Out with a Bang (and a whimper)

My sojourn here is coming to an end, and I can only be happy that recent events did not happen earlier.  

At Satpura National Park we went on five bone-crushing safari rides, looking for the elusive tigers. No tigers were available to please the tourists. Plenty of deer, birds, wild boar and finally, a sloth bear. The tigers, we were told, are more likely to be seen in summer. (With temperatures in the high forties in the summer, it's extremely unlikely that I will ever see a Bengal tiger in the wild.) 

Yesterday afternoon, we took a ferry to the "core zone" in Satpura National Park, and then another bumpy ride, but still no tigers, though I did see a pygmy spotted owl--and managed a photo in the headlights of the gypsy (jeep), though sadly, my photo will never reach the light of day. More about that later.

As we got on the ferry to cross the river and return to our accommodation at Forsyth Lodge in Satpura N.P., I heard one of my fellow travellers burping very loudly, many times. I thought it was strange because he had been generally quite a polite man. Then he began projectile vomiting into the river. When we got to shore, I discovered that his wife had also thrown up. I wondered when the rest of us would succumb.

We had dinner, minus the vomiting couple, while we watched a David Attenborough doco shot in Satpura N.P. Then I went back to my room and began vomiting myself. I slept very little that night.

The next morning, after a four-hour drive to the station, we took a seven-hour train ride to Agra. I drank Sprite all day and couldn't eat anything. I dozed a little--very little--on the train, but slept well, almost immediately, in the hotel in Agra. 

I was so tired that I didn't realise that I hadn't brought my camera off that train. So, while I still have my wildlife camera, I don't have my street camera and lenses. I'm sad, but It's a job for the insurance company now.

In Satpura National Park

 Yesterday we came here to Satpura NP from Jabalpur. Here it’s quiet, beautiful. Jabalpur was noisy, smelly, but I took the opportunity to have my wishes granted by the goddess  when I sent out a floating oil lamp on the sacred river Narmada. We witnessed the prayer ceremony on the ghats. 

This morning we went for a morning boat ride on the river, looking for wildlife. Very soon we’re going on an afternoon safari. We still haven’t seen any tigers. Keep you fingers crossed for me!🤞

Here in beautiful(?) downtown Jabalpur

 Just arrived to very strong internet connection. Apparently Jabalpur is a centre of arms manufacture, full of military bods. So, after 5 days revving around the jungle, today is a city day. Soon we'll go on a photo walk to the old part of town. Tonight we're going to some kind of religious ceremony on the banks of the Narmada River, so should be interesting. 

On the way here today, we stopped into a town full of indigenous tribespeople, who were all very friendly to us, and let us take photos of them. The local potter showed us how he made pots in the baking sun, not because he was being paid, but he was just being kind. 

Above, you can see some of my favourite photos of the last few days. I haven't had time to go through the thousands of photos I've made so far. We have a very busy schedule with just a couple of hours down every couple of days. By the time I have dinner, I can't do anything but sleep. But that's ok. Plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead. 

Tigers, where are you?

 The wifi is hopelessly slow in our villa in the jungle, so I won't attach photos until I can get a better connection. 

We've been at two national parks, now: Panna and Bandhavgarh (where we are now). We've been chasing the elusive Bengal tiger for four days, twice a day, for about 10 hours a day, over rocky dirt tracks in an open jeep--and we haven't seen one. We did meet someone on the road who said they'd seen some and showed us photos. Beautiful photos! We're not sure whether we believe him. 

So, as you see, we've been very busy. There's hardly any time when you deduct time chasing tigers, meal times, sleep time. And after dinner, I'm not good for anything except to go to bed. Hence the poor output of the blog.

So, we've seen many different types of deer, two different species of monkey, many different and colourful birds, a snake. . . but, as I said, no tigers. We've seen tiger tracks and leopard tracks too. Fresh ones, but not fresh enough. 

The other four people on the tour are upbeat, friendly and helpful, just horrendously right wing. I stay out of their redneck conversations and look at the photos on my camera when they start talking about the ratbag left, and how everything was better when you could make pooftah jokes. 

Love the food and the accommodation is all luxurious. 

Well, I'd better leave off now because soon it will be lunch time, and at 2:30 we're going out tiger hunting again. I haven't managed to look at many of the photos I've taken over the last four days, and I'd like to see if I got any keepers, so that's what I'll try to do as soon as I sign off here. 

Goodbye Chus. . .Hello tigers.

 Tomorrow I spend my last few hours with Chus, José and Pablo. I join the safari in the evening. Chus has been very hospitable to me and her poor family have had to put up with another person always hanging around like a bad smell, but they have only been very generous and kind to me. 

The last couple of days, I've been to two parks: Nehru and Lodi Parks. In Nehru Park I got lost. I had a deadline to meet the driver who would be taking me back to meet Chus, but I exited the park at the wrong road. Didn't realise it was surrounded by four roads, not just the one I had been dropped off on. I had left the car with my camera, no phone, and only 60 rupees (just over a dollar) in my pocket. I didn't know the registration number of the car, nor a phone number I could call for help. Not a very successful Boy Scout.

I walked down a street along one side of the park but couldn't see the gate I came in by. It was 33 degrees and the time of the agreed pick up was nearing, so I hailed a tuk tuk driver. He answered my question about whether he spoke English with a "Yes!" and waggled his head. 

The extent of his understanding was soon obvious. He did know "round the park", "Stop!" but not "go slowly" nor "keep going".  I coerced him around the park, getting out every now and then to check the parked cars on the side of the road for the driver I came with. No luck. The tuk tuk guy got a bit more worried, I think, every time I got out to peer at the men in the cars. 

He stopped at the exit to a parking lot and I asked a guy there if he could speak English. He also said yes, but he wasn't lying through his teeth, like the tuk tuk guy. He explained the situation to the driver and told him to try the two car parks on that road. Tuk tuk guy chucked a U-ie and I found the driver at the beginning of the first car park. 

Another sticky situation resolved with the help of strangers. 

Today in Lodi Park (33 degrees again) I was surrounded by schoolchildren, all wanting to shake my hand. In fact, it started reminding me of "Suddenly last summer", that movie with Elizabeth Taylor about the young man who was eaten by the beach boys (or it was something equally horrific). Anyway, the little boys were getting a little too close for comfort, and more and more of them seemed to be coming at the same time, some of them saying "money", "money". I found a teacher and sat down next to her, and they petered off eventually. 

Well, I can't keep going because it's late and I have to get up and leave early tomorrow. So that's it until I have a little more time, probably tomorrow. 

Heat and Dust

I'm having a great time in Delhi!

Chus has an app on her phone to check the air quality, and it's never good. Not as bad as it will be in November, when we will not be able to walk in the street. We will have to go to enclosed areas, such as museums, if we want to leave the house, and preferably by car. 

It's hot every day--33 degrees--but it is what it is. We have been out and about every day. Yesterday we visited Chadni Chowk, the ancient market area, the spice market, the Red Fort, and an ancient step well called Agrasen ki Baoli. 

At the Red Fort, Indian tourists asked to take photos with us. We were the tourist attraction!

Then, as a treat after all our hard sightseeing, we went to the Imperial Hotel for tea and cake.

In Old Delhi, I found this lovely young woman standing in a doorway, with a young photographer taking photos of her. I asked if I could take a photo, and then the photographer wanted to take a photo of me, and another of me and his beautiful model. Well I never!

On Monday we went to Humayun's tomb, and the India Gate, which was disappearing in a cloud of pollution. 

Today we're going to the Lotus Temple (I think it’s a Jain temple) and the Gurdwhara ( a Sikh temple) where I’m not allowed to take photos 🥲.

Back in India

 Arrived yesterday about this time, after 13 hours in an Air India sardine can. Chus and Jose were at the airport to meet me, and it was so lovely to let myself be picked up and swept away, so effortlessly. They took me around to their friends' place, where we had spectacular sushi. 

Delhi is hot, hot, hot and I bought too many clothes to keep me warm. I think I'll be leaving them here. Today I bought some tee-shirts and another pair of pants, 

Tomorrow Chus and I will visit Humayun's Tomb, The Gate to India and a temple.

Here is the view from Chus' balcony.