The cab driver was on the phone to someone and, was saying that he is going to “Jim Corporate Park” 😉
The trip had happened quite by chance. In Jan, I had called Girish to check on a boatman’s number to see flamingos in Mumbai. While chatting he said that he was going to Corbett around March end. He also mentioned that the stay in the core area of any park would get banned later this year. My top wish to stay at Dhikala inside the heart of Corbett National Park would have to be now or never. I so wanted to see the congregation of elephants on the grassland. My friend Madhavi had replied “Ganapati bappa mourya !” in true maharashtrian style, when she had asked me about what I wanted to see on the trip and I had answered, elephants were my top wish than a tiger. Couple of calls to Rahul at Foliage and we were , on ! The trip was planned for the long Easter weekend at the end of March 2018. My last “safari” as in a proper forest, was way back in 2012 !
We started from Delhi around half past noon and drove ( a slow crawl of a drive mostly) on straight past Hapur, in about three hours. We had planned the lunch halt at the famous “Mama Dhabha”. The paranthas with a big blob of butter and the dahi is what makes this one special. At some earlier point in time, this would have been the usual “dhabha” but now its a full fledged restaurant but with the same lip smacking food ! With a good lunch tucked in, we settled down in the cab and snoozed our way to the tea halt at around 6 PM at Kashipur Tiraha. First time on the trip when I heard “cheeni” and not “shakkar” 😉 We checked into “Tiger Camp”, Ramnagar at around 8 pm. Tiger Camp is an old property and their food is nothing to complain about 😉 The mutton at their “Gol Ghar” restaurant was absolutely superlative but then, I prefer veg. The “hog fest” that had already started at “mama dhabha”, would continue for another five days ! My last few weeks of regular running efforts had just got “muttoned” !
“Penguins disla ?” ( Translated from marathi – Will we see penguins?)
Next day morning (29th Mar 2018) at 0600H we were at the “Amdanda gate” for our entry the Bijrani zone. The gate itself gave us sightings of plum headed parakeets, bulbuls and a few grey hornbills flitting on the tree besides the gate. A little ahead we spotted the first of the serious birds, a streak throated woodpecker followed by a curious crested serpent eagle. The temperature was quite manageable, just a tad chilly and one needed a light jacket and a ear cover to fight the wind on a open jeep. The approach track gave us a good sighting of a male red jungle fowl. This was to be the most common sighting for the next four days, so much so that, we got tired of seeing it! Going ahead we heard the call of the Great Pied Hornbill but, it was quite far. We went ahead and waited to listen in to the calls more carefully and a pair of great pied hornbills flew high over head us and obliged us with a high fly past. All over the forest were these unique red leaf tree which were spectacular in the early morning light. Way too spectacular for any camera . The morning ride ended with some good views of an Indian roller which was right beside the exit gate of the park. Corbett surroundings too have spectacular birding and do require a separate trip in itself. At lunch we were asking Rahul what all we would see. Wishes were for Martens, elephants, woodpeckers, vultures, ghariyals, king cobra, tigers of course and wait…I chimed in “penguins” 😉 . Everyone burst into a laugh hearing this one !
Red Jungle Fowl
The red tree
Great Pied Hornbill flypast
In elephant speak, slim is a bad word
As we drove in for the evening safari we had just gone past the entrance gate and I heard a metallic twang and a rattle sound begin from underneath our gypsy. The leaf road spring had broken. Irfan our driver managed to drive on to the Bijrani guesthouse. I thought we would have to re distribute into other vehicles but, Irfan the driver had other plans. He borrowed a huge clamp from another driver and clamped the leaf spring. That held till we came back from the evening ride and we didn’t have to change vehicles. The highlight of the evening was a huge lone single tooth tusker , peacefully foraging on the Malani road. We were quite close and he patiently waited for us to move. Once we moved a bit away, he came on to the road and sloppily walked / ambled on his way down the track and away from us. What a magnificent beast! The thought that came to y mid at that instant was ” For elephants , slim is a bad word”.
Video credits Ms Leena D.
Lone Tusker from krish photo on Vimeo.
By now it was time to turn back and one has to be out of the park by 1800H sharp. The evening route was very scenic with hilly tracks and stream crossings. On the return leg we spotted a grey winged blackbird and yet another red jungle fowl. This one climbed up a branch and started calling. That made for a unique image, a departure from the usual ground foraging pics of this colourful bird.
30th March 2018 : We were all set at the “Dhanghari gate” at 0600H. At the gate, the paperwork to get to Dhikala took a greater part of 45 minutes. While Rahul and the drivers were busy with the paperwork, we were entertained by a flock of Slaty headed parakeets and Himalayan bulbuls on a flowering yellow tree. We would start our safari from the gate and all the way to Dhikala which we planned to reach by 1100H. A few ways inside, we spotted a khaleej pair and a fulvous breasted woodpecker. As we started “to bird” and move, we spotted a rarity, a collared falconet pair. This is the smallest raptor in India. The other jeep with Rahul had moved ahead and we caught up with it. They had found a “Long tailed Broadbill” ! Another rare one. We exchanged notes and Rahul went back to find the falconet and we moved ahead to find the Broadbill. I spotted it in the foliage. Yeeha ! slowly my spotting skills were coming back. It was probably building a nest. The bird was in the open and I got a few nice shots of this beautiful birdie. In the same area, we also spotted a Rufous woodpecker pair , a White throated Laughing thrush and a Slaty headed woodpecker. What a fabulous start to the drive to Dhikala ! Little did we know there was more in store !
Collared Falconet
White throated Laughing thrush
Pin tailed pegion
Long Tailed Broadbill
Rufous woodpeckers
Around 0900H we stopped at “Sultan” for breakfast. We had brought along packed breakfast for this trail. The breakfast was a feast of parantha , aloo subzi, sandwiches with butter and frooti. Leena an I then commented that we need “rassa aloo and puri” for breakfast. Another wish which would come true.
Hog-fest at “Sultan”
Moving ahead we saw a huge Brown fish owl which flew off silently on our approach and sat on a tree further inside the forest. We could see it clearly and a drongo was harassing it. And then when I processed the pics, I also see a Black headed bulbul, behind the owl, that we failed to notice in the field! What complex physics to flap those huge wings and not make a sound. Amazing nature!
Ahead we stopped at a bend from where we saw a huge fresh water crocodile basking in the sun.
We rolled on ahead on the trail and suddenly, Rahul in the first jeep halted and called out Marten ! There were two on the tree and they came out inquisitively to watch the animals on jeeps. The Martens climbed up a tree and crossed over to the other side giving us a full 20 minute sighting. On the other side was a tree which was probably already “tunneled”. The marten went in from one side and appeared with its head hanging out from the other side. Usually, Marten sightings are fleeting, they are either ducking into a tree or burrow or, dashing across the track and gone in a jiffy. I had asked Rahul if we would see the Yellow Throated Marten and he said it was a possibility. He mentioned that it was way rarer than a tiger to sight. Wish comes true ! Yee haaa !!! The drivers Fahim Irfan and Sartaj all said it was mighty rare to sight these and also, rarer still to sight and see clearly for 20 minutes !!
We hadn’t even reached Dhikala and we were already clocking all “rock star” sightings and that too on a totally delectable, gourmand diet ! I felt I had already gained a couple kilos but, I had no intention of any control 😉 We rolled into Dhikala at around 1115H fully satiated and checked into our rooms. We were asked to keep the room doors closed since there were monkeys that could come in and riffle through everything inside. Just as we were parking at Dhikala, I had seen a monkey taking apart someone’s bag which had been loaded into a gypsy. The rooms are spacious and clean. Ive no complaints and I thought it was much more than what I would’ve imagined to have in the middle of a forest. Rahul had warned us to charge our batteries since there could be power outage at Dhikala and there was no assurance when it might come back. I immediately set my batts to charge and went to check out the surroundings.
“Biped tigress” doing what she loves the most 😉
Rewind to 70s: Elephant charge, shots fired and a rescue
I vaguely remember my Dhikala trip from school, late 70s. I remember one or two buildings and we had stayed in tents. The forest ranger had taken us on a morning walk trail where I remember seeing a dancing peacock. Another incident I remember from that trip is where we went in a bus to see the elephants and the bus got surrounded by them. The forest guard in the bus had to fire in the air and the bus blowing its horn backed out in a hurry. I also remember in that melee, three people came on to the track from the tall grass and waved to us to be picked up. They were researchers who had got surrounded by the elephants. To prevent their smell from being detected by the elephants, they had smeared themselves with elephant dung. Quite an exciting trip for a school kid that I was at that time ! And I didn’t even breathe a word about this to my parents 😉
Grand, dramatic stormy Corbett weather and “Petrichor”
The evening drive started with great expectations. At Dhikala, probably the max cat action is at “Sambar Road” ( Reminds me of the Dire Straits tune, “Telegraph Road” for some reason !) Checking the scene . “Parwali” or “Paro”, (the resident tigress) as she is fondly called and her cub were somewhere in the area. Suddenly there was a call and we backtracked a bit on the road parallel to the sambar road . Peering intently, we saw the lower half of a tiger moving away in the dense undergrowth. The weather suddenly turned very interesting and we could see storm clouds gathering. There was a wind picking up with storm clouds gathering over the hills and the whole atmosphere suddenly became very dramatic with a rising smell of “petrichor”.
Picture credit SachinP
I was praying that it doesn’t rain since I was not 100% on gear protection for rain. Irfan too was also praying that it should not rain. Should it rain, “the sightings” would sharply drop for the next few days. He said he wouldn’t mind rain on the last day of the stay but, rain in the beginning would put a damper on wildlife viewing for the remainder days. We drove into an open clearing where we spotted rose finches and took pics of the wide landscape with storm clouds. Really tough to capture that magical evening. Its an experince that stays in the mind long after we have finished. Then we circled back via the “main road” and went to check out the grasslands or “chaur”. The last three years the grass has not been burnt in the beginning of the season as was the earlier practice. As a result, the elephants have lesser tender grass to feed on. Hence lesser number of elephants now at Dhikala than earlier years. Early in multiple hundreds but now in only double digits. As we drove to the end of the chaur, a lone adolescent male elephant mock charged us. It was funny to see it go back , take a run-up and then do a charge with a trumpeting sound that was, kinda shrill to the ears. We were allowed to get off the vehicle at the end of the “chaur” and take pictures. One of the few places one can get down in the park when there is no wildlife in vicinity.
Adoloscent elephant Mock Charge from krish photo on Vimeo.
Irfan then suggested we head back to try and see elephants on the Ramganga river. We then doubled back to “Sambar Road” and parked to see a small herd of elephants come for a drink in the river and cross it to the other side. I should’ve also shot with my 17-35mm here which I missed. Just as were were winding up, a tusker came in for a drink and followed the herd. What an rocking day this had been ! Big ticket items Yellow Throated Martens, Long tailed broadbill and elephants ! A major elephants in the wild wish come true.
Tails & Trunks
I got back to the room and promptly put my batts to charge 🙂
Almost a hunt and a nagging “madras mami”
31st March 2018: Morning was a bit chilly and Sameer pulled out a blanket to wrap himself during the ride. Total UP / Chambal “Daku” ishtyle ! We started the ride back down “sambar Road”. No cat action that we could spot, so we moved on. We picked up a tickles thrush and a hard to get on the camera Crested Laughing thrush. They make a maniacal laughing sound while moving. They usually chum up with babblers in the jungle and forage together. We also spotted black hooded oriole, pygmy woodpecker and a slaty headed woodpecker on the trail.
Grey Headed Woodpecker
Back hooded oriole
We looped back to “the chaur” via the main road. Towards the end of the jungle on the grassland side was a Pallas eagle nest. We saw a crow mobbing it.
Pallas eagle nest
There were a few jeeps standing watching the grass and soon Irfan picked up a sleeping tiger in the tall grass. While we were not only looking for the tiger, cat luck was happening :-). The other two gypsys decided to move on to see other things. Irfan was sure the tiger would get up soon. Soon turned out to be the rest of the morning ! There was a south indian couple in the next gypsy where the lady was giving a hard time to her hubby since she couldn’t spot the tiger despite all the indications and directions! She kept whining what a waste of a trip! “The mami” was really hen pecking her hubby ! I silently bad mouthed STFU. Some folks are better imprisoned in city and should be banned from coming into the forest. This was probably a good candidate I thought. I just wanted her to clam up so showed her the tiger on the back of my camera LCD. After a while, the tiger lazily poked his head up to survey the surroundings and that’s when we all got a good look. Some deer were approaching and the tigress sat in the grass waiting. But the deer were antsy and didn’t let up guard. Chance of seeing a hunt was possible but, it was not to be. Soon, it got hot enough and the tigress got up and nonchalantly walked parallel to the gypsys. Irfan had positioned it right at the end of the jeeps and the positioning was perfect. This guy had that sixth sense for the cat :-).
Meanwhile the other two gypsys had moved back to sambar road side had seen a fight for a snake between two serpent eagles! Geez what a morning, total action packed!
Clip below is via Rahul’s youtube channel
Breakfast was poha and upma and eggs to order. Super tasty and not heavy at all. This was a “pigging out” trip and I was going for it, as was everyone else 🙂
Boring tiger sighting and I need “rasam”
The afternoon ride started with the now very familar “sambar road”. Immediately we spotted Parwali and her cub resting by the river , in the shade of the tall grass. The wait began and soon the cub got up and came into the water to cool off. All the cameras went beserk ! There were two “Canters” with day trippers who were also able to comfortably see the tigers. Soon the momma tigress also came out and walked a bit on the river bank to a damp cool spot. She lay down and went all four legs up in the air and belly up, in a fully relaxed mode. She stayed pretty much in that position till it was time for us to head back ! It seemed that the tigers had had a full meal and were now relaxing.
In all that cat commotion, there was plenty of other action happening at that very same spot! We spotted a pygmy woodpecker and a common hawk cuckoo. Some minivets flitted about and a couple of kingfishers came and sat on a branch very close. I managed a clean shot of the crested kingfisher.
Crested Kingfisher
White throated Kingfisher
I was so bored of seeing the static relaxing tigers that I started to make some blur and creative images. While we we waiting , we saw a gypsy approach, then suddenly another tiger ran in a flash across the road back into the jungle! This was probably the “chuiapani” tigress. She got spooked by the gypsy and bolted back. Had the gypsy been a bit distant, we would have seen a third tiger on the scene !
Creative stuff
As the evening wore, we also saw a herd of elephants come to the Ramganga and cross it. All the action on just one static spot on “Sambar Road”! Now I needed some ‘rasam’ too! 😉
01 April 2018: The morning plan was to go via the sambar road to the other side of the Ramganga river. We spotted a few elephants crossing the river again. The rising sun was against us and it made of some very pretty images.
Again I missed slapping on my 17-35. The ride across the river is over a temporary wooden bridge made by stacking the river stones to form the base.
A coral tree gave us some nice birds especially the green leaf bird. We also saw, vultures and kingfishers and one of my favourite birds the Black shouldered kite.
Leaf bird
Turtle
Pied kingfisher
Black shouldered kite
On our way back, on the “main road” we also heard a the call of a Common green magpie and spotted it at a little distance. Its a very pretty bird and not that common at all ! While looking at the Green magpie, we also spotted a Yellow throated Marten in a hollow tree. The marten again gave us very good views for over 10 minutes. Very lucky to sight these a second time and on the same trip !We had to leave it since it was getting to be safari end time. In all that melee, we also spotted a regal looking “Mountain hawk eagle”. What action ! A green magpie, marten and a MHE all on the same spot, pretty much !
Common green magpie
Yellow throated marten
Mountain hawk eagle
Back at Dhikala resthouse, we chomped on to some delicious “rassa aloo and puri” again along with some eggs to order. The food was super tasty at the resthouse. Absolutely no complaints. But you get only vegetarian fare. I think this is to avoid the chance of mixing game meat should, meat be served. We sat out the rest of the morning on the deck overlooking the river. We saw a bull elephant chase another away. Even afternoons on the deck overlooking the Ramganga are eventful.
Creative shot of a deer running, a slow pan shot with the 600+TC14 ( I think my fav pic from this trip too !) Lazy blazing afternoon at the Dhikala deck, really gets my mind ticking !
The evening ride along the sambar road didn’t yield much. But we did see a lovely fish owl and a fluvous woodpecker. We headed to “high Bank” to see ghariyals but, they were quite far. We looped back again to the grassland since we had got news of elephants gathering there. The lovely backlight made for some great shots. The highlight of the evening were two elephant toddlers playfully pushing and climbing over each other which made for some smiles and laughs. Absolutely wonderful creatures, the elephants. My wish to see elephants in the wild was now fully satiated. I couldn’t ask for more 🙂 Hey Madhavi, “Ganapati Bappa Mourya!”
Rahul’s clip
And my clip, with my 600mm . This one is from another side of the action probably ninety degrees to where Rahul was shooting from.
High Bank
Creative ones
Dhikala for life
While at the sambar road I got hailed by “Prakash Ramkrishnan” from Coimbatore ( of the black panther and a regular leopard on a rock, image fame) who was on another gypsy. Seems Prakash comes to Dhikala every month and had more than 15k pics of “Parwali” !! Talk of obsession. Another gent I met a Kunwardeep Juneja from Delhi, has been coming here for the last 25 years and that too month on month ! Such is the passion for the magical Corbett !
That evening we had a power outage but, the generators kicked in. I hurriedly charged my batts again before they shut off the genie at 2200H.
02 April 2018: The morning ride we again went to the far side of the river. Just as we were crossing the river, the gypsy in front of us reported seeing the “chuipani” tigress in the grass. She had just crossed. We heard her calling out to her cubs but, couldn’t spot her. As we crossed the river, we spotted a red jungle fowl in the open on the rocks by the river. Quite a rare spot to find this specimen which is usually in some undergrowth. We saw vultures and a fish owl again. The fish owl was sitting out in the open. On the way back we took a different route parallel to the main road but over some hill into the grassland. A very scenic route not to be missed. As we got into the grassland Rahul spotted a rare “Maroon oriole”. This trail is just on the border where the forest meets the grassland and is called “Thandi sadak” since it does not get any sunlight. We had hardly finished with the Maroon oriole that we spotted a changable hawk eagle with a kill , sitting very close to the track on a tree. So close that I used my 100mm for some shots ! Every safari on the trip was throwing up some very cool sightings!
Maroon Oriole
Changable hawk eagle with a kill
The creative shot ( 17-35 mm) !!
After breakfast I heard a woodpecker outside my room and saw a pair of Fulvous breasted woodpeckers merrily pecking away. I got some nice shots of this chap.
The return drive was to start at 1400H and I messed around trying some “double exposures” with “Daku Sameer Singh” & “Satchel boy Sachin” as models.
We loaded up after lunch with all our luggage for the drive back to Ramnagar. We would be birding the reverse trail. We stopped by the coral tree to grab a few shots of the spangled drongo on the red flower.
The next stop was “High Bank” again from where you can see gharials and crocs. We then halted at “Champion” and were greeted by a very curious bunch of Eurasian Otters who swam up to check us out! We also spotted the gharial from here. The river was in pristine condition if it supported the ghariayl and otters.
The Ghariyal
Eurasian otters
Not many such pure rivers left in India unfortunately. I thought that this was a fitting finale to the trip but, there was more to come. We spotted a Great pied hornbill and it gave us some super views.
This trail from Ramnagar to Dhikala itself was a “goldmine” of sightings! It was getting late and we sped up to reach the Dhanghari gate by 1700H. Short of the gate, a peacock gave us a full dancing display. We had to hurry past it to make out time. He was displaying to some four pea hens sitting on a tree nearby. Sorry mate we had to spook your routine 😉 We made the gate dot on time, at 1700 ! As we parked Irfan said that the other rear leaf suspension had just now broken !
All in all a totally action packed trip with some very rare sightings. Dhikala is a wildlife watchers dream come true. And oh yes, while we had wished to see “penguins” we probably saw pretty much everything else !
The return was via train from Ramnagar to Delhi. Train departs Ramnagar at 2200H and reaches Delhi at 0400H. Then, a transfer to the airport to catch our flight back. A very convenient connection especially in the early morning. “Rassa Aloo n puri” in Delhi would have to wait for another time 😉
I enjoyed taking pics of trees on this trip. A few below, and more in the photo album.
GPS logging via phone
I used “GPS Logger” on my android phone. It worked mostly. But when I synchronised the images, I am getting all different locations than where I shot them. The route seems ok though. I think I will use my dedicated GPS logger henceforth. Possible that the native GPS lost signal since phone was always in my pocket. I need to check if a time offset can fix this issue. Bottomline, one can use phone to GPS log but, since GPS native signals from the satellite are weak , best to use a dedicated GPS logger which is kept in the open for best signal acquisition.
Gear talk
I realised that I was quite out of touch with safari in terms of camera gear readiness. My last forest safari had been in 2012 ! I had forgotten the dust cover cloth that I keep to cover the gear. Also, I had not double checked the rain protection plastic bags. The old one in the bag was torn in places. I silently wished that it wouldn’t rain or else Id be in a “soup”. My two main cameras were, the D5 with the 600mm+TC14 giving me around 850mm and, the D3 with the 105mm macro. I did have a 17-35 in the bag but in the fast moving dusty wildlife action, I didn’t attempt to use it. In retrospective, I should have kept switching between the 17-35 and the 105mm. I lost a lot of good scapes due to this laziness. Something to note for the next time. However, I hardly missed my 70-200, which would have been the one Id have used, had I carried it. So a 105mm works well in lieu if a 70-200, and lesser weight too. Rahul was using a Sony RX-10 III and Girish a Lumix FX2500. Both one inch sensors but quite versatile with this version of Lumix giving more features for video. I believer the RX-10 IV is now just as versatile for professional video too. Also, I was shooting the 600 handheld and it was pretty tough. I could try a monopod the next time on a jeep but, mounting and dismounting the lens loses precious time and can miss the shot. Ideally need a world war II type machine gunner pod mounted on the gypsy with a rotating seat with the 600mm replacing the machine gun 😉 But for now, handheld. Handjeld is tough but way more responsive. Need to work a lot of biceps and back on the jeep and, my gym routine was helping heaps ! I decided to write out a gear checklist so that I don’t miss anything important for the next trip. Here it is should you want to plan a similar trip. This should be good for most India based “dusty safaris” for about a 4-7 days trip. Gear list other than main camera and lenses.
Note to self for the future , lens choice: My lens choice for Sambar road would be a 17-35 / even better a 24-120 zoom. But that said one does need the big tele for the birds at Corbett. So an ideal setup one camera 24-120 and one 500/600 with a TC.
Bino Lust:
Nikon Monarchs binoculars is what we mostly had . But intermittently using Rahul’s Zeiss VF 8×42 one can feel the difference. Its in a different league altogether. There is way much less strain on the eye and way more fine detail visible clearly. So now you know which “bins” to get 😉 . Just don’t ask for the price though !
All the videos are at this link> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfkHDEA0IjPt6Y48XSn5EyiJ_znPhfFaD
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Just awesome…. I was enjoying the trip again.
What a trip, what sighting ? the martens like that are sheer joy, great shot of one of them running on the branch baring it’s teeth. Mountain hawk eagle, broadbill, common (highly uncommon ?) green magpie, maroon Oriole, collared falconets, phew ?
The baby elephants were sheer magic. Tiger shots and sightings were like beyond lucky! Exceptional trip and sightings…have been to Dhikala multiple times in the last 3-4 years, but this surely qualifies as a super trip w.r.t action you witnessed ? Lovely account, itching to plan my own trip there now!