GIR Trip Report part 2

Thanks you so much lovely readers for the overwhelming response to part 1, now I am more charged up for part 2. We have gone through the beginning that means we started with birding and ended up with some great sighting of big cats with some extraordinary stories so it’s time to get into the climax part, the theory of  how/why/what (beautifully explained by Saurabh and religiously understood by Sagar 😂)

Part two – the beginning of the end

It was day 2 where we had 2 safaris together, many of us were beginners and we were driving on their luck. The search started for the king immediately because considering the nature of lions it will be difficult to find them once it starts warming up and the sun shines heavily. Even if you sight them at that time, you may find them sleepy and not very active. Therefore, we decided that we will first target the king sighting and once we get success we will get into evaluating the rest of the forest.

This time beginner’s luck was so strong that within 30 minutes we land up at the place where two sub-adult male lions were feasting on big buffalo. It was like God is just listing to us and fulfilling our wish in real-time. Two together feasting on big buffalo is just like dream come true sighting, both these lions were on the job, they gave us every single pose for capture. They were crossing road, sitting in the middle of the road, harping on the kill in between, again royal walk towards river and coming back head-on any many more expressions in between, it was crazy for the team to see such activities in very quick time. No one was ready to believe their luck and asking each other is this true? You will understand our feeling when you will see the DSLR section.

We enjoyed the complete sighting for around 40 minutes and move ahead to see what more we can find, the luck continued as favorable because we got one more Lion within a distance of 3 km. He was in a sleepy mood and was giving us the messages that please don’t disturb and let me sleep. We were on 7^th heaven after sighting 3 lions on the same day. What more you can demand when you see 3 in a quick time with a variety of expressions. We ended the day with a lot of memories and excitement and a lot of hope for the rest of the trip. Ab age dekhte hai ki kya team or lions/leopards dekh payegi? Toh milte hai next safari me HUM LOG 😂😅😆

The lion fight story 

We saw 3 lions in first two safaris so excitement was on high to find a leopard, so we started evening safari but it was dry with hardly few sighting of birds but no big cats, so now all hopes transferred to the last visit. It is normal human behavior that even you get everything in previous visits but still hunger will not satisfy if you don’t see anything in the last visit, this is how pressure got built on the last visit. with high hope, the last safari begins and see what all drama happened.

The moment we stared with the last safari we got the news that one lion got injured in a territorial fight, this was the same lion which we had seen during the first safari. The fight happened between 3 of them which we had sighted yesterday, they had clashed for territory as well for buffalo kill ownership. The story was very dramatic and we could relate to it because we had seen all of them yesterday. We wanted to visit the same place but it was closed for the day for security reasons and to see how many injuries suffered by lions and if they need medical support. The story gave the kick and discussions started because of curiosity, with these things in mind we moved ahead to find something either lion or leopard to finish the journey on a very high note. Let us see what happened next.

The real climax is Bhaji pala story

Now after hearing the fight-story and closure of zone, even with low scope Hitesh Bhai and Saurabh were sure that they will focus and find out something. Both of them were together to plan the last safari and decided that our 3 vehicles will stay together. Therefore, with this instruction we started evaluating the forest for the last time, the journey started and started with the key role of Bhaji Pala. 

Now the Bhaji Pala starts, our captain decided to move slowly to ensure we get some hint for the sighting because just blindly running will not help. Here the co-ordination of guides was crucial, Hitesh Bhi was very clear with his thoughts but our guide, Bhaji Pala had different views, rather you can say no views. Bhaji Pala wanted to run fast blindly with some stupid thoughts such as “you can win only if you reach first so you need to be fast” Bhaji Pala wanted us to move fast and wanted us to move away from captain’s vehicle to prove his point. 

He was testing our calmness but Sagar challenged his stupidity with his Siddhu type laughter 😂😂. Finally, I lost my temper and decided to give this joker freedom to break convoy and move fast wherever he thinks fit to move. However, the moment I gave him go ahead he got fear that what if he fails, he was not confident in his own stupidity then how Sagar can control his laughter😎 During all this drama Sagar with his one-liners was keeping the situation on a lighter side.  This continued for an hour and we were reaching the closing time, now shoulders started coming down with the end of hope as we were reaching the gate.

Now Bhaji Pala sir also realized that he has done Bhaji Pala because he was thinking that other groups must have seen a lion but we are blank. His stupid arguments still continued because of which I gave up and was angry with my own decision that why I took such a call, I shut down the camera and gave up for the first time before even coming out. 

Now the real climax came when Ankur started shouting “Leopard” even Bhaji Pala did not see as he was busy calling Hitesh Bhai to check if he had a sighting or not. We all suddenly got charged up, Ashwin was quick with camera and managed a few clicks and Mahesh as well to record it. It was lucky and nothing else no effort from anyone and leopard gave us a glimpse, now I was relaxed and happy that finally, my group turned out to be super lucky to sight a leopard and three Jackals as well to complete the journey. Picture Abhi Baki hai mere dost, let's finish what happened with the other 2 groups. 

And it’s four

Now you all must be thinking what happened with the other two groups, did the captain managed to win? Our Captain Saurabh is like Dhoni he will start slowly if it is need of the hour and will hit a four at the end. Yes, the captain turned the game and managed to see the fourth lion of the trip for the other two groups. Meanwhile, we managed a leopard they saw a lion, all three groups had the last laugh and ended the tips on an extremely high note. We all celebrated the trip with a lot of shopping at Rajkot and finally reached home with memories of our life. 

This is how we had a dramatic end of the trip, that is why the trip report is split into two parts so as you can enjoy each moment and feel to be part of the journey yourself. 

Thanks Ashwin for Leopard pic

Vote of Thanks: The blog cannot end without a vote of thanks, the contribution of each one is crucial, without which the journey is incomplete

GIR Forest department - Well organized forest, the journey was smooth, thanks for taking care of our wildlife

The Team –

Amish, Sarang, Sanjay, Ashwini, Preeti, Ratan, Mahesh, KC Subbu, Abhishek, Reshma, Hitesh, Milan, Ashwin, Ankur, Sagar (Wild card entry – star of the trip), Saurabh (wildlife expert) Vishnu (favorite of all) and Bhavesh (BT Wild Art)

Expert

Saurabh and Team Mumbai Traveler – everyone is very happy with the knowledge you shared and helped with such flawless arrangements. Cheers!

Expert Guide

Hitesh Bhai – Your knowledge and efforts are commendable, your love and passion for wildlife is just unmatched, thank you so much 

Stay and Food – GIR Jungle Lodge

Special thanks to Shree Thaker Bhojnalya for delicious Undhiyu and Thali 

A Message of the Day –

No life without Wildlife – Preserve it – Respect it – Enjoy itWildlife is Mother Nature’s greatest treasure; to protect it we must take every measure 

BT Wild Art

DSLR Section 

GIR Trip Report part 1

Lovely readers, I hope you are doing great and ready for an upcoming vacation, may Santa gives surprise full of joy to everyone. Santa's surprise will take time but I got surprised well in advance, you must be thinking how/why/what 😂. The answer is the most successful trip of 2019 with a lot of surprise sightings. 

If you remember I had promised that I will give surprise very soon, the indication was to the GIR national park trip. The trip rewarded us with a lot of surprises and turnout as the most successful trip of 2019. Hope 2020 will be more rewarding. So now let us get into the details of the trip in the next section.

Before we start let me tell you that trip report is split into two parts, the beginning of the trip and the end of the trip, both has its own excitement and uniqueness which cannot be completed in one blog hence I am starting with part 1 - the beginning.

Part 1 – the beginning

Before we get into the trip report it is important for you to know is how the trip was planned, it will certainly help you to benchmark the same for your trip planning. After the success of the Pench trip in 2018, we all wanted to repeat the experience once again with other national parks. This is how we started thinking of a place, after various discussions within the team we finalized GIR to meet Lion king This was the first step, decide the place, the next step was to ensure various bookings/permissions for an overall trip; here we handed over the matter to an expert (Saurabh and his team – Mumbai Travelers). Booking was done well in advance; it was closed around four months in advance. The third step was to be on time to travel and enjoy the trip to the fullest. Now let us move to the next section to see what happen when we reached the third step of the plan.

The execution – journey begins

I explained the 3-step theory for planning but when it comes to execution, you just need to forget everything and enjoy every moment thereon. Normally the journey starts with everyone gathering in train but I always tweak it with the addition of madness of food. Since the trip was planned to Gujarat and being Gujarati I wanted to start the journey with "Undhiyu" with this madness in mind some of us reached a special place “Shree Thaker Bhojnalay” for attacking Undhiyu to kick start the trip in true sense.

After having such a fantastic dinner we reached the station to catch the train, we spread the virus of food madness to people who could not manage to join us. So now demand came to target Rajkot station for having typical Gujju food so as they can also enjoy the flavor of Gujarat. The madness of 18 was on high, the food, the laughter, jokes, leg-pulling, etc were an indicator of the successful trip ahead.

With full Dhamal time, we reached Junagadh and then to GIR after having typical Thali and Paan. In normal cases, people prefer to take rest after a long journey of around 16 hours but we are not normal so we had planned a small birding trail to get the feel of wilderness on day 1 itself. The arrangements were in place we just need to get ready in quick time to reach before sunset so as we can get some lights to capture images. The enthusiasm of each one was on high so all were ready to reach the place quickly without keeping in mind the tiredness of train travel. I know you keen to know the experience so let us move to the next section to understand the kind of rewards we had during this trip. 

The beautiful birding heaven

As I said, we opted to start with bird trail on day 1 itself without bothering of rest because the mission was to evaluate wilderness and not the leisure trip. Hitesh Bhai our guide took us to a nearby wetland where we can enjoy and feel it as if we are in heaven. The moment we reached the Mother Nature started showering us with rewards/surprises with some great birds sighting. The list includes – Pied Kingfisher, common kingfisher, green bee-eater, Yellow Bittern (super lucky to get), Swamphen, Jungle babbler, Plum-headed Parakeet, Stonechat and above all the Water King Crocodile (5 in total)

The mood was set with the super sighting of these birds and tempo continued to see more and more birds during the safari as well. With this tempo, we could sight raptors as well. 

The lists of birds sighted during the safari are – 

Spotted owlet (my favorite), Indian scoops owl, a killer look of crested hawk-eagle, Shikra (Saurabh managed kill shots for his gypsy), Ring plover, common iora, Black Redstart female, Grey Wagtail, Grey francolin, rose-ringed parakeet, Tree-pie, Indian paradise flycatcher, peacocks, peahen and many more. We were lucky to sight somewhere around 50-60 birds, leaving you with some pictures in the DSLR section so as you can feel part of our journey.

As I said this is just the beginning of the journey, part II will be shared shortly with the King and its kingdom, so keep following the space for stories that is even more rewarding with fantastic experience, a lot of laughter, exciting stories and lovely pictures.

Vote of Thanks: The blog cannot end without a vote of thanks, the contribution of each one is crucial, without which the journey is incomplete.

The Team –

Amish, Sarang, Sanjay, Ashwini, Preeti, Ratan, Mahesh, KC Subbu, Abhishek, Reshma, Hitesh, Milan, Ashwin, Ankur, Sagar (Wild card entry – star of the trip), Saurabh (wildlife expert) Vishnu (favorite of all) and Bhavesh (BT Wild Art)

Expert

Saurabh and Team Mumbai Traveler – everyone is very happy with the knowledge you shared and helped us with such flawless arrangements. Cheers!

Expert Guide

Hitesh Bhai – Your knowledge and efforts are commendable, your love and passion for wildlife is just unmatched, thank you so much  

Stay and Food – GIR Jungle Lodge

Special thanks to Shree Thaker Bhojnalya for delicious "Undhiyu" and Thali 

A Message of the Day –

No life without Wildlife – Preserve it – Respect it – Enjoy it

Wildlife is Mother Nature’s greatest treasure; to protect it we must take every measure

BT Wild Art

DSLR Section 

Spotted Owlet

Yellow Bittern 

Shikra

Crested Hawk-Eagle

Crested Hawk-Eagle

Indian Scoops Owl

Green Bee-Eater

Pied Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Common Kingfisher

The flying machine  - Common kingfisher

Swamphen

The Water King - Crocodile

Ring Plover

Parakeets 

Grey Wagtail

Female Black Red-Start

Common Iora

Stonechat 

Khoon Bhari Mang wala Croco 😂

Teeter- Grey Francolin 

Yummy "Undhiyu" from Shree Thaker 

Thali  - Shree Thaker

Rajkot local Tava Chai

Jalebi Gathiya Rajkot specialty 

Team GIR 2019

Beautiful Blue Throat

Happy Sunday to everyone, my apology for not posting a blog on last week, due to some hectic schedule for coming one the week the schedule will hamper but rest assured you will get surprised very soon, so keep following the space.

Today I am going back to the bird world, the bird I have picked up today is not very well known to the public at large, so I thought let me bring this bird to limelight with help of our blog space. So without taking more time let us meet the beautiful Blue Throat bird. 

MAGICAL BLUE

Magical color because it's color shades on the throat is attractive in the true sense, the combination of limited color make this bird even more beautiful and valuable for photographers. Now let us learn more details of this lovely bird.

The Bluethroat is a striking, beautiful species of bird whose main focal point is its clear, bright-blue bib, which is underscored by two stripes; one rust-colored, the other black

As is typical among birds, it is male Blue throats that display more extravagant plumage than their female counterparts, whose throats do not feature this blue patch

Upperparts on both males and females are grey, while the underparts are white. And, both birds have a habit of fanning their tails, exposing a chestnut-colored patch near the tip of the tail

Apart from color details now it’s time to know more colorful I mean cool facts of this unique bird

COOL Facts

The bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered as an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It and similar small European species are often called chats 

It is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in wet birch wood or bushy swamp in Europe and Asia with a foothold in western Alaska. In India, you can find this bird at Keoladeo National Park situated at Bharatpur

The main diet of the bird is mostly insects, the other things include beetles, caterpillars, ants, sawfly larvae, crane flies and other flies, and others. Also eats spiders, plus some snails and earthworms. It may also eat berries and a few seeds, perhaps mainly in fall 

It is easy to see only while it is singing or performing flight displays. The colorful throat patch of males is prominently shown off in aggressive encounters between rivals, as well as in courtship

Do plan a visit to Bharatpur bird sanctuary to notice such jewels we have, with this note ending the blog here, do visit DSLR section to see the beauty of this bird

Learning of the day

State Bird of Arunachal Pradesh

Great hornbill –

The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) also known as the concave-casqued hornbill, great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family. 

BT Wild Art

DSLR Section