In the jungle the mighty jungle, the tiger sleeps tonight.....

If you want the tiger to find you.....
Sing as loud as you can
Wear bright colours
Use lots of perfume
Make sure you get out of the car and walk through the bush

If you don’t want the tiger to find you…
Make sure you do the opposite (see points mentioned above)

It is possible that it’s not the tiger that finds you, but a bear… good luck!

Thursday 17 May

Namashkar to you all!

I said that Ramrao was supposed to come back on Sunday in my last update. Well he didn’t He showed up yesterday afternoon. So yesterday he could cook me dinner again and this morning I had a cup of tea at the Chital Shed again, since a week.

The rest of the week has been busy. Sunday and Monday worked out which activities are good for the lesson programme. Now I have to put it all in the computer, so Claudia can have a first look at it, before I start training the guys.

Tuesday Sunil, Shanoo, Samir and I went to Nagpur. That’s about 2.5 hours drive from Tadoba and I can tell you, comfortable is a word not known in India when you go from place to place in any vehicle. The roads are full of holes, there is a true sound pollution when you meet other traffic, since everyone feels that they should let you know they are there…, the heat causes for the smog to hang about in the city, and so fresh air is something different… It is quite an experience going to the city when you stayed in quiet Tadoba for a week. It feels that I have already been there much longer than that. Next week I am gone only tree weeks, but if you would tell me it is 2 months I would also believe you.

In Nagpur, which the lonely planet states as a clean city, I found that there where some very smelly places. It’s true that it looks kind of clean when you compare it to Delhi (also had some very smelly streets). Besides going to the market, getting fabric for the handicraft project, visit someone Samir knows (and the wildlife photographer form Calcutta Mr. Nihili if I am correct, was there too) and visiting Mr. Majumdar (PCCF Maharashtra Forest Department), I didn’t see many interesting sites to visit.

Mr. Majumdar was very nice. He speaks English using sentences that flow.. So nice to be able to understand what someone is saying without having to put your brain in overdrive to work out what someone means. I must say that this is getting easier too, only I have to watch out that I don’t talk back in the same way.

It was a long day. Up at 5.30, back from Nagpur at 22.30 and the heat makes you so tired. The people here normally take a rest between 12 and 3 pm, but there was no time to do so.. The nice thing from coming back this late is that I had my 2nd night safari. Sitting in the back of the gypsy watching the sky full of stars.. it’s too bad we did only see Sambar and rabbits this time. We did see tiger tracks on the in the morning, but no tiger..

Today Samir, Ramrao and me went to Nagpur to pick up my gas cylinder. Finally I can cook a meal myself. Just didn’t fancy cooking on wood, because I can see myself burning the forest down… I look forward to cook a meal with more vegetables than rice…

In the evening, Sumera knocked on my door, to ask if I wanted to come with her and Samir on Jungle round. Not a problem!! So the 2nd official jungle round for me, with enough light to see animals….Beautiful pictures again and ….on the way back, all of a sudden Samir saw something in the grass….YES my 1st tiger!!!! I am sorry to say that, since it was sunset and al, my picture of the tiger is a bit of a black greenish blur.. Shame.. By the time I had my camera setting right the tiger had disappeared in the grass of course, so for my first tiger picture you will have to wait till I see my 2nd tiger..
Next on the list, the leopard or cheetah.

Indian Buffelo

You might be wondering what some of the animals are and what the park looks like and so on. I do have taken pictures, the problem is that it takes a long time to upload them. India internet is not as fast as I am used to. I will try to put some pictures in my web album, but no promises.

Tata!

All by myself....

Fri 11 May, TATR

Last Tuesday I have been on a jungle round with Samir. We hoped to see the mother tiger and her 2 cups, but that didn’t happen. We did see Sambar, Chital (spotted dear/bambi), sloth bear (lippen beer), wild boar (ever zwijn), Indian buffalo, crocodile and monkeys. Samir will take me again, so maybe next time.

Wednesday visited Mohurly, where the SCF Office is located. Shanoo and Sunil are the managers of the handicraft project that’s situated in this office. It was nice to have a look at how and where the ladies work. Totally different than what we are used to in the Netherlands.
The ladies where rather surprised that I am not as tall as Claudia.

Getting to Mohurli is a nice story, but getting back to Tadoba even better. The bus was supposed to leave from Tadoba at 10am. It didn’t arrive till 12, because it first had to go to a wedding. Can you imagine! Connexion doesn’t show up, without notice, because the bus is needed for a wedding…

Well in India, especially in May, that seems to be a very normal event. May is the month of weddings, and when people need a bus to drive the guests, well than other people will mot be able to go somewhere, or are late.

So we (Ramrao and me) got to Mohurli and round 4 pm we were supposed to get on the bus going back to Tadoba. It didn’t show up, not an hour later, not two hours later, just not at all. In the mean time it was warm, I was running low on water, started to get hungry and felt tired. Not a perfect combination if you have to wait for a bus, without knowing if it will come, and in the case it doesn’t show, what to do?? Luckily the elephants that live in the Mohurly side of the park got their dinner, so I watched them eat. Next time I will ask if I may feed them a rice-cone. This time I decided not too, because you should safe some experiences for later…

Ramrao assured me that we would get back, since more people who needed to be back in Tadoba would be picked up later from Mohurli. Good to know. To do something about me feeling hungry, we had dinner with Ramrao’s oldest brother, who is gatekeeper at Mohurli gate from 12 midnight till 8 am. The dahl I had there was really nice. Not too strong with chilli, but some nutty taste, which I really liked.

Round 8.30 pm Samir came to pick us up in the gypsy. We then picked up his father and an other Tadoba person from Mohurli bus stop and drove on, through some villages to a very colourful house to get some petrol. The men all had some sweets, which looked really strange to me. Like dough balls, with green and orange bits in it. From here we drove to a gate on the other side of Tadoba and from there on was my 1st night safari… Spectacular, even though you don’t see many animals, I did see an owl and a mongoose (grond eekhoorn).

Yesterday was the first big thunderstorm. Rain comes down pouring, like a swimming pool is turned upside down. It was nice, but also a bit scary, since the thunder was really loud too.
Ramrao, Anusia and Komol, left in the afternoon to go to their village. Ramrao will be back Sunday, so I will have a couple of days on my own. It’s good, since I got a bit nervous with someone being around me all day, follows every move you make and is so curious that he doesn’t think that maybe some things are not meant for him to read. That might be a culture difference too. Here everyone shares and lives together and I am used to have a lot of privacy back home…

What a journey

It’s Monday the 7th in TATR

Thursday last week, I left Delhi on the AP Express first tier. An excellent train to travel a long journey, except for the many stops, of which I have no idea what they are good for and the really bumpy ride…ah and the thing that I got sick during the night. After say 21 hours I arrived at Balarshah station. That’s near Chandrapur. Some guy from the train was supposed to tell me where to get of, but he obviously didn’t. I did see the sign Chandrapur before, figured out that the next stop would probably be me and decided to get ready. One man who was in my carriage helped me with the door, since I didn’t know how it worked, and he waited until he saw Sunil, Samir and Ramrao, who came to pick me up. I thought that was really nice.

Next was dinner at Shanoo and Sunil’s place, have some chai (very milky tea with ginger) and rest a bit. After that, time to get some shopping done and go to Tadoba. With 5 people and lots of bags in the Gypsy we drove to my ghar in Tadoba.

My bed is normal height, only consisting of wooden planks ad a mattress on top of that of only 2,5 cm thick. I don’t know what’s in the mattress, but it’s almost as if you sleep on the floor. Had a sore neck the first time I woke up.

The shower is nothing more than 2 buckets of water and the toilet is like a hole in the ground. In the room I have a table and a cabinet for storage of my things. There is a van to keep the air flowing. A real necessity, since after 8.30 am, it gets really humid, with temperatures round 46-48oC.

Yesterday, Ramrao and I started translating the lesson notes from Marathi to English. It’s not always easy to understand each other, since the words and letters are pronounced different than what I am used to, and visa versa. I don’t speak English like Claudia does.

In the afternoon I decided that I wanted to see something of the park. It’s nice to sit at the house, but a bit boring… So we went down to the vip guesthouse, had a little stroll and did see a spotted deer, golden back woodpecker, giant squirrel, butterflies and finally also a crocodile.. First he was in the water, but when Ramrao came closer the croc decided to come out…I have to admit, I was a little frightened at that moment, since my lack of experience with crocs and the sign saying: “Swimming prohibited. Survivors will be prosecuted.”

In the evening Ramrao made me dinner. His wife, Anusia, was supposed to come, but she didn’t show up, because there was a wedding in her village. Maybe she will come today, if not, Ramrao will have to be my cook again. He knows not to use too much chilli, because my stomach gets upset with that. Dahl and rice (bath) are not a problem..

Well, I guess I will need a bit more time to get used to the Indian way of living. I am looking forward to the end of this month, because there is a good chance that the rain season will start. Temperatures will drop till 30oC, and that sounds nice to me. Only the snakes….

Hello from India!

I flew out of the Netherlands last Tuesday morning and arrived in India, New delhi Thursday night. The flight was ok, the films could have been better, the food was good for an airplane meal.


At Delhi airport Pintu was waiting to pick me up and bring me to the hotel where I would stay the first 2 nights. The first 2 days Pintu would be my guide and show me around Delhi. Not only nice sights that were shown, also expensive tourist shops, since taxi drivers get some money for bringing tourists to the shops and a higher percentage if the tourist also buy something. Pintu told me not to buy anything, and I did fine in the first 3 shops, but the 4th one I could not resist. Most likely paid a little too much, but I did bargain and got the price down from what it used to be.
These salesmen are really good at their job. A salesman in the Netherlands is a piece of cake to resist compare to these guys over here.

My first impression was not a bad one. I expected much more traffic, honking horns, and whatever you could think of to be there. The best thing was rain on Wednesday, since that made this day a much nicer day to be out and do something. Thursday was hot and humid again, around 43oC or so.. I don’t want to live in Delhi, but it’s ok to stay a couple of days. Just don’t look around to see all the dirt, try to look at the beauty of it all and enjoy the relaxed attitude, instead of the nasty habits that Indians have to tell other people to fuck off in Hindi..