Nothing for sure matches the thrill to face the Royal Bengal Tiger in the wilds.

Just imagine you are sitting in an open Gypsy, and the only weapon in your hand is a  camera; you see a tiger and it slowly starts walking towards you; 250kgs, 3.5 m of sheer muscle mass!!! You are definitely within his leap and it keeps coming closer and closer to you. With every single step it takes, you are heart beats ten times faster. The tiger has no business with you and slowly walks past you while you are gasping for breath; you wait and watch it disappear in jungle. At this very moment you are just left overwhelmed!!

I was in the Bandhavgarh National Park (BNP) for seven days. Prologue to this story: A friend of mine Sachin Meerpargar had made reservation with Foliage Outdoors, for a safari to BNP from 4th May to 11th May. It happened so that Sachin was going to be very busy the same week he was traveling and he was not able to get a refund for canceling his trip at the last moment. Guess what? He calls me and asks me to fill in for him instead!!! Now that is why I am guessing people think that the God exists.

A Nikon D70 camera, 18-70mm D, 70-300mmeED lenses, 10GB memory, 4 t-shirts to camouflage in the jungle, a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts and I was all set to go. Destiny!

I must say that going with Foliage Outdoors was awesome. The reason of stating this separately is that they get all the credit for the perfect arrangement of the trip (except for the train journey which was way too crowded). We had a schedule to follow: Get up at 4:00 AM. Get ready around 4:30 AM. Enjoy the early morning tea. Get into the respective Gypsy (shared by 6) and reach at the sanctuary by 5:30 AM and here is where you are all set for a wonderful trail in the wild for the next 4 hours.

We would ride all the way through the park and return to our hotel at around 10:00 AM. Freshen up (as one is covered with atleast a ton of  dust from the jungle) and have lunch by 12:30 PM. Catching up on the sleep was a must as everyone got up really early.

At 3:30 PM all of us had to be ready for the evening ride. We would get back to hotel at around 7:30 PM. Not to mention taking a shower after every safari was almost a must (an unwritten rule) followed by the dinner at 8:30 PM. After the long tiring safaris (the sun makes it tiring) everyone would turn in without any effort. With AC in the room sleep was a lot more comforting!

We had four incredible days in Bandhavgarh. We did five safaris into the jungle and one nature trail. All of it was very exciting and tiring at the same time. It was a wonderful experience to be with Mother Nature and enjoy its bounty! In these four days we spotted seven different tigers, and the site count was twelve. Twelve Times!!! That’s a jack pot!! We also saw spotted Deer, Sambar, Langur, Mucacs and the beautiful Peacocks dancing!! Bandhavgarh National Park is also rich with a variety of birds, a special mention to the wonderful Indian Roller. Every trip in the jungle offered the wildlife in abundance and no one left the park unsatisfied!!

Our species was born and evolved in the jungles it feels like coming back home. When you are in there, deep in the forest you feel like being an inseparable part of it. Its a marvelous experience to visit what was once a home to our ancestors (your native place as some say). I will definitely recommend folks to go to Bandhavgarh, stay there for a week and experience the nature for yourself a place where you forget everything and feel the jungle, the nature where we truly belong!

Bandhavgarh

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