Sunday, April 26, 2009

Day 49 - April 26 - Kaziranga Elephant & Jeep safari

April26 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Got up at 4am and get myself to Bagori by 4.45 am. Elephants already lined up to take the people around. Was just wondering with the slow moving elephants, how much deep will we go and what Rhinos will we see. Since i was a lone person had to wait for adjustment to hop on with some others. And did so on the last elephant. While the rest of them had left a lil while earlier. So missed taking pix of the group of elephants in the safari.

Sitting on the elephant is anything but stable. Very hard to take photos while its walking. I use flash in the day light so that the cam captures instantly. Manage a few pix like that. soon we walk in between the tall Elephant grass. which came up to as high as the elephant. The grass is generally burnt in the jan feb by the forest guards. Now the new shoots are sprining up due to the rains. But still there are quite a few stubs of high grass. Soon we find Rhinos. Many of them. They are quite comfy with elephants around. Even saw a group of 3 Rhinos roaming together. The path kinda roughly parallel to the highway. And all the animals are freely roaming around here. The wobbly ride on the elephant getting to people. Din really feel like going deep into the forest the whole day on the elephant. Not that we could. The early morning outing was pretty refreshing. The sun already getting to get hot. Good that i insisted for the first ride. There was a second batch after this but i guess they would be feeling the heat. By now all the cars came through the road to a point where the elephants congregated to take people back. Now i had to find myself a lift till the main gate to get to my bike. Find a sumo and i get back to the bike.

Get back to the room to catch up on the sleep. Thought of going to the after noon jeep safari, which was supposed to be bettor for animal spotting. Get to the booking counter by 1pm and had to wait quite some time for the adjustment again. Else had to pay 1000 bux if i hired the jeep alone. Finally got into one kinda unofficially as i was asked to pay 200 bux to the driver, so that he would take me as his person. This way i got to sit beside him in the shade ;) Whole groups of jeep started together. It was a bumpy ride through the forest. Not many animals seen. The Rhinos were pretty far. Deers are easily spotted. The elephant ride in morning was much bettor. It kinda got boring and was waiting for it to get over. Funny how we build up ideas of a place and when we get there it may not meet the expectations.

That was it for the day. Mainly ate properly and relaxed to build up on some energy reserves which i had lost in the last few days. Thought boring compared the the places i have been so far. But feel kinda relaxed after riding in some sensitive areas. Of course no place is completely safe. After all our experience is just a sample in the statistics. So in a indivigual's point of view, its 50 50 every where.


Elephants lined up for the Early morning safari. Its 5am.




Its the common composition. People ignore the background and concentrate fully on the person, zooming in. Man!






The ride starts in the misty morning...


Try to catch the sun riding bumpy walk of the elephant...


The elephant grass is so tall that its touching my foot while i am sitting on the elephant. Its even taller around November...


The elephants wading through the tall grass.


Ok its me...


Crouching Rhino, Running Buffalo!




One of the elephant's calf accompanies the safari...


Not sure the name of the deer species...


Rhino's spotted upclose...






They are having a chat...


The three armed soldiers!!


cars coming to take the people back...


Mirror mirror, whose the prettiest of all ? ;)




Again! wanted pic of me on the elephant, but the guy just frame's me! They just dont get it. Their argument is that the person should be visible screw the background ! hehe.


Nice walk to the tourist complex through the tea estate...


A brave goat!..


Get on the boring jeep safari...


The best shot one could get in the jeep safari....


Muddy trails...


Those are wild btw...




A nervous kitten in one of the forest watch tower...






End of the jeep safari...


The elephants venture into the forest in the morning to collect grass. Guess they get to see much more...

1 comment:

BlueFalcon said...

Hi,
hows things with you, everything cool?., waiting to hear the updates , awsome trip and really enjoying every bit of the posts