In the Realm of Bengal Tigers: Station 1 - Bandhavgarh

And off we went again. After a closer look at the travel documents, we started to feel a bit uneasy about where we were flying to and how everything would work out, because there were so many 'don'ts' and 'cautions' that we felt like we were losing track.

Despite all the worries, the arrival and entry into India went relatively smoothly. The only thing that was unusual was the crowds of people and the slow processing speed (which only made the crowds grow rather than shrink). After being received and guided by someone several times, we finally arrived at the person who will accompany us for the next two weeks, although it took us a while to understand that. Contrary to our expectations, it turned out that English is one of the official languages, but unfortunately it is not or only very brokenly spoken and understood here in Central India. Hindi or whatever is common here is completely foreign to us...

At least in the first hotel there were one or two people who understood us (and whom we understood) reasonably well, so we got along well there. In the 4 safaris, we always had the same driver, who preferred to speak in the local language with the additional local guide rather than in English with us, but that was fine with us, because firstly we were happy not to be constantly chatted up or interrogated, and secondly, at least the sightings and rough communication worked...

During the first drive, we were unlucky and always arrived a few minutes late for tiger sightings, but on the other three drives, we saw one tiger once and even two tigers twice. After the first drive, we were naturally a bit disappointed, but in hindsight it's good to know that it's not easy and the animals are not fed or otherwise confined to a specific location. The tigers we saw here also came very close to us, about 10-20 meters away, so we were completely satisfied with the visit to this national park.