Birding ! Driving ! Soul-searching !: January 2025

Pench National Park: Trip 2 (January-2025)

There were a couple of marriages to attend, one in Uttarakhand and the other one in Kolkata. Uttarakhand one was on 03rd February-25 and the Kolkata one was on 03rd March-25. The logical mind would say, take a flight to both the locations as one is in north India, the other in East India and I live in south India, alas that’s not the case with me. I saw it as a wonderful opportunity for a long drive.

In 2023, I already did the Hyderabad to Dhanachuli (Uttarakhand) trip so the route wasn’t new for me. However this time, situations were a little different than they were a couple of years ago. I wasn’t alone this time around, my mom was joining me on this whole trip. Secondly, because of the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj, I cannot take the same route that I took last time, via Jabalpur. I had to find an alternative route. Moreover, I cannot just take one night halt between Hyderabad and Lucknow, since mom was with me, I had to take 2 night halts. Last time I took a halt in Jabalpur. So I started contemplating, looking at the possible options in google map, and the idea just stuck me like a flash. “Why not do jungle safaris on the way, that way we won’t feel the long drive like a job, it will be more like a vacation”. And that’s how the plan got conceived.

Day 1, we will drive from Hyderabad to Pench National Park, stay at Taj Safaris in Pench for 1 night, take the afternoon safari in Pench.

Day 2, after breakfast, we will drive from Pench to Panna National Park. Stay at Taj Safaris in Panna for 2 nights.

Day 3, take morning and evening safari in Panna

Day 4, after breakfast, drive from Panna to Lucknow.

Day 5, take rest in Lucknow

Day 6, drive from Lucknow to Dhanachuli and stay there for 15 days.

Got all the bookings done for both Pench and Panna, luckily managed to get the rooms and the safaris as per my liking, even though I booked it only a month in advance. Taj safaris have only 12 cottages in their property, so booking is usually not that easy. I guess I was lucky to get these bookings on time. Taj helps you book the safari from their end, so we don’t need to worry about that part, and they always manage it perfectly. I never had any complains, whatso ever.

The drive from Hyderabad to Pench was almost uneventful, until we crossed Nagpur. There was a terrible accident on the National highway and the entire highway was blocked with traffic for more than a stretch of 5 km. We had to reach Pench before lunch so that we could finish our lunch and leave for the safari. It was constantly playing in my mind, that any delay on the highway will make me miss the safari drive that afternoon. So, I started referring the map of north Nagpur and tried to figure out an alternate route that could take me past that traffic jam. Finally managed to drive through the outskirt villages of North Nagpur and got a chance to skip and go ahead of that blockade. It took me an additional 45 minutes I guess, but it was much better than getting stuck in that traffic for who knows how many hours, and end up missing the safari that afternoon.

Left Hyderabad: 5-15 am
Reached Taj Pench: 2-15 pm
Total driving time: 9 hours (It could have easily been 8 hours if we didn’t face that unfortunate traffic problem on the highway)

We were just in time for lunch and exactly on time for the afternoon safari. In my usual experiences, the morning safari is always more fruitful than the evening one. However, this time I was completely surprised to see the activities even on the evening safari. Both in Pench and Panna. I will talk about Panna in my next post, but here is what we saw in Pench, in just a single afternoon safari. Our guide on this drive was Erik Thomas, a wonderful fellow, who was a pro shotput player from Dehradun. His passion about wildlife brought him to Taj. He was a new addition to Taj team, but we had a great time with him. I mentioned to him before the safari that we are not here targeting the tiger, instead we will be more than happy if he can help us see birds and any other wildlife in the forest. If we get the tiger, well and good, but we won't be wasting our time chasing it. He happily obliged to our request and we managed to see some amazing wildlife in a matter of couple of hours. At this stage of my life, I won't be finding any lifers so easily, but if I manage to get a beautiful photograph of a bird, which is sharp and in focus, in a good light, I guess that itself gives me such immense satisfaction, it's worth every penny you spend.

I have clicked the Stork-billed many time before, but this pic turned out to be the best for me. Perfect angle, perfect light, perfect bokeh, the bird was not even very far, and a clean subject with a clean frame. What more can you desire.

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Lesser Whistling Duck

Indian Grey Hornbill

I have never seen the Crested Serpent Eagle on the ground and that too near a water body. This was an exception I guess.

Crested Serpent Eagle

This is always a difficult bird to spot it for the first time, but once you know the location then it will be super easy to spot it every other day, as it usually doesn't change its roosting location unless disturbed.

Sykes's Nightjar

Green Bee-eater

My luck with leopard sighting hasn't been very good until now. Every time i saw it, it was always behind the bushes, or on top of the cliff, never got a good and clear sighting. There was a cheetal kill everyone came to know about and most probably it was a leopard kill. We all saw the cheetal kill but the predator was nowhere to be seen. The crows were not even bothered to come near, so we took a guess that maybe the leopard is somewhere near but out of our visibility angle. While our jeep was standing near that kill, all of a sudden the leopard popped out its head. Maybe it was trying to watch us and guess if we were a threat for its food or not. It saw us for just a couple of seconds from behind the tree, the guide told me that he could see the head, I saw the head through my viewfinder and managed to get that one elusive shot. And then it was gone. Just 2 seconds of fun, 1 second to dial the settings, autofocus and click. I had the best shot of a male leopard till date. Who would know that in the next 48 hours, in Panna i will be jumping with joy about the leopard click of a lifetime. But that post will come in my Panna page, for now this male leopard was itself a treat to watch.

Leopard male

With this our safari drive ended for the evening, a very successful one. Predator sighting always adds an icing on the cake. I was already content with the Kingfisher shot that I got, leopard was a bonus for me that day.

After a safari drive, coming back to that exceptional luxurious accommodation in Taj pench just adds to the overall experience. The accommodation is very nice, I would even go the extent of saying that out of all 4 Taj Safaris, the Pench property is the best of all, if i only consider the cottage in itself. The bedroom and washroom are separated by an open air walkway. There is a bed on the terrace also but on both my stay occasions I prefered to stay inside the AC room, although the charm of sleeping in the open surrounded by only wilderness, could be enticing for some. Nevertheless, the rooms are very well maintained and there is an open air shower area too, which is connected to the washroom, that adds to the beautiful jungle experience.

Trip 1: March-2021

The details of this trip can be found in this post, however I will post the pictures that we clicked during that trip here as well.