BIRDING - DRIVING - SOUL-SEARCHING

How did it all start?

In 2006 when I finally fulfilled the 25-year-old dream of owing a car, life took a turn for good. I was madly deeply and passionately in love with my car and did everything to spend more and more time behind the wheels. That is how the DRIVING thing started. Moreover, my first job was into field-sales and that was another reason which catalyzed my passion for driving. Before I knew, I was already making those long driving trips across the various states of India.

In 2010, another life altering incident happened. I got married! Call it luck or call it destiny, both of us were interested in nature and all our vacations started happening around nature-oriented locations. We did love wildlife and maybe that was the reason why we went to Jim-Corbett National Park in 2012 but we were definitely not birders then.  

In 2013, we decided to take a vacation which was a combination of both wildlife and a long drive. We decided to go to Gir National Forest, Gujarat and planned to drive all the way up from Hyderabad. It was the month of April, and in some way that worked to our advantage. The forest was all dry and naked and one could see right through the dense foliage without any problem. We stayed in Taj Gateway for 5 night and took safari drives for both Morning and evening, everyday. Incidentally, we spotted the pride of the Lions, right at the beginning of our trip. Now we still had 4 more days to go and numerous safari drives at our disposal. Luckily, we were staying in Taj and their naturalists are one of the best you could find in India. Since we already spotted the Lion, so now the naturalist started showing us the BIRDS. Here comes the life-altering role of a naturalist. They keep telling us about various things, plants, trees, birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, etc. We may or may not be interested in everything they say, but some of those things might catch the attention and curiosity of people like us and it might turn us into what we are today. We can never be grateful enough to the Taj Gir naturalists to convert us into the hard-core birders that we are today. It was that trip of Gir that converted us from nature-lovers to bird-lovers and we were officially baptized as BIRDERS.

Although, after crossing the 800 life-list milestone, the huge craving for birding has come down significantly for both of us. We are now quite content with the birding that we have done so far. We decided that from now onwards we will not be going on core birding specific trips any more, instead we would try to go for leisure trips in India and abroad. This way we can start building memories and experiences for our old age too. I'm not very sure, how long will I be able to continue to drive. I'm not getting any younger every year and driving in India is not always the best experience too. However, till the time I have this passion intact and if my body keeps supporting me for these long drives, I'm going to continue doing it. After that it will only be leisure trips at luxurious stays combined with some casual birding. 

What a great way for SOUL-SEARCHING isn’t it?

Drive and Photography - Panna National Park

Hyderabad – Nagpur – Panna – Nagpur - Hyderabad 

Trip Summary: 

Day 1:
Hyderabad (Home) to Nagpur 
Distance: 510 km 
Time: 7 am to 1-30 pm (6 hr 30 min) 
Toll: Rs. 985 
Overnight Stay: Le Meridian Marriott Nagpur 
Day 2:
Nagpur to Panna 
Distance: 501 km 
Time: 7-50 am to 3-15 pm (7 hr 25 min) 
Toll: Rs. 680 
Overnight Stay: Taj Pashan Garh Panna 
Day 3:
Morning safari (Hinota zone) and Evening Safari (Hinota zone) 
Overnight Stay: Taj Pashan Garh Panna
Day 4:
Morning Safari (Madla zone) and Evening Safari (Hinota zone)
Overnight Stay: Taj Pashan Garh Panna
Day 5:
Morning Safari (Hinota zone)
Overnight Stay: Taj Pashan Garh Panna
Day 6:
Panna to Nagpur 
Distance: 486 km 
Time: 8-40 am to 3 pm (6 hr 20 min) 
Toll: Rs. 680
Overnight Stay: Le Meridian Mariott Nagpur 
Day 7: 
Nagpur to Hyderabad (Home) 
Distance: 509 km 
Time: 7-50 am to 1-50 pm (6 hours) 
Toll: Rs. 985

Here is the total trip report from the car MID. 

Car: Audi A4 35 TFSI Technology (Petrol)

Full Trip Report

Day 1: 

The check-in time at the Nagpur hotel was 2 pm and I knew it will be taking me around 6 hours for this trip, so there was no point in leaving early in the morning. I left after breakfast from Hyderabad and exit Hyderabad wasn’t a problem as I prefer to leave via Outer ring road. 

The road condition is great until Telangana, but once you enter Maharashtra, the road condition really worsens for a good stretch of 50 km or so. Although I had enough fuel in the car by the time I reached Nagpur, but I still got the refueling done just before reaching Nagpur so that I shouldn’t be wasting time next morning, as the drive next day was supposed to be a longer one. 

Checked-in at Le Meridian Marriott, thinking I will get standards close to Taj, but I was shocked to see the level of service. I booked the suite room and the plaster from the wall was falling out. The room had mold and damp. I’m not sure how can they pass on this kind of room in a 5 star property. 

Day 2: 

Early morning breakfast experience was terrible once again at the Marriott. They gave the time as 6-30 am to be starting the breakfast, unfortunately, none of the staff and the breakfast counters were ready even until 7. It was horrible to find this kind of slow service. I ordered for an omlette from the live counter and I had to leave the breakfast when it did not even turn up for the next 30 minutes. I reminded the staff too, but 30 minutes was too much for me to wait on a day when I’m going to be driving for another 500 km. 

While going from Nagpur to Panna, one must take the exit before Katni. I made the mistake of following google maps to enter Katni, which resulted in a good lot extra 45 minutes driving time for me. Got the refueling done just after Jabalpur so that I have enough fuel to reach Panna and come back to Nagpur. 

Finally reached Taj Panna at 3-15 pm, and right at the moment we reached, it started raining like cats and dogs. I was expecting it as per the weather forecast, and I was also hoping it doesn’t continue until the nxt day as I had 5 safari drives lined up after that for the nxt 3 days. 

The rooms at Taj Panna are just magnificent. I can safely bet, I liked them better than Pench, Kanha and even Bandhavgarh. Best stay experience by far. The food was also top notch, Vikram ji the head chef there, is a champion cook. I particularly liked the soups and the continental. Sanath ji in Badhavgarh, however was the best of all. 

I must state here, that Taj does not provide wifi connections in the rooms. The only mobile network that works fine is Jio, Airtel is virtually dead. So if one plans to catch up on the work front, it is indeed very difficult. I would request Taj to start thinking regarding this and start providing wifi to their guests. In today's era and time, internet is a necessity and not a luxury any more. I get the concept of digital detox, but please don't force that detox down our throats, we are mature adults to know and decide if we need that detox or not. 

Day 3: 

Karun ji introduced himself as my naturalist who would be with me for the next 5 safari drives. He is a god person to be around, might be a good naturalist for most people but for me he wasn’t that great with birding. Ramesh ji from Badhavgarh was class apart, no doubt. 

The safari drives were super successful on all the days. 

I did try a lot for Hyena and Leopard, unfortunately it wasn’t my luck. Tiger was far easy to sight even though I was not even trying for it. 

Here are the pics from the morning safari drive. Never realized that I would have such amazing luck with tiger sightings that in the first 30 minutes that we entered the park on my 1st safari of 1st day, we were greeted with such beautiful show by the Tiger and the Tigress. 

Enter the park and the beauty of the landscaping of Panna just mesmerizes you to the core of your heart. 

Early morning safari drive

This was the first time in my life that i could manage to click both male and female tiger in the same frame. Not to mention it was a photography challenge in itself (only photographers would know). If the camera focusses on the tiger which is in the front, the other tiger loses focus because of the shallow depth of field in f/4 lenses. So i increased the aperture to f/16 so that i could get both the tigers in focus. But the challenge with f/16 was that, it early morning, sun was still not out, the light was really struggling at f/16 and the ISO was shooting very high even at 1/500 shutter speed. So as to avoid the luminous noise in the photo, i had to decrease the shutter speed till 1/40. Now comes the nxt challenge, the tiger at the back was actually walking towards us and at 1/40 shutter the motion will get blurred. It was a huge challenge to get this photo, but i somehow managed to click it just like i wanted it. 

 

Same was the case here too, both the tigers were at different depth of field and i had to shoot this photo at f/25 aperture, 1/40 shutter, to somehow keep the ISO within manageable limits. 

It is also very hard to get eye-level shots of tiger, siting in the jeep. but this one i managed to keep the camera low enough to shoot at eye-level. 

This one again is a tough shot to get in a safari, considering we are sitting in a jeep at an elevate angle and most of the times the tiger is at a lower angle than us. However this was one occasion where the tiger was at an angle which was highr than us, maybe that's why this shot looks so good. 

Until i clicked the below pic, only once in my lifetime i got a chance to see and click a painted francolin. Last time it was the male, this time technically it was a lifer of female for me. 

Painted Francolin female

There cannot be a better shot of Grey Francolin than the one that i clicked at Hampi. Even then it is always good to see this bird in the wild. 

Grey Francolin

Langur

Langur

Indian Jackal 

Black Stork 

Deep gorges of Panna

After a lengthy morning session because of the tigers, our breakfast time got delayed. Apparently, there is no breakfast point inside Hinota zone. On the other hand, Madla zone has 2 breakfast points. We finally had our breakfast post around 11 am at the Hinota gate. So if you plan to have breakfast, either it will be at Hinota gate, which is not that scenic, the other point neart the Ken river is rather much better. This is one of the only national parks where once you enter the forest, you can go to any zone that you like. Hinota zone is mostly on the top part of the plateau. Madla zone takes you to the lower end of the plateau. Madla zone is mostly very busy with 30 jeeps entering from there almost every day. Entry from Hinota , on the other hand, is easier as hardly 4-5 jeeps are allowed to enter from there. Once you are inside, you are free to go to whichever zone you want. If at all you want to go to the Ken (Karnawati river side) then it is best to enter Madla zone. From Hinota, that area will take about an hour to reach. 

Some pics from the evening session are here. 

Got the red-headed vulture, but once again only a flying shot like last time. Did not get a perched shot until now. 

Red-headed Vulture

Indian Vulture and Himalayan Vulture, both of them i got flying shots as well as perched shots. 

Indian Vulture

Himalayan Vulture

Himalayan Vulture

Tried a lot, searching the slender-billed but it was nowhere to be seen. I'm sure if we had Ramesh ji (from our Badhavgarh days) , he would have definitely spotted it. 

HimalayanVulture

Indian Vulture

Himalayan Vulture

White-eyed Buzzard 

Black Stork 

Sambar female

Although March 1st week was very late for the migratories, even then we managed to see this pair of Common Teal which was still waiting in India before starting its journey back to Siberia. 

Common Teal male and female

It is always good to click a bird in good light with clear bokeh, even if it is a very common bird like the Green Bee-eater. They always stand out with their vibrant colors. 

Green Bee-eater

Overall a super successful first day of safari drives. Got some beautiful sightings for both mammals and birds. Two drives in on eday is very tiring, but i was looking forward to the next day in anticipation as tomorrow I had a drive from Madla. 

Day 4: 

Today the morning safari was through Madla zone. Straight away the beauty of Ken river comes in front of you, not many safari drives in India have a proper flowing river through the forest. This adds to the beauty of the forest and also helps in the sighting of some amazing crocodiles. Until a few years ago, the forest officials also allowed for the boat safari inside Madla, but now it is stopped owing to the risks in operating tourists through that crocodile infested river. Hope they start that again. 

Ken (Karnawati) River

These Lesser Adjutants were very far, on the other side of the river, some were strolling near the crocodiles which were basking on the bank. 

Lesser Adjutant

At the breakfast point near Ken river, there is a spot which is perfect to click the wire-tailed swallows in flight. Especially during the morning hours, before 9 am, the sun is right at your back and the swallows are at your eye level, in front of you, the most ideal condition for perfect flight photography. Now the only challenge is that you need to track these super fast flying birds in your camera, focus and click. any bird photographer would know how difficult it is, but mirrorless cameras make life super easy, compared to the DSLRs. I was using Canon R5 with Canon 400mm f/4 prime lens. It did not take me much time to click these flying beauties, thanks to the eye-tracking capabilities of R5. Photography is so simple since mirrorless came in my life. 

Wire-tailed Swallow

Wire-tailed Swallow

Wire-tailed Swallow

Painted Sandgrouse male

Painted Sandgrouse female

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Crested Hawk Eagle (juv)

Savanna Nightjar

Mugger Crocodile

Evening safari was again through Hinota, but we went once again to the Madla zone. Since we already spotted the tiger show on our first drive, our focus was not into tigers any more. We were on the lookout for Hyena and leopard, which unfortunately eluded us on this trip. 

Nevertheless, birding always happened and I really got some great shots of mammals and reptile too. 

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Black Redstart male

White-eyed Buzzard with a snake kill

Mugger Crocodile

Mugger Crocodile

Indian Gazelle - Chinkara male

Indian Gazelle - Chinkara male

Rufous Treepie on Sambar

Black Eagle

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Overall a perfect ending to the second day and the forth safari drive. Tomorrow morning I have the fifth and the last safari drive, with only one objective, that is to track and click the Hyena and Leopard. 

Day 5: 

The naturalist, guide, driver, everyone was informed about my singular objective to click the Hyena and Leopard in today morning safari drive. We did give the best we could, but as luck would have its play, both were elusive and I could not click. Even though there was another guest who entered the park an hour later, and could still manage to see the Hyena. Wildlife is all about luck, all we can do is give multiple chances to see if luck comes our way. I tried in 5 different safari drives, but didn't happen this time around. 

Here are the pics from fifth safari in the morning hours. 

Nilgai male

Wish the pair of plum-headed were perched at the eye level, it was such a beautiful behavioral moment. 

Plum-headed Parakeet male and female

White-bellied Minivet male (lifer)

White-bellied Minivet male (lifer)

4-horned Antelope female Chowsingha and calf (lifer)

4-horned Antelope female - Chowsingha 

4-horned Antelope female - Chowsingha

The national park is only open for the morning hours on Wednesday and the evenings are closed. However, Karun ji our naturalist was kind enough to give us some time in the evening hours too and he took us around in the property and as always, I got the best ever shot for the Wild boar pack. They were so aggressive that the entire family was charging towards our jeep. So a wonderful end to the evening session on Wednesday too. 

Wild boar pack

Day 6: 

Time for checkout. Today was the first day that we had breakfast at the hotel, until today we were always having it inside the forest, called the BB (Bonnet Breakfast). 

Checked out around 8-30 am and reached Nagpur hotel by 3 pm. Did not require to refuel on the way, this is one big advantage of having a car with 54 litre fuel tank. Once again reluctantly, checked in Le meridian Marriott Nagpur. Had a terrible experience once again. They offered us a room that was having warnish finish on the furniture that did not even dry out completely. That is so unacceptable. Next time if i have to visit Nagpur, I'm sure i will stay at Radisson Blue. I wish Taj had a hotel nearby the airport. 

Day 7: 

Checked out after breakfast and reached Hyderabad home before 2 pm. Refueling done at Nagpur exit and then a non-stop drive till home for 6 hours. Luckily no untoward driving incident happened, except one close call because of an idiot driving on the road. Other than that, a successful end to the trip, in terms of driving, birding, wildlife and photography.