[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by abirnale

Thanks Arun. You must have stayed at Sun and Snow Inn - thats next door to Hotel Jeetu

I stayed in Chevron Mountain Villa.

And hell no - she will have her own car sooner or later. My car is for me primarily. Others in family can of course get the secondary access!

Good for you

[haisaikat]

A great journey covering many wildlife safari and mountain roads clubbed into one. Must have been an exhilarating experience. Photos came our really well and you seemed to have carefully scout the route to include interesting spots along the same like Tipeshwar and Keoladeo, making it tempting for us to visit. Sad to know you got stuck in the traffic of Kathgodam, was it by chance between 12-5 pm since that is when most of the trains depart and tourist rush remains for drop.

BHPian Ramnath_77 has created an extensive thread on Dhikala booking process, we followed it to the T and got our confirmed stay there in May 2024. Since you did not get stays in the FRH, you might have considered cutting short one day at Ramnagar and added that to Sattal on your return from Kausani. Its a birdier heaven. Although not always relevant for guaranteed sighting if you stay inside FRH, in early morning and late evening times you can stay closer to the core area by eliminating need to enter and exit the jungle since the core areas are usually further away from the entry gates.

You got some great shots, Jackal and Hornbills were great spotting. You said 800mm, what lens on earth is that? We had stayed a little away from Anashakti Ashram at The Buransh which is also a nice place, just that in May the clouds did not do justice with us and kept covering the Himalayan peaks all the time, we could not see anything until we reached Musyari. But in Kausani we did visit the Shawl factory (and bought Malta Orange ).

Deer flock feeling from a Tiger at Dhikala


Two tuskers fighting at Dhikala


Tiger pugh marks, Dhikala


Plumheaded parakeet with family at Sattal


I loved the narration from your daughter's diary, it gives detailed update on the happenings during the safaris. Glad you have such a good narrator besides you, and a perk of having family alongside during safari.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by haisaikat

….
Sad to know you got stuck in the traffic of Kathgodam, was it by chance between 12-5 pm since that is when most of the trains depart and tourist rush remains for drop.
…..
You said 800mm, what lens on earth is that?

The traffic was right from outside Ranikhet towards Kainchi Dham in the morning around 9.30-10am itself and all the way upto Kathgodam. Thanks to Jan 1 combined with the history of having Meta boss MZ and Cricketing Legend Virat Kohli’s visit to Kainchi Dham - the crowd there has gone unmanageable. I didn’t know this until I came out of there - I should have avoided it.

About CTR - we had already booked the stay and the hopes were high that four safari is good enough to chance the tiger sighting. Hence didn’t cancel. Sattal will be done another day, another trip for sure!

I use Canon gear. I have a EOS-R7 Crop Sensor with RF 100-400mm and a R5MII with RF 200-800 lens.

[Stryker]

Awesome, @abirnale! I thought our drive to Tadoba from Bangalore was mad, but your drive takes it to a whole new level!! Roads nowadays are nothing to be scared of, only the jokers on it.

Unfortunate that you couldn't spot any tigers at CTR, as your daughter's diary rightly says, sightings are happening all the time, one should be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. And in places like CTR, the driver and guide are key.

[abirnale]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Unfortunate that you couldn't spot any tigers at CTR, as your daughter's diary rightly says, sightings are happening all the time, one should be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. And in places like CTR, the driver and guide are key.

yep, someday I want to accompany you on your Kabini trips