October 29th - Kanha to Nagpur

After all the excitement of yesterday we decided not to go on another early morning game drive. When those who had gone on the morning drive returned they told us that they had seen two tigers, a mother and her three year old male cub. Perhaps we should have gone! No, we are both very satisfied with our time here in India's tiger reserves and we will leave feeling that we have been very lucky to have seen such wonderful creatures in their natural setting: the Indian jungle. We had breakfast in the hotel and I couldn't resist taking a photo of the sign at the breakfast buffet!

Before we left we said goodbye to our marvellous Indian naturalist, Sanjay. He was tremendously informative on our drive through the park and he added an additional dimension to the experience of seeing tigers in the wild. Thanks Sanjay for making our stay a memorable one. Sanjay outside the Tuli Resort Hotel, Kanha.


Our drive today was only about 260 kms, a six hour drive to Nagpur. As we left the hotel John Brown had selected an 'interesting' track to lead us back to the main road. Within a couple of hundred yards we were fording streams and going through quite deep mud and water!

Then we had three hours of driving through beautiful green tropical Indian countryside with lots of children going to school. It will be one of our lasting memories of India, the children in their magnificent school uniforms walking and cycling to and from school. It never ceases to amaze us how smart the children are. English children could learn something from the way Indian school children dress! Below are some of the children going to school this morning.

We stopped by a group of boys and they were so happy that we couldn't leave without taking a photo of them.


Another sight that we have become used to seeing are women walking along the road with large bundles of sticks on their heads. How they manage to stay so upright with such large loads is a mystery to me.


We then came across a huge flock of egrets and flying foxes - fruit bats. You could see the bats landing in the trees and then hanging upside down from the branches. Here is one in flight and you can just see others hanging from the branches.


The rest of the drive was comparatively easy and we arrived in Nagpur before 3 pm. This afternoon has been spent trying to get the blog up to date and now I think it is!

Tomorrow we continue our drive south for over 500 kms to Hyderabad where we spend two nights. We are rapidly approaching the last week of the tour and neither of us wants it to end!!