Transfer to Goa

20th February 2018 – Transfer to Goa

Reflecting on our wildlife section of the holiday, all the parks were memorable for different reasons.

Satpura will be remembered for the bad weather, rain and mud, which was unfortunate.  In normal years we would have been ferried across the river and done some wildlife spotting from boats instead of skidding across slippery duckboards in the mud.  The drivers were also awful, the roads were very potholed and rough so that the combination of the 2 resulted in rough rides and bruises!  However, the bad weather worked for us as it transpires that sloth bears are normally nocturnal and only come out in the day when the weather is cool and rainy, so in fact we were very lucky.  We also got good bird sightings and enjoyed the lodge very much.

Kanhe was a beautiful lodge and Parat an excellent guide.  However, it is very popular as has a good tiger density.  You stand a good chance of seeing them as the park is criss crossed by a dense network of roads which leaves small segments of land for the animals thus increasing your chances of seeing something.  Add elephants flushing tigers out as well, then you’re almost guaranteed of a tiger sighting.  However, as the park is popular, it is very busy plus it was so cold in the mornings there....brrrr!!!

Tree house at Pench

Pench was our favourite park – attractive landscape, good roads and our naturalist was the driver as well and a very good one too.  It’s also very quiet but the downside is that the animals are shy and not used to cars.  In my mind, that’s so much better as the guides really have to work to find them by following alarm calls.  If you see a tiger/leopard then you’ve earned it.  I decided not to go out on the final game drive and missed the final tiger, which was disappointing.  However, I enjoyed the tranquillity of the lodge and some time by myself and as I’d seen tigers already, my mission had been accomplished. Although classifiedas a 3 star hotel, we loved this lodge with the quirky tree houses and the fabulous dining area and bar....even though they did run out of beer!

Right, now on to getting to Goa.  We had our last early morning today and left just before 5.45am!  It was supposed to be a 3-3.5 hour drive to Nagpur, but as we left so early, there weren’t too many vehicles on the roads for the 1^st section, which was narrow and windy, so we made good time.  As we approached Nagpur, the air pollution started to increase and by the time we got to the airport it was hard to see the buildings or planes through the thick swirling clouds of toxins.  We hurried inside and checked in quickly and then went upstairs to the departure lounge by our gate.  A very glamourous lady in a short red evening style dress which was mid thigh length and showed off her ample cleavage kept us all amused as she tottered around on impossibly high stiletto heels.  She actually came on our flight to Mumbai and we were surprised to see her sitting with the rest of us plebs in economy class!

At Mumbai (which seemed even more polluted), we had quite a long walk and had to clear security again before getting into the departure area.  Our plane was delayed by about an hour, but eventually we trooped on board and had an uneventful flight down to Goa.  We were met by a young girl who didn’t speak very much English and amazed us by hopping into the back seat with Mum and myself and pushed Mum into the middle, which was apparently not very comfortable.  Why she came along for the hour transfer was a mystery as she added nothing to the check in process at all as the desk staff efficiently whisked us inside upon our arrival and sorted it all out.

The Leelah is a 5 star resort hotel located on 75 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens which also includes a 12 hole golf course and a big lawn which was set up for a wedding. It is ranked 24^th in the top 100 luxury hotels by Conde Nast travellers readers travel awards, so you can imagine that it really is pretty special.  The rooms are located around different lagoons in the grounds which are full of beautiful pink water lilies.  We were disappointed not to have a balcony but discovered that we are in the upgraded rooms which have an extra room with a sliding glass front overlooking the lagoons with a glass safety barrier to stop you falling in.  The rooms and hotel are really amazing and just what we’d hoped for to end the holiday.  We had to laugh though as just below our room on the banks of the lagoon was a purple wrapper from a condom packet, which once you knew was there, you just couldn’t help but look at it.  It really started to irritate me, so when Santolina, the head of housekeeping, came to inspect our room and check up on the cleaners, Chris pointed it out to her by saying we had a “delicate issue” and could it be sorted and “oh, by the way, nothing to do with us!”. 

We drifted down to the beach bar located on a huge stretch of sand that goes for miles in either direction.  We had some cocktails and then Mum had the white pomfret fish and Chris and I shared a snapper.  I got chatting to some very glam Indian ladies when I went to the loo who told me that they were part of a huge group staying at the hotel for a wedding which had been going on for 3 days – culminating with the actually ceremony to be held at 8.30am the next morning on the lawn.  We enjoyed some fireworks from a different wedding down the beach, and then as we were tired, we went to bed and hoped that we would not wake up too early.