Eye of the Tiger

We had originally planned to stay two nights at the Khajuraho temples, but we figured being a day ahead was only a good thing so decided to move on the following morning, plus if needed it gave us an extra day at the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve. The ride to Bandhavgarh was supposed to be 300km but it ended up being 450km, this is a little down to maps not being correct and a little down to Cat “having a good idea” half way there so we ended up going a lot further than needed.






We’re starting to notice two types of roads: fantastic bit of beautiful road that puts a smile on your face as you waltz along at 100kph, or busy pot holed dusty roads with a fair amount of traffic and lots of lorries and buses! We saw today how bad these roads are from a danger point of view - we photographed 4 smashed up trucks which had all had either head on or rear end collisions. That’s 4 separate incidents on 120km stretch of road!!! This said I do feel a lot safer after having a few days to get used to it, and (bar the shadows cast from the trees over the road which hide pot holes in the afternoon and has therefore put a small dent in my front wheel) I’m a lot more comfortable than when I first started.






We arrived at the Bandhagarh tiger reserve and expected a fairly big place with lots of tourists, kind of like Chitwan in Nepal, but instead we were greeted with a small dusty town with a couple of shops and fruit sellers, no independent bars or restaurants, and about 10 hotels/resorts. Again the searching began and again we found a place for under £5 a night. We booked in and went straight away to see a “tour agent” to book our trip in the reserve for the morning. This is when we met an Israeli guy called Yaron, he is a professional photographer and had been out 8 times already and seen only glimpses of tigers twice. He was looking for other people to travel with him in the jeep to keep the costs down, and he was keen to go to the second area which was much cheaper. So after a chat we agreed to meet him and his driver at 6.00am the next morning.

It was an early and cold start but the driver turned up 5 minutes early which I actually like, we went straight off and sorted the permits and were soon in the park. Now, I like my nature, bird, deer and everything else and I soon came to realise why this was a “tiger hunt”, because they only ever wanted to stop very briefly to see anything else! But to be honest I cannot complain as after about an hour we got to see a huge male tiger! Not only did we see him in the bushes, but he walked onto the track in front of us. He wandered around the jeeps for a bit, then headed into the long grass. Our driver was very good – he drove around to try to cut the tiger’s path from the other side, and then we got another good 20 minutes show.

It’s something else to see one of these in the wild, and I feel very lucky to have been able to do it let alone see one on our first outing. They are big and powerful and they look every bit the big cat you imagine. When you go to the zoo you get a good idea of the animal but it’s just not the fit healthy strong beast you see in the wild! We were very pleased and so was Yaron who said we were very lucky and to be honest we are often very lucky like that. Pleased with our success, we decided we would move on the following day so again we got another day in the bag to stay somewhere else.

This time we headed to Kanha, another national park and tiger reserve but it was supposed to be one of the more beautiful ones. It was about a 350km day, again on some roads which I would have happily been riding my fireblade, and some which were dust, rocks and pot holes with trucks passing past us. It was a total mixed bag!! Cat rode in the morning and did the first 40km until the road started to get a bit more complicated and we hit a big town, but she did learn some cow-manoeuvring. (I actually really enjoy riding, but I’m happy to let James do most of it! From my little experiences, I have developed such a great respect for his skills, reading of the road, and control of the bike even when i’m moving around on the back!).

I hit a cow with my pannier at one point, there was a big group of cows and I was making my way through when one stepped backwards and got a bit of a clump on its leg. I didn’t stop as it was not that hard and the cow seemed fine. Some of the roads today were really nice, we are discovering that a lot of the “State Highways” are better maintained than the National Highways, which are very hit and miss, more miss really!!

We arrived in a Kanha and found two towns near the park gates, Khatiya and Mocha. We rode around for 1 and a half hours looking at hotels but we could not find anything for less than 1000 rupees a night (£12) which is not huge amount but it is for India especially when we are trying to get by on less than £40 a day between us including fuel and accommodation (and managing to, so far!). Anyway just as we picked a place another English guy came over and started chatting with me while Cat was sorting our room. I thought he was another guest but it turned out he lives here. His name was Steve, and he and his wife Elaine spend the winters here and summer in the UK.




We chatted for a bit and he asked where we had been etc and then he invited us to stay with him at his place down the road. I was keen and Cat came back just as he was about to go (he didn’t want the hotel to cotton on to him stealing customers!) and got a brief introduction. I told her his offer, but she was tired and dusty and just wanted to settle plus she had some laundry to do and didn’t want to feel like she was taking the piss. So I quickly unpacked the bike and then went to meet Steve and explain the situation. He was fine with it and said he understood and invited me back to his place for a cup of tea so I went.

Their place is beautiful, I also met Steve’s wife and we had a good chat for over an hour. He is a big fan of the tigers and that’s why they got a place out here, and by the time I left had planned to go back there tomorrow for a cuppa tea in the morning with Cat in tow. Once I got back to the hotel Cat was a little worried as I was out for over an hour and it was now dark, but she had got chatting to an English couple from Bristol and an American couple from Utah.

We and the English couple then decided to go for a bite to eat round the corner at a vegetarian restaurant (most of India is vegetarian, to my mates who just raised an eyebrow). It was a nice evening and we sat and chatted, they had been travelling in Africa for 7 months and were now in India for 3 months. Africa sounds very interesting and possibly the only place more backwards and crazy than here. We ordered some food and Cat’s “Indian food translation” list which she was given in Nepal from a fellow traveller proved to be very handy, and the food itself wasn’t bad especially when you think 4 of us ate for £6 total!!!

The next day we woke early, got some food inside us and chatted with the really friendly Americans before we headed off to meet Steve and Elaine. The plan was to pop round and have a cup of tea but we ended up having a fantastic day in their company. We chatted about work among other things and found out Steve used to run a successful company in England and that he had retired (kind of) about 10 years ago.

We met his security and helpers and in the early afternoon decided to go for a jungle walk along some of Steve’s favourite routes. It was really nice to be out in nature and taking in some of the amazing views. We did see lots of birds, some deer and the mighty kingfisher and India roller (please google this bird to understand just how beautiful it is, especially in flight). We had some river crossings thrown in and it was just a very pleasant day and great to hang out with other English people and have some relative normality.

After the jungle walk Elaine invited us to stay for dinner and cooked a great butter chicken. It was really good and again we chatted more and found about a lot about some of the electrical restrictions which they have to adhere to and how if the local government feel they use too much they can just walk in and take electrical items from their house, even though they pay their bills in full and on time!! We also found out about poachers and how it’s still a problem and that the park is now a lot harder to get into as well as a lot more expensive and it’s having a bit of a negative effect on tourism, which apparently, is what the authorities WANT! It was a very insightful day and finished with us taking a tour of a new resort close by that had a great restaurant where we had a .

The following day we had decided to do an afternoon safari. Steve had come up to our hotel as we were chatting with the two Americans Tom and Nancy, and everyone got introduced and got along so we all decided to share a driver and gypsy jeep, and thanks to Steve’s local knowledge he got us a very good deal indeed. So we all met about 2.30pm and went on our evening tiger search. We didn’t see a tiger this time but the park itself was very pretty and we did see some beautiful owls and deer, and we came close to seeing what the guides though was a leopard as the monkeys were sending out lots of warning calls, but it was thick grass and trees and we simply could not see what was moving around and making these monkeys so upset.




After the safari we went to Steve and Elaine’s again and had a cup to tea and some biscuits (it was heaven to have some original twix and Cadbury biscuits!). We all chatted for a couple of hours before me and Cat headed off early as we planned to be on the road the following day by 7am taking advantage of the cool weather. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the vegetarian restaurant next door, the food was really yummy and then we hit the sack.

The following day we woke early as planned but as we were not in a city with lots of traffic, there was not the urgency we expected, so we decided to eat breakfast at our hotel. As we packed the bike, we drew the usual crowd and I moved it round to the front of the hotel in view of our breakfast table. Tom and Nancy joined us and we exchanged details and will go see them if (or when) we do our American trip. We ate breakfast looking at maps and then the owner of the hotel gave us better directions – very detailed and he even wrote it in English and Hinid. It meant the first 7km would be muddy road, but would save us nearly 100km! We left waving goodbye to everyone who had gathered and bit the dust road!! There were 2 river crossings and the road was quite sandy but it was nice ride. We rode through small villages until we got to the state highway, then followed it all the way, easily, to Raipur.

Our hotel for the night was just a halfway point, as we were heading for the Chitrakote waterfalls, still another 300km away. We found a nice hotel, actually the nicest standard we’ve had so far with very friendly and English-speaking reception staff, so we gladly checked in and bedded down for the night, again with the aim of an early start.

Thinking back over our day’s riding, I was pleased with the journey, the better quality of tarmac, and I had a smile on my face, thinking that maybe I was finally getting into the rhythm of India.

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Mr and Mrs Rixxy - London to Australia 2011 - 2012
www.jamesandcat.com