Our Kabini trip in October first week was planned almost last minute with 0% inputs from me.
We had our nephew’s wedding coming up in a month’s time and except for my shopping everyone else’s at home was pending. And the fact that we already had covered half of the Bangalore already with my daughter and niece no where close to picking their outfits didn’t help much. To top this, they would get time only on weekends to go out shopping as they had classes during the weekdays.
With all this going on in my head, when my husband popped the topic of weekend getaway I just threw my hands up in the air and said I am out of this. So he, my daughter and niece did all the research on resorts, itinerary etc.
However in retrospection I feel it was indeed a much needed break. We chose Red Earth property for stay and booked two rooms. The rooms had beautiful old world charm with verandahs and no attached toilets. Not having an attached toilet part I must say I didn’t like as I had to plan my trips to toilets in advance and wind them up before we retired for the day. I abhorred stepping out of the room in the evenings/ night to go to the toilet, amidst the sounds of cicadas, constant drizzle, sights of centipedes on the path with very dim lighting.
During the daytime, it wasn’t an issue at all. There was an open air jacuzzi too in each villa which of course we didn’t use with rain Gods showering over us frequently.
The food in the restaurant was pretty decent. There was also a magic show arranged for the guests, with the magician playing a dual role of our safari guide too next morning.
The property has a water front cafe which operates only in the evening for High tea. At the same spot we could hire a coracle ride and motor boat ride.
The highlight of the trip was the Jungle Safari. While there are many resorts in Kabini, all the Safari tours are centrally managed through Jungle Lodges Resorts (JLR). Our tickets were booked through the resort travel desk. The Safari was 2.5 Hrs long from 6:30 Am to 9Am and we hereto reach the JLR designated gate at 6Am. Red earth resort was 30 mins drive away from JLR, so we had to wake up really early and drive to JLR accompanied by our guide. There are two types of rides in Safari, one Jeep and another a bus. Our guide informed us that we don’t have control over the vehicle allotment and we kept hoping we could get a Jeep. However against our hopes, we got the bus. With huge disappointment we hopped on to the bus and occupied couple of seats and let the kids have the window seats.
But the trip was wonderful, as along with sighting of deers, mongoose, bisons and various birds we also spotted Saaya- the most elusive black leopard. We were thrilled to no end. Alas we could get only the rear view of the black Majesty which had perched itself on the branch of a tall tree. It took us multiple adjustments of our binoculars to get the view. While we could spot it with naked eye, the visual would just disperse as soon as we focussed our binoculars. I will admit that our Binoculars were just a day or two old, which we had ordered online and have had no hands on experience with it before this trip.
Best visuals we could get of Saaya, were from the viewfinders of the professional DSLRs of few serious wildlife photographers who were with us on the ride.
Back from the safari, we returned to our resort, freshened up had breakfast. It perplexed me that people majorly visit Kabini for Safari rides, which end at 8:30 and by the time people return to the resort it will be 9 Am so it seemed unfair to close the breakfast by 10AM. While we rushed ourselves and got breakfast on both the safari days, it was still very stressful. That is one suggestion which I would like to give to the resort, which otherwise had been really wonderful.
There was an evening safari too which is a boat safari through the river, which we weren’t aware of and couldn’t plan for it in our short trip. We couldn’t take that and later learnt from our guide next day that a tiger was spotted during the evening boat safari. So with regret we put the evening boat safari on our list for the next Kabini trip.
With hopes and joy we went on Safari the second day and luckily we got the Jeep this time and we had two wildlife photographers and a very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable guide with us this time. We were proudly boasting about spotting the leopard the previous day and whoa we got lucky second time too. Around the same spot we could see Saaya again perched on a tree top. The guide said, it would have hunted a large animal which it would need few days to finish and hence it could get spotted around the same spot. Later when we could also spot it’s bulky belly to support this. However this time after 15-20 mins of inaction, it actually got up moved and turned towards us and sat. The two photographers got really really good clicks and we could see their joy and hold like excitement. Later it smoothly descended down he tree and we had to retreat to search for some more sightings. My husband said I just wish I could spot langurs which are supposedly to be in large numbers there. And as if someone up there was listening to us, we spotted a Langur on a tree. With his wish fulfilled, he then said I wish I could now see an elephant too, as we hadn’t seen it yet in Kabini here. Voila, we hear an elephant trumpet and spot a lone elephant.
This was the first trip where my teenager daughter tried her hands at photography using our not so high-end DSLR, and she did do a good job for a beginner. She kept telling her dad “ Nanna we should come back here again”.
Yes we do plan to visit Kabini again mostly in summers when elephants from nearby forests seem to migrate to Kabini as the water reserves are better here.
Before I end, would urge all those of you planning a visit, do plan in advance with proper Itinerary. Do carry along good quality Binoculars and if you are a newbie then please do spend some time with them before hand.
Till we visit again !!! Enjoy the few of the pictures my daughter clicked.
Oota ayita 