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Elephants, tigers, and bison oh my!

Note:  This entry was co-written by Peter Leonard, Ball of Dirt Guest Writer

We traveled about 100 kilometers out to Nagarhole National Park.  That may not seem like a great distance, but with partially paved roads and herds of cattle and goat wandering in the streets it took nearly three hours before we finally arrived at the Kapila Jungle Lodge on the banks of the Kabini River. 

The main attraction here is the wildlife safaris in the jungle.  With the arrival of the monsoon rains in recent weeks, the animals have been able to wander away from the river where they have to spend much of the year.  The monsoon rains have filled up sink holes deep into the jungle letting the animals sprawl out a bit more.  The good news for the animals is that there is plenty of food and water after many months of drought.  The bad news for the visitors is that the animals are not concentrated around the river for our viewing pleasure.  Even so, we managed to spot plenty of wildlife - tons of birds (eagles, woodpeckers, peacocks), elephants, wild boar, bison, plenty of monkeys and deer, and a pack of wild dogs (which very closely resembled Luna).  No tigers or leopards though - they are shy and hard to spot.

Probably the most exhilarating part of the safari was not being five feet away from an elephant with five foot long tusks, but the roller coaster ride along these dirt trails through the jungle.  All the rain has turned the trails into a virtual slip and slide.  Even with four wheel drive the driver struggled to keep the jeep under control.  At one point the back wheels even spun out sending us crashing into a tree!  There were plenty of times when I was sure the jeep was going to flip over, but we made it back to the lodge in one piece and even opted to go out on a second safari the next morning. 

We traveled back to Bangalore to catch our flights to Bombay/Mumbai where we'll be for a few days before getting back to Delhi. 

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