Into the Jungle: Part 4 [Jeep Safari]

In part 3 we saw the monkeys taking over the climbing nets.

Soon it would be time for the reason we came: a Jeep Safari. An all-too-familiar overcast sky was encroaching as we neared in on the scheduled time for the expedition. As the Jeeps began to pull up into the parking lot, droplets of water were making us all nervous. We pressed the crew to leave a bit early. They refused and we left a typical 15 minutes late.

DSCF3533 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

The ride out of the resort to the park was longer than I expected. Our crew stopped at the midway point to let someone off and read the park rules. While there, we smartly pulled down the plastic window on the front of the Jeep to avoid getting any more wet.

We saw over a ton of animals, which wasn't all that difficult considering the weight of an Indian elephant.

• Deer
• Wild Boar
• Monkeys
• Woodpeckers
• Kingfisher
• Serpent Eagle
• Elephants
• Leopard
• Tiger*

Three deer were near the entrance of the forest. Our excitement couldn't be contained, evident by the dozens of pictures we all have. After two hours passed, the deer were much less impressive -- we saw at least a few hundred during the day.

DSCF3515 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

The boar proved very fast and difficult to capture. The monkeys seemed exceptionally agile, even for monkeys, and were hanging out near this man-made salt pit.

Elephants were plentiful in Kabini. We saw both the wild and domesticated varieties.

IMG_1614 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

IMG_1603 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

There is a chart when entering the resort that keeps track of the animals spotted. On virtually every day there was a leopard. This day didn't break the chain. (video)

DSCF3456 copy by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

Our tour guide was extremely excited to have spotted a leopard in the wild. He shook all of our hands just after the above video was shot. This ended our two hour safari for the day. The most exciting bit of the next day's safari was easily spotting India's national animal: the tiger. (video)

DSCF3531 by sumeet.moghe on Flickr

A special thanks must go out to Sumeet for capturing so many stunning photos and our tour guide, whose excitement and enthusiasm made the experience better for us all.



DSCF3466 by sumeet.moghe, on Flickr

Note With great luck, and the weather patterns typical of this region, the rain stopped by the time we began the actual safari.

Note strictly speaking, it was everyone but me who saw the Tiger due to a legendary bout with asthma.