In Kanha National Park

Our days usually start with an alarm ringing at 4:00 am, as we are picked up for the tiger safari around 4:45. A moving day - in this case from Bandhavgarh NP to Kanha NP - with a wake-up time of 6:30 am falls into the category of 'sleeping in'.

Approximately 250 km had to be covered for the move - it was planned for 6 hours, but we ended up taking only 4.5 hours, which is still slow enough. Dodging mopeds, pedestrians, cyclists, other cars, and often cows (usually honking loudly as a warning), we drove through the Indian countryside, which consisted of fairly backward farming. In any case, we arrived early enough to participate in the afternoon safari.

The afternoon safaris started promptly at 4:00 pm when the gate opened. Then the caravan - here in Kanha, we estimated that there could be up to 50 safari vehicles - entered the park, but dispersed somewhat into assigned sectors. Nevertheless, one was rarely alone, and the easiest way to discover something was to drive towards where many cameras were pointing. Usually, the sun set around 6:00 pm, and in the last light of the day - around 6:45 - we would leave the national park again.
The morning safaris always started at 5:30 am at the gate, where it was already somewhat bright, even though the sun had not yet risen. We always had to register with our passport first, so the drivers usually arrived at the gate at 5:00 or at the latest 5:15. The morning safaris usually lasted 5.5-6 hours, with about fifteen minutes or so spent on consuming the breakfast we brought in a specially secured area. With almost 9 hours in the national park plus a bit of driving to and from, and the much-needed nap in between, our days were really well utilized and also exhausting. The 40°C and above also did not provide real relaxation. At times, we were pretty worn out (we know, sympathy is only available in homeopathic doses...)

By the way, we always had our own safari vehicle (with a driver and nature guide - a few jobs should be secured), while up to 8 tourists often squeezed into identical other carriages. It is remarkable that you rarely see another 'white' face here - all other guests here at least visually come across as Indians. We did not expect that, but a high domestic interest is certainly advantageous for the conservation of national parks.

The first safari in Kanha was in the afternoon of the arrival - we saw a tiger who first posed in front of us, then marked his territory, and walked towards us on the road. Then he made a short detour to some gaurs (large wild cattle) and finally disappeared into an unseen waterhole. Very cooperative, the colleague. Our driver was busy taking photos himself, so sometimes he left a bit late - so the tiger was maybe only 2-3m away in his next approaches.

The 2nd Kanha safari was a morning one, and the highlight of this trip was a mother tiger that once again crossed the road very close to us. With some distance behind followed her 3 cubs, but they did not follow the mother but stayed in a grassy area. Later in the morning, we saw them cross the road again. By the way, we had received the information that the tigress would be in that particular area, and we waited for over an hour for her appearance, but it was definitely worth it... many other cars had already given up and missed the sighting.

The 3rd outing - of course, another afternoon - was a disappointment when it came to tigers. There was not much to see of the other animals either, but it was also the hottest day so far...

In the 4th safari, we did see 3 tigers (one of them even twice), but they were very far away, difficult to see, and obstructed by other vehicles, bushes, or grass, etc. The middle one - Tiger #9 in the count without babies - also had 4 cubs, but on that distance and in the tall grass, they were not really visible at all.

We saw one of these 4 cubs again on the 5th outing, otherwise, it was another disappointment.

Overall, we were not entirely satisfied here. The national park has 6 sectors. Of these, 2 were too far away for our location... that left 4, and we had 5 safaris. One might think that we could have a look at each sector, but no - we were taken to the same sector 4 times, and either there was not much to see, or our driver and the corresponding guides were not very motivated...