Indian Wildlife - Trip Report

Satpura National Park

Days 13 to 16

The terrain of the national park is extremely rugged and consists of sandstone peaks, narrow gorges, ravines and dense forests. The altitude ranges from 300 to 1,352 metres (984 to 4,436 ft).

Forsyths Lodge

Eco-lodge with a unique wilderness experience on the edge of the buffer zone of the Satpura Tiger Reserve.

Rooms

 We had room 1, hot water supply controlled by a switch in room. Hairdryer, plenty of well-placed sockets. No WiFi.

Food

Food served to you at table, I had special versions of dishes containing dairy.

Grounds

We had a pond outside our room which attracted lots of wildlife. This lodge was also the best for reptile spotting!

Vehicles/Guides

Vehicles standard bench style seats, you swapped to another vehicle once across the river when in Zone 1. Lodge had two naturalist available for us.

Day 13

Drive 16 - Morning

The main zone of Satpura is located across a river. You are driven from the lodge to the crossing point and then usually go across the river in a boat, but the river was so low we crossed via a floating bridge.

 

On the other side we got into waiting vehicles and taken up to the park entry gate and into the main zone. It was quite a relaxed drive as we weren’t expecting any rushing around looking for tigers. Satpura does have tigers, but they are very shy and not habituated to the vehicles like in other national parks.

 

 

We stopped for breakfast by a stream and watched one of the mahout make thick chapatis for one of the working elephant’s breakfast. It was a nice breakfast spot and we were able to watch the elephant with its baby impatiently waiting for its meal!

 

 

Back into the vehicle we explored more of the park stopping for many birds, marsh crocodile and rhesus macaque monkeys. We had seen many macaques on our drives between the lodges but Satpura was the first national park we had been able to photograph them.

At the Lodge

Back to the lodge I wasn’t feeling too great and I skipped lunch. We weren’t due back out again until 4:15pm so Alan went out adventuring around the lodge grounds while I rested. This was the best lodge for observing wildlife between drives, lots of birds and reptiles.

Drive 17 - Night

I was still feeling unwell when it was time to go out for a night drive, so I stayed behind. Our four vehicles went to the Sehra area of the park and parked up next to a waterhole. The vehicle Alan was in kept stopping for birds so they didn’t get a good spot around the waterhole, they waited for a while, but their driver decided to go off exploring and missed a sloth bear mother and her two cubs. To say he was a little annoyed would be an understatement!

 

He did see another palm civet and this time managed to get some photos if it rather than of just a tree!

 

They got back from the drive at 8:30pm and as it was my birthday I went for dinner. We had snacks & drinks by the pool before going to dinner at 9:30pm. They had made a special non-dairy birthday cake for me which was very nice.

Continue to next page for Day 14...

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