Kanha and thence to Puri

So, after Pushkar I moved on to the Kanha jungle (aka national park) . Kanha is Madya Pradesh state, about six hours bus from Jabalpur("close", by the standards of India!).

I met up with a group of 5 Indians and shared a dorm at the park lodgings and did three days of jeep safaris thru the park together. They were very friendly and sharing the dorm room made for a refreshing change to my normal solitary habitats. On our first day-long jeep safari we saw lots of animals - birds, deer, boar, sambar etc - but unfortunately no tigers.

But this was certainly redeemed on the next day when we had a sighting of a tigress on elephant-back in the morning and then in the afternoon we were driving again through the park on a jeep safari and saw the park's second largest tiger, Banda (meaning "broken tail"), lying sleeping in the jungle not far from the road. He seemed unconcerned by our presence and would periodically raise his head to give almighty yawns that showed off his gigantic incisor teeth to best advantage. That most magical moment was when he decided the accumulating group of jeeps was becoming tiresome and he stood up to reveal his 300 kg. bulk and then sauntered off into the jungle.

Even better was the third and final day in the park when a tigress paced out from the long grass and crossed the road just 10 metres in front of our jeep. My hand didn't shake enough that it stopped me getting some great footage on the sony handycam.

So, then I left my Indian friends and went my separate way via a long train journey(s) and so
I'm in Puri on the Orissa coast now. I'm enjoying the sun and sea, but feeling somewhat travel-weary. Fortunately, I've met some nice tourists here, but the "trip to the east" is def. undergoing a loss of momentum.

Let's hope this condition is temporary!