India - An impressively beautiful, so different world

May 15, 2018

Part 5 from our trip to India is online.

Before we start with the big wildlife part of our trip we have a very little culture on the way through Gujarat.

Gondal

The Royal Museum in Navlakha Palace

View over Gondal

The main entrance to Swaminarayan temple complex

The white marble Shri Swaminarayan Mandir temple from 1934

The newly-built Yogi Smruti Mandir - inaugurated on 21.01.2018

wonderful sandstone carvings - amazing that say are able to do it in our days like thousand years ago

Edited May 15, 2018 by Botswanadreams

May 15, 2018

Bhuj

Prag Mahal, a palace of the 19th century in the Italian Gothic style

Durbar Hall is the main hall in Prag Mahal

We also visited the Kuch Museum in Bhuj with arts and handicrafts of the Kutch region - a very good exhibition

Nirona

Nirona, a small village that is the last place in India where the "Rogan" art, a hands-free way to draw on fabrics, is still practiced.

Handmade metal bells

It'll be continued with the Greater and the Little Rann of Kutch ...

May 15, 2018

Excellent photos. Brings back sweet memories. I also witnessed the same flower of Rogan art and the same bearded gentleman who shaped the bell from a metal sheet.

May 16, 2018

Thanks @Chakra. I know from your last report and I also know that we only visited a small part of Gujarat but you could travel more than a year through your India and couldn't see all interesting places.

Greater Rann of Kutch

Bhukhi Dam close to the village Devisar with Than Jagir temple on the mountain in the background

Seidenwürger - Gray Hypocolius (Hypocolius ampelinus) © CB Singh

Chhari Dhand Wetland Reserve

Lesser Flamingo juw. and Gray-headed Swamphen

Common Cranes in the thousands coming to there roosting place in Lake Chhari

beautiful sunset

May 16, 2018

Little Rann of Kutch

This was our last stop in Gujarat. The Wild Ass Sanctuary and the area around is home of the last 4.000 Khur in the world.

Indian Wild Ass or Khur (Equus hemionus khur)

Typical landscape in the Little Rann

Indian Fox (Vulpes bengalensis)

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

Bajana-Tundi Wetlands with thousands of water birds

Greylag goose (Anser anser)

Eurasian or Cyprus Scops-Owl (Otus scops)

Pallid Scops-Owl (Otus brucei)

More pics for this whole part 5 you can find on our homepage. You are welcome to take a look.

Next time we move on to the beautiful Kaziranga.

Edited May 16, 2018 by Botswanadreams

May 20, 2018

Welcome to Kaziranga

With a few pics here I would like to invite you to go with us virtuel to Kaziranga on our homepage.

For us it was one of the finest parks we visited in India.

This is the link.

Beautiful landscape

Hog Deer (Axis porcinus)

Brahmaputra River

Wild Water Buffalo (Bubalus Arnee)

Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus)

Sunset

Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis)

Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus)

Assam Roofed Turtle (Pangshura sylhetensis)

Swamp Deer or Barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii) with the sub-specis Eastern Barasingha (R. D. ranjitsinhi) in Kaziranga

Crested Serpent-Eagle (Spilornis cheela)

Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) with the subspecies E.M. indicus in India

Beautiful Silk Cotton Tree or Kapok Tree

The Highlight from Kaziranga: Rhinos, Rhinos, Rhinos ...

Great One-horned Rhinoceros or Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis)

A mother with baby and a bit of action

Sorry dear Rhinos for this excitement

Thanks for all the like buttons in the other posts.

Have fun.

May 21, 2018

What a fantastic photo of the Hornbill! I loved Kaziranga, agree it's one of the very best parks. And good to read you were with Tarun, is he still at Wild Grass Lodge?

Edited May 21, 2018 by michael-ibk

May 21, 2018

Nice to revisit Kaziranga with you! We also were guided by Tarun, probably the best guide for birding we've had in India, glad to see he is still at Wild Grass. Did you see any tigers there?

And I really would love to know the story behind the leopard in the cage! I wonder if (and hope) he was simply being translocated.

Edited May 21, 2018 by janzin

May 23, 2018

Thanks very much for the flowers @michael-ibk. You know the saying "Ein blindes Huhn findet auch mal ein Korn". (Even a blind hen sometimes finds a grain of corn). Birds have to be bigger, in the perfect light und cooperative for me. If not than I have always a problem with this guys. This Great Hornbill did it all for me.

Tarun was a perfect Guide for our time in Kaziranga. As Tarun told me the drivers are employed for six month at the Lodge. He works as a freelancer but mostly for Wild Grass Lodge. The problem in the last season was less oversea tourists and the Indians don't want to have a Naturalist with them. So not much work to do for him. If people like to stay in another accomodation in Kaziranga and looking for a excellent Guide he would be happy to contact him in advance for an arrangement. (Tarun Gogoi mail: gogoitarun174 (at) gmail.com or lokal phone 07002078813).

@janzin Thanks for coming with us to Kaziranga and struggle with this Google English for that. We couldn't see any Tiger in Kaziranga. On our very last hour inside the park there was a tiger crossing the road but we were a few minutes to late for that. We only heard him roaring in the forest. It was getting dark and we were far from the gate. So we had to leave the place but the sound was going away from us. Not a big issue for us.

We don't know the reason way this Leopard was transported on the road. Maybe he was catched in a village and transported to a nearby forest.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Botswanadreams

June 2, 2018

Let's start with the Tiger Reserves in Madhya Pradesh.

Pench

Landscape in Pench

A hungry Sambar

A lonely Dhole

Pench River

A Leopard a bit far away

A Northern Plains or Bengal Hanuman Langur with Baby

A tree full of Indian Flying Fox

Our first Tiger in the wild

And much more you can find ...

Part 7 is online.

June 2, 2018

oh you got leopard AND tiger in Pench! We got neither (last trip) but we still loved the park...very scenic...and we had lots of Dhole and Jackal there.

June 3, 2018

Janet, thanks very much for following us through India. Unfortunately the Leopard was a bit far behind a lot of grass and trees or lets say to far for my camera but it was amazing to watch him/her such a long time. We went back to the place at the end of this safari and he/she was still there but a little bit more behind the rock. It was also very shame that we were too late for the tigress with the nearly grown caps. The first car saw them crossing the road. We were the second. Not crowded but too late.

Satpura

The landscape is so beautiful

Gaur are the largest wild cattle on earth and wonderful animals at the same time. They are everywhere in Satpura. No Safari without seeing a herd.

A very cooperative Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis)

Dhole, the Asiatic Wild Dog

Gray Junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii)

Highlight No. 1 of Satpura: the Indian Giant Squirrel (Ratufa indica)

Highlight No. 2 are the Sloth Bears.

In the buffer zone on a Wednesday afternoon we saw a mother with two little ones. Later we got two different Sloth Bears crossing our road in front of the cars.

With max. 12 cars in the core area per Safari we never felt any kind of crowed. All guides and driver behave very nice on such a sightseeing. We loved this park very much.

More pics from Satpura are on our homepage. Feel free to click here and take a look. Thanks.

June 6, 2018

@Botswanadreams - enjoying your report. You have been to more parks in India than I have! Sounds an excellent trip ........ I think I'd like to visit Satpura later this winter.

Thanks again
Hari

June 6, 2018

Love your sunset photos!

Ginny

June 13, 2018

@madaboutcheetah Thanks for your kind comment. As I remember right you mostly spent your holidays in Africa and not in India. That's maybe the reason that you haven't been to this amount of parks in India and of course you have a few preferred places were you like to go back when possible. You'll see more in the future I'm sure.

@Ginny Thank you.

It's time to go a bit ahead with the Tiger Reserves in Madhya Pradesh.

Kanha

A male Gaur - amazing animals

Sambar in the middle of a lake. Bon appetit!

Beautiful colors

A lot of Spotted Deer

Golden Jackal

Hard-ground Barasingha or Southern Swamp Deer (Rucervus duvaucelii branderi) only be seen in Kanha.

In 1970, the population of this subspecies was down to 66 animals. The then introduced breeding program in Kanha has grow the Barasingha population to an estimated 450 animals today - last minute rescue, another Indian success story in terms of nature conservation.

A nice Tigress but the only one within fife safaris

The more pics like every time are on our homepage in part 8 of our Indian trip 2018.

Edited June 13, 2018 by Botswanadreams

June 14, 2018

As addition a short video from Hard-ground Barasingha at Kanha

June 16, 2018

Bandhavgarh

A few impression from Bandhavgarh. It is said that Bandhavgarh has the highest tiger density in the world. So we tried our luck and were happy with the result.

Plateau with the ruins of Bandhavgarh Fort

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger

Landscape Bandhavgarh

Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus)

Indian Gray Hornbill (Ocyceros birostris)

A bit more about our Tiger sightseeing in Bandhavgarh you can find in part 8 on our homepage. Feel free to click here if you like.

June 16, 2018

For all how like tiger a short video from Bandhavgarh

So this was the bigger wildlife part in the middle of our trip. It'll be continued with culture and of course we had other wildlife destinations too on the last two weeks of our tour.

June 18, 2018

Let's take a look what is Khajuraho all about. A World Heritage Site since 1986. A masterpiece of Indian Architecture and Art from the 10th to the 12th century. A place of spirituality and erotic.

Khajuraho

A few details from the beautiful carvings

And here at last one of the lot of erotic pictures were Khajuraho is famous for

The more you can find like always in India part 9 on our homepage.

June 26, 2018

Orchha

It's a beautiful little sharmy town.

Amar Mahal, our hotel for one night in Orchha

Jahangir Mahal as part of the fort

Raja Mahal

View of Orchha

Ram Raja Temple

Chaturbhuj Temple

Group of Cenotaphs

Laxmi Temple

This you can find in part 10.

June 26, 2018

Agra

Entry to the famous Taj Mahal

Without words, everybody know

Mosque in the Garden of Taj Mahal

Entry to Itimad-ud-Daula's Tomb (sometimes named Baby Taj)

Agra Fort

A bit from inside the Fort

June 29, 2018

Returned to ST after a while . I feel like going back to India tomorrow ! You had a good time that I can see. Thanks for sharing.

July 18, 2018

@Chakra Thanks very much. It makes me proud to give you the feeling like being at home with all the places I think you know much better than me. We only touched a little bit of your nature and culture rich India.

It's time to add the last captures to this trip report and bring it step by step to an end.

National Chambal Sanctuary

A lovely place for birders

Great Thick-knee