Driving is a most preferred way to travel to Jim Corbett. Everyone I know traveled by road. Since we were two females, so I decided to travel by train instead of hiring a cab for 3 reasons 1.) we were two women and were not sure about security aspect 2.) Cost factor 3.) To save time.
We had breakfast and took the hotel auto for the city. Normally I book the safari’s online but this time as per advice of some friends who been to Jim Corbett, I didn’t book the safari in advance. We reached the booking office and came to know that the server of booking office is not working. While I was checking with a counter for the possibility of booking, 2-3 agents (Rather should call them touts) approached my friend and offered to book jeep if we pay 300 Rs extra. The whole scenario was very frustrating for me, any how my friend took the number of one guy to call him back and came to the small market area. I spotted an internet cafe and decided to check for the availability of Jeep and we easily got booking online. The internet connection was working fine in a small cafe. This made me realised that counter people had some kind of understanding with touts and they make money from people who wanted to book on the spot. These things are disappointing and we loose trust on people.
We roamed around in the market for some time and came back to resort for lunch & rest as we had booked afternoon safari. I am not going into the details of different zones in national park because for those details are better discovered on wiki :-p
When we were entering the forest gate, I crossed my fingers for Tiger spotting and our Jeep enters the forest area. We drove from one part to another for some 1 & 1/2 hour with no luck… No tiger in sight. Though we have seen some spotted deer, chetal, sambhar etc and few birds…. Finally, they took us to the forest guest room area in the middle of the forest for a snack break.
Great pictures….
Keep trying and you’ll come across a few tigers shortly .. I am sure… 🙂
Perseverance Pays !!
All the best !!
True… One day I will spot Tiger in Jungle.
Same here Sapna; have been to multiple safaris..but the big cat has been elusive!
Aha….. I have decided to go in summer, just before Parks close. I heard the chances of spotting near water holes is during this time.
Its actually difficult to catch a glimpse of the tigers. The sightings are rare though Corbett has sizeable amount of tiger population. You can try Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. The sightings are slightly easier.
I agree.
Yes, I also came to know that in Kahna and Bandhavgarh sighting is better.
Hahaha! don’t worry, enjoy the jungle for what it is. I have had so many tiger sightings that now I long to see lesser seen animals like King Cobras or Pangolins!
You are right but since I haven’t spotted one, so……
Tiger spotting depends upon season also.