Kahna Second Day

16th February 2018 – Tiger Hunting

I woke up early this morning as we all did so need for the alarm.  Having learned our lesson from yesterday, we piled on our layers.  I had 2 pairs of socks, my thick UK trousers, a T-shirt, a long sleeved shirt, my only (thin) fleece and a thin waterproof jacket.  Mind you I wore all this yesterday and have never felt so cold.  I added a neck warmer from the shop so I could turn my scarf into a hat and also wore a pair of socks as mittens. When I packed my suitcase for the trip I expected to wear everything in it, just not at the same time! I also got 2 blankets today as well as the hot water bottle.

It was slightly warmer, but still pretty damn cold.  We drove around in the gloom for half an hour or so and then thankfully, the sun appeared and gradually warmed up the forest floor as it rose.  On and on we drove and our spirits really did begin to flag.  We’ve been shown 2 lots of tiger poo (but how do we know what it looks like – it could be anything!) and some footprints in the dust – but Chris and I have a theory that someone drives along with a plastic foot on a stick and just imprints them in the dust before the cars show up.

We came across 2 elephants in the long grass to the right of us quite a long way away.  They were mounted by mahouts who were guiding them.  Our vehicle stopped and our guides and driver stood up and suddenly there was tension in the air.  Our guides told us to stand up too as they elephants were apparently trying to flush out a tiger from the long grass and we were told to be ready with our cameras.  Suddenly, we saw a flash of orange in the distance and then as the elephants got closer, the tiger suddenly leapt out of the grass lunging at them and hurtled into some bushes.  It was amazing to see but impossibly to photograph.  The elephants followed the tiger into the undergrowth and our car was reversed up at some speed and then we stopped and waited.  Nothing happened and so they decided to move forward back to where we had been. 

A Mahout herding big cats!

Beautiful - our first Tiger sighting.

The elephants reappeared from the right and were much closer now.  “Quick” our guides said, “Get ready as the tiger is coming”.  They were spot on as suddenly in an area of flattened grass the tiger appeared pursued by the elephants.  They drove it towards us and it came out on the road about 5 metres ahead of us.  It wasn’t rushing though and took its time even stopping to rub against a tree trunk on the left before disappearing into the bushes on the other side of the road.  The elephants then reappeared and followed the tiger again. 

There was some crashing around and then the tiger appeared behind us, crossed the road and then walked by our car passing Chris’s side really closely.  We got a superb viewing of this magnificent animal – a young male about 16 months old – and got some very nice photos.  It then disappeared back into the grass it had been in originally and we decided it had been harassed enough and moved on just as a load more vehicles piled in at great speed.

And our second

We were all really thrilled as the whole purpose of our safari part of the holiday had been achieved.  We stopped to look at an owlet in a tree when suddenly, we were on the move again as alarm calls had been heard.  We shot off around a few corners and came across another tiger being slowly followed by a couple of other vehicles.  She was very relaxed and just sauntering along the edge of the forest and then she decided to mark a tree before moving on to the next tree where she suddenly stood on her rear legs and grasped a branch above her and sharpened her claws before marking this tree too.  Then she jumped down some rocks, crossed the road and disappeared into some thick bamboo stands.  It was unbelievable – 2 tigers in about 30 minutes!!  We were just elated.

Feeling suddenly very happy, we had a lovely breakfast and then had about another hour in the park before we had to leave.  We drove through some lovely scenery, which I was really enjoying when we came across 2 wild dogs, which are very rare.  They’re nothing like African wild dogs to look at – definitely more fox like but much bigger with similar red colouring.  Apparently, they were a young male and female who had just got together and were preparing to form their own pack which is typically 7-8 animals.  One dog had it’s back to us and was lying in the grass and the other one was sitting side ways to us but occasionally glanced in our direction.  I suppose we sat there admiring them for about 5 minutes when suddenly a vehicle came flying down the hill far too fast and screeched to a halt which frightened the dogs who melted into the bushes at the side of the road.

Well, there you go – that was the very unexpected icing on the cake.  We decided to give the afternoon game drive a miss as we were a bit weary and fancied some down time enjoying the very nice balconies outside our rooms watching the birds and catching up on email.

Over dinner with another guest, we compared our tiger sightings and realised how lucky we had been.  Eugene was told he had seen a tiger in some grass a long way away, so go his guide to take a photo with his camera as he couldn’t see it.  Even after studying the photo he still couldn’t see it, so was hoping for a closer encounter on another outing.

Parat - India's answer to Super Mario!

I mused over the first tiger sighting as was surprised at how easily the tiger was herded by the elephants.  We often use the saying “it’s like herding cats” to imply how impossible it is to gather people together, but maybe that’s not true for tigers?  I could quite easily imagine in times long past, tigers being herded by 20 or 30 elephants into the bullets of the waiting hunters and being slaughtered.  It was a horrible thought.  However, the next day, we saw a statistic about the park that said that 30 tigers were shot between 1947 to 1951, and when I told Parat, our guide about my musings, he told me that I was spot on and it wasn’t uncommon to kill up to 9 tigers at a time by the elephant herding method.