Kabini

I had recently visited Kabini River Lodge in Kabini. This trip was special for many reasons, it was my first road trip in my car, the first trip after my wedding & the best part was that I had a Canon D500 with 105-500 mm lens, which a friend was kind enough to lend.

We started early on a Friday. The road was amazing all they till the Rajiv Gandhi National park after which it gets very uneven. But that stretch is just about 10KM (the total distance from Bangalore is about 220KM) so no complaints. Driving out of Bangalore is just awesome, the traffic reduces & you can happily coast without having to change gears often. We reached Kabini in time for lunch, after which we set of on our first Jeep Safari.

Jungle Lodges operates two safaris a day, you can choose between the jeep safari or the boat safari. Since we were staying there for two nights we had a total of four safaris. We went on three jeep safaris & one boat safari.

The drive into the forest is very special, the anticipation of catching a glimpse of a tiger or leopard keeps you on your toes. In the first three safaris we saw herds of elephants, gaur & deer. The final safari was very different however. We had a jeep to ourselves & got to see two peacocks dancing right in front of the jeep. A young bull elephant mock charged as & just as we were planning to head back, our driver got a call about a tiger sighting. We rushed to the spot & parked along with many other jeeps. As luck would have it, a beautiful tiger ran right across our jeep. I was even able to get a few half decent shots. The final safari was absolutely great & we ended the trip on a high. As I mentioned earlier I was using the Canon D500. Since I didn't have a tripod, handling the lens was quite a task, but the pictures were amazing. Having the 105-500 mm lens made a huge difference, hopefully I will be able to buy the same for my Nikon D90 some time soon.

Kabini