The airbus 320 Neo touchdown at Jabalpur was super smooth, barely felt it. Getting out of the aircraft got into a quaint small terminal to collect our bags. Jabalpur air was just a tad cool. Smell of spring and the odd slightly warmer air greeted us as we drove to our hotel. The “Vigin hotel” room was huge, as in could’ve been most of my house in Mumbai, that size and had a jacuzzi to boot. We dumped our luggage and went down to the restaurant to get some dinner. Finally some authentic north Indian fare and not the convoluted mixed mess that Mumbai, eateries serve.
The plan was halt overnight at Jabalpur, Next day move to Ken river lodge at Panna. Ken is an old setup at Panna. Its located right on the banks of the Ken river and reaching the Madla gate for the safari entry, is just barely five minutes. Perfectly located. We reached after a six hour drive from Jabalpur. Lunch was simple but tasty as all these resorts so consistently serve. The plan was to do a night safari at Jhinna, stay at the Jhinna camp ( also part of Ken river lodge) and hit straight the next morning for the safari at Madla gate. I knew it (believed it) even before this trip started that I will finally see a leopard in the wild and that too on a tree.
A stork billed kingfisher from the tree deck
The Jhinna camp was anything but basic. Marvelously done and super quiet right on the edge of the jungle.
We had a quick chai and headed out for the night safari at 1830H. The night safari experience is completely different and what I liked the most was the complete sync with the universe when we switched off to listen for the animals and the movement. The silence and the sounds of the jungle sitting in a switched off gypsy, that was the best part for me. The trick is to scan the searchlight and pick up animal eyes shining back. Sounds easier than done. Took a while to figure out, what to even look for ! Seems the forest guys insist on a white LED light, which I think is much harmful to the animals. Hope they switch back to the yellow incandescent ones which trouble the eyes much less.
The White LED searchlight
We saw the sambar, spotted deer and wild boars. A hare came up in the searchlight and it scampered away. Khalid the driver spotter a.k.a “night vision” had a hunch on a leopard at a spot. Truly as we might, no sign of it. Then he spotted its eyes, a female. It was crouched in front of a tree. Try as he might to explain to us to where to look, I looked at everything but where he wanted me to ! Finally I just spotted a shape move as the cat walked away behind some trees. What a bummer, so close to seeing my first leopard in the wild but, this was a miss for me. The next morn we again were spotting and moving towards Madla gate and saw a jackal and an Indian fox. No leopards.
We reached the Madla gate and were assigned a new lady guide. The first route was “Chewla Jhuria”. I kinda liked that name ! The driver was Sukrit Dai ( called Dai) a Ken River Lodge veteran who is a superb birder. We did hear a lot of calls but no luck neither for the tiger or for the leopard. We saw vultures at the Dundhua vulture point and had a marvelous field breakfast there.
On the way back to the lodge, Dai pointed to us a few Bronze tree snakes that welcomed us into the lodge. These are the permanent residents on a log at the entrance he said.
The evening safari, our guide was Sanjay( Guide No5) an experienced and knowledgeable guide. Dai and Sanjay seemed to have a good equation. We went to Bandrona and while looking out there, got a call about a leopard at Jhuria. We quickly turned around and sped to Jhuria. And there, calmly sleeping on a Tendu tree was my first common leopard sighting. A nice big solid male leopard it was. So what I believed and knew would happen, happened. Leopard on a tree !
The Tendu tree (Diospyros melanoxylon) is the tree from which the “beedi” is rolled. The leaves of the beedi are tendu leaves. Tendua is the hindi name for a leopard. No wonder since it often perches on a tendu tree !
While there , we heard a few calls off a tiger but, I was not interested in them. We stuck at this same spot watching the leopard. After sometime, the leopard got up , climbed down from the tree and vanished into the undergrowth.
We still had time so tried the higher route. There were some calls there. Enroute, we saw a fallen cap and Dai bent over to pick it up. Then after we went a bit ahead he realised that his phone was missing. Some calls started, but we disregarded those and I asked him to go back to find his phone. No phone at the cap location. Then , we made a call to his phone and found it had slipped under the co-drivers seat ! By now the time to get out of the park was closing a, we sped towards the gate thus ending an exiting evening safari. My first leopard bagged 🙂
Karhai trees ( Rifle butts are made from these)
The next morn (25th) we stared the safari and there were peacock calls at “twin Naka”. Try as we might, there was no movement seen. The calls were coming from across the river. We waited for an hour but no luck and moved ahead to wards the Pipartola grassland. Pipertola area is where T141 and cubs are seen. We saw pug marks but not much luck with seeing any tigers. Great birding though as there was a fruiting ficus. In the misty background also saw a Indian Greater Spotted Eagle.
On the way back we stopped at twin naka and the other jeep which was waiting picked up a movement. Dai immediately confirmed it was a leopard. It was super shy and the peacocks were following it and calling an alarm. We could only spot it due to the movement else, it was super camouflaged.
After a bit, we went to Silhatta area where again there were calls. Dai spotted another leopard sitting on a rock on the hill. It was well hidden by trees and we could only vaguely see it through the trees. As soon, the leopard got up and went behind the hill and we lost sight of it. Definitely saw the leopard even though it was a brief sighting through the trees. So two leopards in one safari, not bad ! And my total leopard count up to now three !
The evening safari we got another good guide Pahar Singh. We went to the higher area but nothing much moved. But the scenery was dry and very pretty. At vulture point I met Gaurav Ramanarayanan, who I had met in Coimbatore many years ago. He does fab trip especially Bera. Do check him out !
We came down “ganga” and picked up two boat trackers who wanted a lift to the gate. There is collared tigress that is tracked by these boatmen, T141. There were sambar calls from Jhuri nalla. The trackers said that the tigress was resting there and had not moved out. The calls were moving up the hill and we scooted to the other side to catch the tigress coming down. But despite all our efforts the calls stopped. Probably the tigress had stopped her movement and had sat down.It was almost 1803 now and the exit time was 1815H. All three jeeps did a thrilling 10min dash to the gate that would make Ayerton Senna proud 😉
I met a few birders from Lucknow, as luck would have it, every Madla safari, we were positioned just behind them at the entrance gate!
The last safari on 26th morn was a dry one. Easy but no sighting of anything much interesting at all.
But at Panna, I had finally broken through with my first three leopard sightings. Definitely a very special trip for me.
Special thanks to Rahul at Foliage outdoors who recommended & organised this trip for me. I am a happy camper 🙂
Photo tips
* TC14 with the 500mmPF is a very slow combo for fast moving subjects. Its slower than the 200-500 native as regards AF.
* Great park for post monsoon landscapes. The Dhundhua vulture point and waterfalls is something I would go for specifically as soon as the park opens post monsoon.
* My 500mm PF worked well. You can do well with a 200-500 or a 200-600 mm lens too.
Arty pics ( Best enjoyed on a large screen !)
For more pics , here you go
Superb story ! Very nicely done. I am now, better informed. Thank you.