Satpura first full day

12th February 2018 – Satpura Park

We were woken up just a few minutes before 5.30am and it was pitch black outside.  The paths were very muddy from the overnight rain so I elected to wear my plastic open slip on sandals and it wasn’t long before my feet were both wet and absolutely filthy.

We got into the closed vehicle which is advantageous as it’s warmer than the open ones, but we think there’s leak in a diesel pipe somewhere so we have the unpleasant aroma of diesel as we drive.  We got to the main gate of the park after about 20 minutes and picked up our spotter.  We then drove down to the water crossing and rather precariously picked our way along the muddy footpath and slippery duck boards to the pontoon in the near dark.  The other side, it’s sandy underfoot and uphill, but it’s only a short way to where the vehicles are parked and so we clambered into our assigned transport.  It looks like an open topped landrover with 2 rows of raised bench seats behind the driver’s cabin, but I’m informed by Chris that it’s some sort of Suzuki (Maruti Gypsy King - CW)

We drove up the hill to an open meadow with a water hole in it where the tracker had to do some formalities with the park office there.  The meadow was covered with spotted deer and in the gloom we could see wild boar at the water hole.  We then drove around the park for quite a long time at high speed which meant that if you were in the very back of the vehicle, you were really thrown around as they don’t slow down much when it comes to rocks and holes in the road.  We got to see quite a few birds though including some good photos of the white throated kingfisher.

What they were looking for though was the sloth bear.  Apparently, they’ve been thin on the ground the past few months as the females are pregnant and have taken to dens to have their young.  Only now are they beginning to reappear and to date, 2 females have been spotted – one with one cub and another with 2, which they carry on their backs when they’re very young. 

Our vehicle came careering round a corner and screeched to a halt before rapidly reversing.  We had passed a bear on the right hand side in the bushes!!  Thankfully, it was a hungry bear and didn’t seem bothered by us and kept moving at a surprisingly fast pace snuffling as he went and scratching in the earth looking for insects and termites.   They have poor eyesight but a very good sense of smell and are armed with 5 cm claws which could rip a human chest apart.  In spite of this formidable weaponry and size (it can weigh up to 130kg), there is one male tiger that has developed a taste for sloth bears and they know has killed at least 9 of them.  We followed the bear and at one point he came down a slope directly towards us and then crossed the road.  Chris got a great close up shot of his face and I managed a couple of the whole bear on the road.  We assumed the bear was a male as there were no cubs with it.  We were all thrilled by this encounter and agreed it was worth getting up early for.  This is the only park we will visit where we could see them and they’re not that easy to find.  A Swedish party who left today had not seen a bear at all during their visit which was the main reason for it, so we realised we had been very lucky and felt privileged.

A close encounter.

A quick shake down and.....

..off we go. Hmm, there must be termites close by?

We continued our drive with the aim of trying to track the sloth bear.  However, Irwin heard monkey alarm calls and thought we should investigate.  The monkeys were clearly ill at ease and were staring at the base of a high ridge although none of us could see anything. We parked up and waited.  After a while, a gaur appeared and trundled slowly along the base of the ridge.  Chris had his binos. trained on the ridge and got a glimpse of some leopard markings moving, but it was a very long way away and neither Mum or I saw anything.  So, we had been in the vicinity of a leopard, which was pretty exciting.  Hopefully, we might get better sightings later?  By now it was close to 10.30am and we were feeling both hungry and thirsty.  We were driven to a ranger’s station in the forest by a picturesque stream which had a lot of kingfishers around it.  There we had a much appreciated breakfast and cup of tea and got some good photos of some of the local birds and working elephants.

We drove around for a while longer still hoping to see wild dogs, but weren’t lucky.  We then drove back slowly to camp stopping at intervals to take photos of various birds including the very beautiful green bee-eater, which was just stunning to look at - bee-eaters are one of my favourite birds so was thrilled to see them.  We also revisited the owlet tree and got much better photos today in the better light.

We got back to camp at 12.30, which made it a long outing, as by then it was time for lunch.  We said farewell to Irwin, who was coming down with a cold, and unfortunately for him, heading off to northern India where he was leading a trip to view snow leopards.  I hope for his sake that the cold cleared up quickly as he had to acclimatise to 14,000 feet pretty quickly, which wouldn’t be much fun with a head cold.

We had a few hours down time then (hooray!) as weren’t due to set out again until 4pm – this time with Sid.  At 3.55pm, we were being rounded up and herded up to the vehicle – hassled to the point that Mum wasn’t even allowed to finish her cup of tea!  We were driven around the buffer zone and other people told us they’d seen much more wildlife there than in the park.  We drove for what seemed like ages passing herds of goats and cattle on the road in order to reach the buffer zone.  We had a clueless tracker with us who was supposed to be directing us to a cow carcass as there was an outside chance that there might be some leopard there.  We drove around for ages eventually coming to a dead end, so had to retrace our steps.  It transpired that the carcass had been moved into some bushes so there was nothing much to see.  So, we drove on and as it was getting dark parked up by a water hole and parked up for ages.  A couple of other vehicles joined us and we sat in the fading light staring at the edge of the waterhole hoping that something might appear.  I thought I heard that wild dogs were expected so got quite excited.  Eventually, there was a slight buzz as apparently something was approaching the water hole so everyone got out their binos to look.  I had packed mine away and couldn’t get them out again as they have a Velcro fastener, which would have made a terrible noise.  Mind you, I don’t know why I was worrying about that as our useless tracker had a coughing fit at this point.  Chris lent me his binos. and I could just make out a reddish large shape with big ears in the distance.  Strange looking dog, I thought, and then realised when it turned round and displayed its rump that it was a deer.  All that for a deer?!!!  Crazy.

We were the last vehicle to leave as Sid wanted to wait until it was pitch black for some unknown reason.  The spotter then took out a spotlight and the idea was that we would have a night drive back to camp and look for the eyes of nocturnal animals and maybe even see a civet cat.  We caught a glimpse of a night jar, but by this time we were feeling cold.  Sid wanted to take us out to a canal for another 30 minute detour, but Chris told him to take us back to camp, which he did – albeit reluctantly!  Near camp we saw a few hares and a couple of thick knees – a nocturnal bird similar to a stone curlew.

So, all in all, that drive was disappointing, but I guess you have to have a few of those as it would be unrealistic to expect to have great sightings all the time.   In camp, it was all change, so we exchanged pleasantries with the new people over dinner before retiring for the evening.

We were not popular with Sid as requested a later wake up call.  We wanted to be woken at 6.30am instead of 5.30am, but in the end, compromised with 6am.  He tried several times over the course of dinner to get us to change our minds, but he failed.    He told us that if we were first in the park, the roads would be pristine and we would have the advantage of tracking the animals.  However, as they all have mobile phones and text each other with sightings, that argument didn’t resonate with us.  We stuck to our guns and insisted on an extra 30 minute lie in!!!