Foremans' Travel: Day 4 Sunday Feb 24 - Mumbai to Kanha National Reserve

Up at 3 for the early flight from Mumbai to Raipur and then a 4 hour wild ride in two Toyota "Innova" SUVs (a model made especially for India). Poppa and I ride in the back seat and the passenger seat (on the left of course) in front of him makes a perfects elevated leg rest. Couldn't be more perfect.

Vijay, our IE Guide, rides with Janet and Dan in the other vehicle which usually leads our two car caravan. Our driver, Shiva, made our hearts stop. We quickly decided not to look forward. He sped along single lane and horribly bumpy and washed out roads. He hardly slowed through villages with everyone on the road, children, animals, carts, scooters, grandmas….we decided to go ahead an look but not think.

Seat Belt? Baby Car Seat? HA!

We added to our collection of photos of creative road vehicles and gorgeous saris, but most passed by too fast to capture…just bright blurs. We saw women pumping water from central wells while dressed to the 9s with sparkle and bright silk flowing saris. Astounding and terrifying. (I'll put more shots at the end.)

Nearing the Kanha Jungle Lodge: The towns near the roads into the park now are home to people live who where moved out of the Reserve, much like was done for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Many now serve as guides… 27 villages were moved and 18 more are scheduled to move.

We arrived at the Jungle Lodge in time for a delicious typical Indian lunch. (We may not loose weight on this trip.) Met owners, Taran, Dimple and their 8 yr old son Tai. Surprise: no internet for the next three days. Also, we have hot water only two times a day, and no electricity at night. Oops on the sleep machine running all night.

Right after lunch we take our first "Game" Ride: A driver and our IE guide, Vijay, load up Steve, Sue, Dan and Janet to ride from the Kanha Jungle Lodge to the main entrance to the Kanha game park. There we pick up a local tracker, who watches us as much as spotting wildlife. In a tortuous bumpy ride we dash about looking for one of the 70 tigers in the park.

Winter Park's city bird in it's native habitat.

No luck with the tigers, but other wildlife: Swamp Deer, Langur or Hanuman Monkeys, Red Cap Ibis, Spotted Deer, Mynah Bird, Open Bill Stork, Egrets, Sambar deer, spectacular Indian Peacocks in full display, Green bee-eaters, Indian Roller (awesome), Jungle Fowl (a red rooster native to this area) Indian Cormorants, White Throated Kingfisher.
Dinner at the lodge family style with the owners include all guests at the lodge, our party of four and another couple from England. To bed early to get ready for 5 AM Game Ride and breakfast in the park.