Bird Sighting Video (Both Kanha and Pench combined):
Day 1:
Drive from (Home) Hyderabad to Pench
Distance: 620 km
Time Taken: 04-18 AM to 12-51 PM (8 Hours 33 minutes Including breaks)
Place of Stay: Taj Baghvan Pench
Refueling Stats:
Day 2:
Morning Nature Trek with Naturalist Nikita
Drive from Pench to Kanha (via Seoni, Nainpur, Baihar)
Distance: 215 km
Time Taken: 10-40 AM to 3 PM (4 Hours 20 minutes Including breaks)
Place of Stay: Taj Banjar Tola Kanha
Day 3:
Morning Nature Trek with Naturalist Gurunath
Evening Safari to Khisli Zone
Day 4:
Morning Safari to Khisli Zone
Evening Nature Trek in Taj Banjar Tola property with Naturalist Jaya Rakesh
Day 5:
After Breakfast Drive from Kanha to Pench (via Balaghat, Rampayli, Sitalgarh)
Distance: 205 km
Time Taken: 08-38 AM to 12-38 PM (4 Hours exact including breaks)
Place of Stay: Taj Baghvan Pench
Evening Safari to Route 2
Refueling Stats:
Day 6:
After Breakfast Drive from Pench to Hyderabad (HOME)
Distance: 628 km
Time Taken: 08-00 AM to 3-37 PM (7 Hours 37 minutes Including breaks)
Refueling Stats:
Some reviews and feedback about our Place of Stay:
Taj Baghvan Pench: Overall the experience here was on the better side, when I compare it with Banjaar Tola Kanha. Some good aspects about Pench which we liked a lot are as below,
- The food was very good (rather very good)
- The rooms were comfortable, relaxing and felt luxurious, a very good feeling indeed
- The property itself was indeed very good to do some casual birding at any time of the day
- The staff were courteous enough, it would not be fair if I don't mention Shyam who was waiting on us at the restaurant. A great guy indeed and we loved interacting with him.
- We loved to spend time with Nikita on the safari as well as on the morning trail. She is passionate about her job and that's the best quality one can ever have, everything else will fall in line with age.
Taj Banjaar Tola Kanha: I will be very honest here, the reputation of Banjaar Tola is now only a myth. It might have bene good at some point in the past but now most things about the place has gone from bad to worse. I will first list down the good things that we liked about Banjaar Tola followed by the not-so-pleasant experiences. And I would like to mention that we are not beginners here, we have stayed in multiple 5-star properties and we have seen enough 5-star jungle resorts to know what is good and what is bad.
So here are some good points about Banjaar Tola:
- Naturalists at Banjaar Tola are just exceptional. We spent our time with Gurunath and one small session with Jaya Rakesh. Both were awesome. Even though they spend 95% of their time for the tigers, yet Guru was really thorough with the birds. For us that came as a pleasant surprise and we enjoyed every moment we spent with him.
- They were good enough to arrange exclusive jeep for us even though we didn't specifically ask for it. When they realized we were bird watchers, they took that that decision themselves and it was a wonderful gesture.
- The property is huge and one can do some amazing birding within the property itself.
Now, I will mention those points that literally killed my experience in Kanha and left a very bad taste at the end.
- THE FOOD. I feel sorry to see the state of affairs here. The head chef was absolutely pathetic, I will avoid naming him here but we stayed at the west-end and I understand the chef is different for both the locations. Maybe the east-end has a better chef. But this one at west, was one of the worst that I have seen in my entire life. His dishes were completely crap and we detested everything that we ordered. After talking to him we realized he was a native of Nepal and has spent numerous years in Taj working at different locations. I'm surprised that he still is associated with Taj after all these years without even performing well. I don't know what does Taj management like about him, his food tastes completely out of place. C'mon Taj, you can't just keep underperforming people in your team just like that.
- The security guy at the west end parking was trying to terrify us when we were going birding on foot inside the property. He was talking all stuff like don't go very far as tigers roam inside the property too. When we checked with Guru, he clearly told us it is totally safe before dark. I don't understand why somebody would discourage the guests to walk on foot and enjoy the property.
- It is not luxurious any more. The tents that they have set-up are now old, worn out and even having molds in some places. Yes, the antiques kept inside the tent is good, but overall the stay is nowhere luxurious. I have seen better jungle luxury before.
- Those days have gone, when Banjaar Tola was considered something unique. Now it is only a cash cow which is running on its old reputation. I would say, find another place of stay if you want to visit Kanha.
After all these good and bad experiences, it is the birds which always take precedence. And we are lucky that we talk about them more than anything else.
