Gir - The family man trip

 

Hello friends, hope you are doing well. So, are you ready to cheer up 2026? Many of us would be thinking of resolutions to follow in the New Year, such as going to the gym, learning, giving up some habits, or eating only healthy food etc. Wishing all the best for achieving dreams in the upcoming year and wishing a very happy 2026 in advance.

The title of the story is Gir, so I am sure you must have guessed correctly that I am going to talk about the Gir trip.

Yes, the story is about Gir, but why a Family Man trip? Is there any connection with Family Man? The answer is NO, I am not talking about OTT family man, to know why family man let us visit the next section.

Family man story

As I said, there is nothing to do with OTT series, no characters like Rukma, Tiwari JK in this story😂. The story is of a common man who is a family man, and in this story, the common man is none other than the self-proclaimed family man BT 😆😆😆

So let me narrate the story of this trip and the reason for calling it a family man trip. The main reason for planning the trip was the family’s constant push. They wanted me to plan a trip to Veraval to take blessings of the family goddess (Kul Devi), which had been pending for a long time. Now family man with family pressure, with no choice, I had to plan for it.

So, with the opportunity of a long weekend in November, I planned Veraval and Somnath and smartly added Gir in the itinerary so that both a religious trip as well as a wildlife trip can happen in a single trip. Now, let me narrate what we enjoyed in the whole trip in the next section. 

Gir Lion family

We reached Somnath temple on the first day, and after that next day we took blessings from Kul Devi and then moved ahead to Sasan Gir.

The family was very happy with temple visits, and now it was time for me to visit my temple (the forest). Forest never disappoints and gives happiness much more than you expect. Let me take you through the forest now. 

We reached Gir in the evening of the 2^nd day of travel, hence it was just a relaxing time in the jungle lodge. After a relaxed time on the 3^rd day, we started with a morning safari, all arrangements were superbly planned by Nature Explorer, and help from Hitesh bhai was bang on. 

We entered the forest with a mild taste of winter with lush greenery all around; we never expected such a quick sighting, and the same knock on the door just in 15 minutes. The lion was roaring high, calling the lioness to pay attention, but the lioness was not at all bothered by the calling. We got enough time to spend with this couple and went ahead to enjoy the other part of the forest.

Now see what happens in the post-lunch session, in cricket post lunch, either you will see a lot of wickets falling or set batsmen scoring more runs. What I mean to say is that the 2^nd session, most of the time, generates more interest. You will be thinking, already we had a superb sighting in 1^st part, now what's more on the card? 

Let me tell you, the 2^nd part was a game-changer, my cub wanted to see his counter parts, I mean my son was like Is it possible to see lion kido? I told him anything is possible in the forest, but let’s not feel bad if we don’t get the kido sighting.

We started the evening session by telling various stories to keep my son’s attention away from the cubs. I was telling him my experience and why forests are important, and we should respect nature, while I was trying to keep his attention away, the guide found the cubs playing in the clutter. The major surprise was three cubs with their mother playing with each other. You can imagine, once you see the cute pictures of these kids

This was just a dream come true, to see such small cubs openly playing with their mother, just amazing and unexpected. These moments will stay forever in the heart. The family saw the lion's family, nothing more you can ask for, what a successful trip, the family was happy with temple visits, resulting in an unexpected time in the forest, difficult to describe the kind of happiness we had with this trip.

Apart from lions, we managed to see owls, eagles, crocodiles, and mongoose, and many more varieties. Do visit BT's World for captures, and help me with your feedback on btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer Team – Many thanks, team NEI, for managing the tour so smoothly. You people are rocking, keep it up.

Hitesh Chauhan, Hitesh bhai, you know Gir like your own home, your knowledge and your support were truly amazing 

BT’s World

 

Restart with B-P-P

 

restart with B-P-P

Hello friends, wish you a happy Friendship Day, you all are true friends who help me to reach milestones in the journey of blogging and photography. For this, I wish everyone....

Tum jaise wildlifer ka sahara hai dosto
Tum jaise wildlifer ka sahara hai doston,
Yeh dil tumhare pyar ka maara hai dosto,
Yeh dil tumhare pyar ka maara hai dosto,
100 baar Shukriya, 1000 baar Shukriya. 

Now let me tell you why the title is restart and the meaning of B-P-P, restart because of restarting blogging after a long gap, and restart because restarting at the same place but with an upgraded camera. 

Now let me tell you the meaning of B-P-P, this means Bhigwan-Parinche-Panvel, the place is not new for all of us, but as I said, experience and quality are different due to a new member in the kitty, my Canon R5. Hope you will enjoy the restart pictures and blog too. So let us start with the Story of BPP one by one.

Bhigwan the big one

This time, the whole trip happened without any planning. The actual plan was to visit near Chiplun, but for some reason, it could not materialize. I was excited to use the new camera, but due to the cancellation of Chiplun had no choice but to wait. But suddenly Jogi called and informed that Bhigwan is rocking and let’s go for the same, with Bhigwan we also added Parinche, which is one of the P, the difference is not far from Bhigwan, hence it makes sense to do both places together.

Let me update on how both places rocked. Firstly, update on Bhigwan. This place is God’s gift to mankind, such a beautiful place with greenery all around with offering all through the year. I have been to lots of places, but most of the places are seasonal, based on migration, but the same is not applicable to Bhigwan. All through the year, you can visit to take advantage of the different varieties.

The Monsoon magic is all about the variety of Quails, painted sandgrouse, Foxes, Wolves, hyenas, and many more. Apart from wildlife, it also offers food life, which means a typical homemade Maharashtra special meal with best of the best taste, visit BT’s world for pictures.

Parinche  

This place is primarily famous for for Vernal Hanging Parrot, but you can also find Baya, Bunting, Munias as add-ons, but as I said, prime time is parrot. Let me also clarify that parrots are different from parakeets; what you see within the city is not a parrot, but is parakeet. People are not aware of parrots and use the term " Parrot" for all parakeets. So, please see the picture of a Vernal hanging parrot to understand that parrots and parakeets are different birds. This place is located near Saswad and just two hours from Bhigwan, hence it is better to combine both places to get unique birding in one go.   

The parrots are visiting the Bajri season, which matches with monsoon, to capture parrots hanging on Bajri, even if it is windy with rain, which is amazing. Because of this hanging behaviour, the name is Vernal Hanging Parrot. 

Panvel  

Now let me update you on Panvel, though it happened after a week of Bhigwan/Parinche, but again an unplanned visit to meet the King of monsoon, OD King Fisher. Friday evening got a call from Jogi. The question was What are you doing tomorrow morning? Let’s meet early morning to join Panvel for ODFK. Within the city, plus learning about using a new camera with Jogi, it became an excellent opportunity.

The only regret of the wrong choice was that we decided to stop over at Shree Datta Snacks, the quality was not at all enjoyable. 

Now, at the end, please look at the BT’s World section to see exciting pictures of the tour, do share your feedback with me on btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer Team – Many thanks, team NEI (Vrunda and Tushar), for managing the tour so smoothly. You people are rocking, keep it up.

Agni Pankh Flamingo point for a memorable time at Bhigwan, special thanks to the Nagre family for the lovely food.

Gaurav for Parinche, keep it up, do upgrade and promote the place more and more, so that more people can visit. 

BT’s World

Fox

Fox

Wolf

Owlet

Chinkara

Painted Sandgrouse

Red Avadavat

Courser

Short-toed Snake Eagle

Barred button Quail

Rain Quail

Scaly-breasted Munia

Vernal Hanging parrot

Baya Weaver

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (ODKF)

Hoopoe

Tadoba a family Trip

 

Kya Bhool toh nahi gaye hame 😊

My apologies to all of you for taking a little more time to post something, this time it took around a year. Nevertheless, I am back with a bang, the reason for saying back with a bang is the Debut of my family to the wilderness, especially the Alpha Gen Z.

Since it was a debut trip, I had a lot of thoughts to finalize the place, the number of safaris to be done, whether early morning safaris to be done or not, whether 6-year-old kidos will be able to manage or not and many more thoughts.

So let me narrate the whole story which includes the "Action and Reaction" of a family, the trip report, and lovely memories captured during the trip. 

THE ACTION AND REACTION

ACTION

The title is Action and Reaction because “Action” is I forced the action on the family (place, number of safaris, early wake up to rush to safari, etc.), and “Reaction” is how they reacted, whether they enjoyed or not. So let's see both aspects

Firstly on the Action part, introducing the family to the forest was long pending, I was always doubtful that at the age of 6, they would tolerate a tight schedule of safaris or not. I wanted Moneeth (son) and Pranavi (niece) to get exposure to the forest so I checked with them about going to the forest instead of going to random places, surprisingly both kids got so excited and pushed me to plan the trip as soon as possible.  

It was clear that all were ready for the forest visit but the question was what place to finalize, which place to decide from the perspective of sighting, comfort, stay, food, etc, and especially sighting because both kids were crazy and excited to see the tiger. My mantra is when in doubt call Saurabh/Jogi from Nature Explorer, I had a couple of options in mind with Tadoba being the first, Jogi seconds the same, and then Tadoba I finalized.  

REACTION

The reaction was unexpected and way beyond my expectations, the reaction from elders I was aware but about kids, I was worried especially about the morning safari. For a morning safari, you need to wake up around 5.15 am and that is too with a back-to-back schedule, I thought after two safaris kids would give up and would not come for other visits, but the kids proved me wrong.

Let me tell you I am still not able to digest that both kids were super energetic throughout the 4 safaris and at no point they hinted discomfort. A couple of times I asked kiddos if they were tired and wanted to skip the morning safari, and the answer I used to get was “We will go alone if you don't want to come” 😕. This is the reaction I got, Pranavi was equally energetic, and her pet name is now “Tiggy the Tiger” 

Now both kids are asking me when we are going again. Let me give credit to elders also, other debutants were also very happy with the trip and ready for the next one.

So let us understand the reason for such a reaction, what happened that all are so happy with the trip, and who all played the role in making this trip a great success. 

Family meets family

Now let me update you on all the drama that happened during safaris, our journey started with Nimdhela zone. Last year this zone was completely dry for me so I entered the zone with very little expectation and hence was checking about probabilities in this particular zone. The guide and driver said don’t worry we will surely get something. After searching for one hour we got the information about tiger movement, we reached the spot and got a big surprise, it was none other than the King of Tadoba “Chota Matka”. The king because this Big cat is ruling the Tadoba as a king, currently holding the largest area of around 100 km and not allowing any other male tigers to enter the territory. Chota Matka is defending the territory very aggressively, in the last year it terminated 2 tigers, and the message is clear that Matka is the King. 

We saw this handsome hulk very closely, at one point I was unable to click this tiger as a full frame, it was too close for my camera to capture fully. After Chota Matka, we also got lucky with the sighting of Bala the sub-adult cub of Chota  Matka.

Now it was the 1st-morning safari for debutants, I thought kids would sleep during the safari but they proved me wrong. Now Shirkheda rocked with Kankazhari Male tiger, one the oldest and huge one, this was a lucky find because this tiger was not visible for a long time. After this Chotti Rani gave a glimpse while we were coming out from the forest.

Now third safari in the Alizanzha zone, after four tigers what all you expect, but Alizanzha zone said why I will stay behind, it surprised us with Kalva again a family member of Matak, another sub-adult of Chota Matka.  When I said we saw Matka very close, the definition of close changed when we got Kalva, it was even more closure than Matka. These tigers are very much used to vehicles and don’t bother about visitors and vehicle noise, they walk like a king and move ahead. Kalva compared to Bala looked more healthy and heavyweight and looked like he would be the next Chotta Matka. The reason I said family meets family is because my family meets Matka's family.

The last was Bellara, it was dry with no sighting but the zone is beautiful and really good to visit. When I visited last year to this zone Veera’s cubs were rocking but this time we could not find anything.

The overall trip went very well; we all enjoyed it like anything and now waiting for the next jungle trip. It was a dream come true type of trip. The big role played by Nature Explorer (NEI) in making this trip a great success. The team NEI planned this so well that everything went very smoothly. Let me also acknowledge that Chimur Tiger Resort also added a flavor of enjoyment to our trip, the food and stay were very comfortable

Now at the end please look at the DSLR section to see exciting pictures of the tour, do share your feedback with me at btwildart@gmail.com

Vote of Thanks

Nature Explorer Team – Many thanks team NEI for managing the tour so smoothly, you people are rocking, keep it up.

Drivers and guides – Many thanks for such a memorable time

Chimur Tiger Resort and Staff -  Many thanks for the lovely food and stay arrangements. 

BT Wild Art

Dils se DSLR