I still had stomach cramps but I didn’t want to miss another drive so out we went on drive number 18. This time we would be exploring Parsapaani in the buffer zone of the park and sharing our vehicle with our good friends Liz & Malcolm.

Just before breakfast we stopped where there were some cave paintings and we debated walking down to see them… then it was mentioned a sloth bear had been seen coming out of the cave, so not such a great idea after all. Sloth bears can be very dangerous. They will usually attack a person’s head causing horrific injuries. Attacks occur because a bear absorbed in what it is doing is suddenly disturbed, the bear’s usual response to such a surprise is to launch a mock charge, followed by roaring and an upright display and if you are very unlucky an attack. I was good with not going to look for cave paintings!

We stopped for breakfast at a high point looking over the national park. The picnic breakfasts at this lodge were the worst… no eggs or Indian snacks, but we enjoyed the view and the company.

There were several check points within Satpura National Park where you national park guide would need to go and ‘check-in and out’ of the zone. At one of these check points there was a blackbuck fawn. It was wild (not tied up or confined) it had chosen to hang out around the check point because it had been injured by a predator attack and had been nursed back to health by one of the park rangers. It was tame enough to get photos of while on foot, but best not to get too close as it liked to head-butt!

Back at the lodge we watched wildlife coming and going to the pond next to our room patio. We were surprised to see wild boar wallowing in the mud and they were surprised to see us too!

In the afternoon we went for our only afternoon drive inside the main zone of the park. Due to other people not feeling well, Alan and I had our vehicle to ourselves, plus Bhanu. We concentrated on looking for sloth bears and stopped for gaur and birds of prey along the way (crested hawk eagle, mottled owl and grey-headed fish-eagle).

The alarm didn’t wake me up this morning, I had a rough night, having skipped dinner and gone to bed early. I wasn’t well enough to go out this morning, but I helped get Alan’s gear ready.

Alan started his morning with bull frog spotting in the ornamental pond at the lodge. You could occasionally see them during the day from the window of the lodge with their eyes just above the water’s surface, but if you went outside they would dive back under the water.

This morning’s drive was in the main zone and not long after entering the park they was a call that a porcupine had been seen. It was a bit of sad scene, the poor thing had clearly been attacked and was missing many of its quills. It had nasty injuries to its face (photos of which I have decided not to share) and it was probably just a matter of time before it either died from its injuries or another predator would come along and make it its meal. This was quite an exciting find for the guides and drivers because porcupines are rarely seen during the day.

In between waiting for something to happen to the porcupine Alan saw a pack of wild dogs in the distance and a jungle omelette… oops sorry, I mean owlet.

A palm civet decided to make a brief appearance during the day time, but quickly decided it wasn’t such a great idea and went back into its home to sleep. Interesting fact… Kopi Luwak is a type of coffee made of coffee beans that pass through the digestive system of Asian palm civets (extracted from its poop). It is one of the most expensive types of coffee in the world!

Stopping for a few birds, Black-naped monarch, Indian scops owl and gaur. The endangered gaur are usually dark brown with white 'socks' but in Satpura there are some individuals that, like the spirit bears in Canada's Great Bear Rainforest, have a recessive gene making their colour paler, even ginger like.

Meanwhile back at the lodge I got up after Alan left and positioned myself outside on our patio along with my camera. We didn’t take the tripod to India, so I had to carefully prop up the mono-pod and pointed it towards the pond in the hope the wild boar would come back and I could video them. What I didn’t expect was a spotted deer to visit. As soon as I saw it I starting recording and stayed very still. The stag came to the pond to drink, I had to stay so very still so as not to spook it. Just as it started to drink the guys came to clean our room, so it raised its head. Unfortunately I had set up the camera for wild boar… more than half the height of the deer! I didn’t want to disturb the deer and waited until it had a drink before I eventually, very carefully, very slowly, grabbed the mono-pod and managed to get its full antlers into the frame before it left.

Alan got back to the lodge just after 10am and sat on the patio with me before we went for some lunch at 1pm.

I still didn’t feel well enough to head out on the night drive and at 4:15pm Alan went out again in the hope of seeing the sloth bear mother and her two cubs that he had missed on the last night drive.

This time he got lucky and although not in a great position for photography (no clear view of them during the best lighting) he managed to get some photos of them on their mothers back and climbing a tree. He also did some video of them (our regular trip report readers will know Alan and his videoing skills are a source of great comedy moments for me and I’ve tried my best to put together the few frames where Alan kept the camera still for more than a second!) Warning: take your motion sickness tablets before watching the video, lol.

Sloth bears are the only species of bear that carry their young on their back. Their long fur is easy for the cub to grip. It is thought mothers carry their young like this as a precaution against other predators, allowing her to hold off potential attackers while her young are safe behind her. The cubs cling to their mother's back even when she is digging for food or charging a tiger. They rarely change their position, with one cub riding near the neck and the other near the rump and always maintaining those positions. When alarmed the cubs bury themselves in their mother's fur!