite a few places to stop over and stretch your legs. Mysore was memorable for its food; amazing taste and simplicity redefined.

I hope to be back there soon.
Travelwriter

[Pennant1970]

Thanks for the virtual safari(s)! Really enjoyed the description as you kept your language straightforward instead of slipping into the all too common sin of hyperbole! Some people really murder the language, trying to show off their ownership of a thesaurus! I blame it on Shashi Tharoor!

Moreover, I loved the expertise you have with the camera and knowledge of the fauna. This is probably the first time I clicked on every picture in a post to look at them in detail. Well done!!

[Krish_Diesel]

And we return to JLR, not exactly satisfied, but I'm happy to have seen the cobra.


Hello Stryker. thanks for the wonderful narration and tempting me for a Kabini trip. Can you please let me know which JLR to chose. JLR Kabini River Lodge or the JLR King Sanctuary? Please advice.

[thirugata]

What a delight.
I went through your blog twice, 2nd time just to to see those amazing photos you have clicked.

[Joli]

This is nirvana. Only stuff one can dream of seeing. Nice images to go along with the narrative

[Satish Pari]

Amazing thread stryker.

Have been to Kabini twice in the last 2 years. Did a total of 4 safari's through the Forest Department buses and saw tigers twice.

As I am from Chennai, a regular trip to Kabini or Bandipur is quite difficult.

[Stryker]

Thanks to everyone who liked the photos and the story telling!

Originally Posted by Krish_Diesel

Can you please let me know which JLR to chose. JLR Kabini River Lodge or the JLR King Sanctuary? Please advice.

I always recommend Kabini River Lodge since that is the only way you can get open jeep safaris. Any other place will get you only a closed 16 or 24 seater Canter. While that is not a problem for regular tourists, it isn't that great if you are into photography. Don't get me wrong, there is no "higher chance of sightings" if you are in a jeep, except it is better for photography.

Originally Posted by Satish Pari

As I am from Chennai, a regular trip to Kabini or Bandipur is quite difficult.

You'll be surprised how many people do the Chennai-Kabini trip quite often! Some I personally know visit Kabini at least once in two or three months over a long weekend.

Originally Posted by Pennant1970

Some people really murder the language, trying to show off their ownership of a thesaurus! I blame it on Shashi Tharoor!

Ah, the Shashi Tharoor effect is well known in many walks of life! I have observed a sudden proliferation of unfamiliar vocabulary among my acquaintances, leading me to suspect they have consulted reference materials prior to engaging in social interactions. (ChatGPT translated my words into Tharoor-ish ). It is a trap I consciously avoid.

Originally Posted by travelwriter

Everything was so expensive there - the stay at The Serai, food, safari rides, et al. But it was worth every rupee spent. We were lucky to spot tigers twice as also many other jungle animals.

The Serai and many other similar places are great for unwinding if you are with family or friends who are not particular about wild life. They are four or five star places, so you can expect very high rates. JLR on the other hand is not exactly cheap, but reasonably good and I find the food is on par with any other resort.