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Trip Report INDIA 2002 Simon Plat, Bernard Oosterbaan, Willem Oosterbaan |
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17-11-2002: Arrived at Delhi International Airport around 7:00 o’clock in the morning. First target was to find an ATM (not present at the airport) and then we were off to our first birding spot: Sultanpur (Jheel) National Park. We stayed here for about 3 hours to leave enough daylight time to drive to Bharatpur.
In Bharatpur we stayed at the Sunbird Hotel, one of the nicest and cleanest hotels during our trip, close to the entrance of Keoladeo NP. We stayed here for three nights in a double with an extra bed, Rs 500 for the room. The showers had warm water and the cook was willing to make us breakfast and packed lunch at 6:00 am, making it possible to be in the park at dawn. Sunbird Hotel also rents bicycles.
18-11-2002: Whole day birding in Keoladeo NP (entrance fee: Rs 200 pp, no still-camera fee), without guide but the guides present were willing to show stuff without hiring them.
Around noon Simon ruined his bike with his tripod, just south of the temple. This made it impossible for us to get to the drier southern parts of the park. We walked up to Python Point (one guide found us a python, lying in a dead stump) and back to the hotel which took us the rest of the day.
19-11-2002: The severe drought made us change plans. Our initial plan was to spend at least a complete second day in the park, but instead we only birded during the morning in the park and went to Bund Baretha in the afternoon. From 9:00 to 12:00 we birded with a young birding guide south of the temple and near Lala Pyare Ka Kund (official guide rates Rs 70/hour). Nice and fanatic guy. After lunch we left for Bund Baretha (2 hours drive). Lots of water and lots of birds but very poor light. It is best to visit this area in the morning when light is much better. The few afternoon hours were not enough to bird the whole area, for example we skipped the stream north of the dam. It is best to plan a day for this area, especially when Keoladeo NP is dry.
Driving back in the dark was not nice and not smart.
20-11-2002: Accepting our mistake of choosing the complete wrong year to visit Keoladeo NP we left this day, to have more time in the mountains and probably an extra visit to Bhindawas, an artificial lake near Delhi, if time would allow it. We took a brief look over the Yamuna riverbed behind the Taj Mahal (Agra) and had a short stop at Sur Sarovar (Keetam Lake, there’s a small entrance fee).
The drive including both stops took the whole day. We ended northeast of Delhi in a town called Hapur where we found a simple but noisy hotel (Siddhartha Hotel) in the middle of town (Rs 450).
21-11-2002: Early departure but a flat tire (and bad spare)
made us lose two hours. We stopped at the Ganges River-crossing for a few hours.
We drove to Ramnagar where we stayed at the KMVN Tourist Hotel (Rs 440), almost
next to the reception centre of Corbett NP, where we had to do the paper work
for entering Corbett NP. The park had just opened for the season. Luckily there
was still space in the dorms at Dhikala from the next day onwards. Corbett is
one of those typical Indian parks with a huge amount of rules and regulations.
First and most constraining is the rule that you’re not allowed to leave
the car. Birding from a sedan is not advisable. Second rule is that nature takes
a break at midday: it is not allowed to be inside the park between 12:00 and
14:30. Before you enter the park you should register at the Corbett Reception
centre in Ramnagar. This can take a while. We were lucky and were helped by
the 4-WD driver we hired to enter the park (see later). Here you can also make
reservations for accommodation in the park. You pay for at least three days
(two nights) but it is allowed to stay longer. When staying for one day another
entrance is used (Amdanda instead of Dhangarhi). The price we paid for three
days, two nights in the dorm (three persons) was 2750 rupees (entry fee Rs 1400,
dorm log huts Rs 1200, vehicle entry Rs 150, no still-camera fee).
We decided not to enter the park driving our Tata Indica but to hire an open
4WD Jeep (Rs 2000 for three days). We used the services of Girish Dhasmana ‘Wild
Adventure Safari – phone 05947 51793’, who also helped us arranging
everything at the reception centre. Girish is not a birdwatcher but he did know
where to stop for feeding flocks and how to make not seeing a Tiger still very
exciting. He certainly did his best to help us find as many birds as possible.
After the arrangements for Corbett NP we used the last daylight hours at the
Kosi River dam in Ramnagar.
22-11-2002: This was a full day birding in Corbett NP. From the gate it took us about 4 great birding hours to get to Dhikala. After lunch we spent a few hours at the edge of the reservoir before it got dark.
When you enter Dhikala you are not allowed to leave the compound without an armed guide except when driving back to Ramnagar. The price of this guide (Rs 100 a day) was not included in the price we paid at the headquarters in Ramnagar. At dusk we searched the area around Khinnanauli for Brown Fish Owl (successfully) and Tawny Fish Owl (unsuccessfully). The dorms were good enough for a well earned sleep.
23-11-2002: We wanted to visit Kanda, one of the higher elevated areas in Corbett NP but this was not possible because a bridge was not rebuild yet. Instead we tried another area in the Sal forest around Patairpani, a very good area for woodpeckers. We birded the whole morning until we had to return to Dhikala for lunch. In the afternoon we took an elephant ride (Rs 250 pp) but this ride was not productive at all, except for a large number of Junglefowl. Normally it is best to arrange the elephant ride together with the accommodation at the reception centre in Ramnagar but during our visit it was not very crowded so we could arrange it in Dhikala.
24-11-2002: We started the morning with a breakfast and then
went to the watchtower. At check-out time we left Dhikala and went back to Ramnagar,
birding along the way. Strange you don’t need a guide for this trip. We
stopped at Gairal en route. Around 3 pm we were back in Ramnagar. We were running
out of money so we tried to find a bank that was willing to change US Dollars
but to our surprise none of the banks in Ramnagar were willing to do this. Keep
this in mind (you can change money in Nainital). We spent the night at the Everest
Hotel (Rs 300).
25-11-2002: In the morning a serious try for Ibisbill at the Kosi River. We decided to check the downstream area from the dam with no success. Another try was made at the Quality Inn (Corbett Jungle Resort) near Kumeria where we searched for about 2 hours before we left for Nainital.
In Nainital we found out that it was not possible to use foreign bank cards or credit cards in the available ATM, so our shortage of money started to become acute. We stayed in a nice and cheap hotel in the middle of the Mallital area named Kohli Cottage (4 person room for Rs 300 and an assistant (named Hari) begging you to write something in his booklet about his ‘full service’ – full service it was when our toilet was blocked). Warm water shower is essential here.
26-11-2002: Our first excursion in the Nainital area was Mongoli Valley.
Before 4 pm (closing time of the banks) we were back in Nainital to change dollars, this time successfully.
27-11-2002: Left early for Sat Tal. This place is not hard to find, most locals know the area.
We had a good lunch at one of the tea stalls and walked back taking the main road. Back in Nainital we still had time to check out some of the gardens on the northwestern side of town. Not many birds (lots of kids though), none that weren’t easier around Cheena Peak.
28-11-2002: Our alpine day. First we drove to (actually past) the TV tower. Views of the high Himalayan peaks are great when you drive about 1 km past the TV tower. Snow View Point was not an inspiring area so we left this place as quickly as we came. Next we walked up Cheena Peak and passed the summit by taking the ‘high fields’ route back to Nainital. The whole area, especially up Cheena Peak was great birding.
29-11-2002: A genuine travel day though we took the liberty
of stopping at Mongoli Valley which is on the route when driving back to Delhi
or Ramnagar. Rest of the day (7 hours) was taken by the drive back to Delhi.
We asked our driver to find us a hotel and he brought us to a nice, clean one
(Usha Paying Guest House, C-3, Jangpura Extension, New Delhi) though taking
a shower was like committing suicide. We paid 550 rupees for a double with extra
bed.
30-11-2002: Our last hope for wetland species was Bhindawas
Wildlife Sanctuary, an artificial lake about 3 hours west of Delhi. We fantasized
about this area making up for everything that we dipped in Keoladeo NP. There’s
no route description for this area in Kazmierczak and Singh. Consequently it
took us 4 hours to find it.
1-12-2002: Another travel day. We were dropped off at the
National Airport in Delhi by our driver. The flight Guwahati-Assam with Sahara
Airlines was good. The price for a one-way ticket was $ 175,- for foreigners.
This was included in the Assam package (see Organised package deal). We were
picked up by the tourist guide and driver of Flamingo Travels at the airport.
A dump with Greater Adjutants was easily found by the flying Adjutants. We were
taken by the guide to the most famous temple of the region (Kamakhya Mandir).
After that we took a short stop at the office of Flamingo Travels and headed
for Kaziranga NP where we stayed at the Aranya Lodge for the next seven nights.
Most of the trip was in the dark which was not very comfortable. All the excursions
were arranged by a guy from Aranya Lodge (organized by Flamingo Travels), who
actually did a very good job.
2-12-2002: First thing to get used to in Assam is that the sun is up at 5:30 and Kaziranga NP opens at 7:30. This leaves time to scan the gardens of Aranya lodge. Fortunately there was a lot of activity in these gardens. Our first excursion was by jeep in the Western Range. This is a good loop for birding. The watchtower at Derban in the western part of this range is a great spot for checking out the grassy area in front of this tower. During midday (from 12:00 till 14:30) it is not allowed to be inside the park so there’s time enough for lunch at the hotel. We spent the afternoon in the Central Range, the forest there was not very productive.
3-12-2002: The only way to be in the park at dawn is by arranging an Elephant ride. The main difference from the elephant ride in Corbett NP is that here all elephants take the same route together. This herd of elephant-tourists again was not productive for birds but it was nice to get this close to mammals (<10 m from a Rhino). The ride took about 1.5 hour. Apparently it is not possible (anymore) to arrange longer trips on different locations. For the rest of the day, the Aranya guy was able to arrange a trip to the Eastern Range. The entrance to the eastern range is about 1 hour drive from Kohora, so being allowed to stay also during midday gives you a lot more time to check out the area. Debeswari was off limits. We stayed in the area until about 4 o’clock. Our little investigation proved that we were able to see a little over 100 species during this time.
4-12-2002: An early start for a whole day birding at Panbari Forest. Panbari is officially not a part of Kaziranga NP, so most rules (especially opening hours) do not apply here. The worst you might encounter is running into an elephant or having the area closed because of the presence of a Rhino. Long before sunrise we were at the spot were we had to pick up our guide, but due to a night hunt for poachers, he wasn’t awake yet. Still early enough to witness the awakening of the birds. Leaches were present but never in annoying numbers (do take precautions though, even in the dry season).
5-12-2002: After an hour birding in the hotel garden we birded the central and western trail again, this time in different order, central in the morning and western in the afternoon. Both visits only produced a few new birds.
6-12-2002: A second visit to the eastern range, this time only the morning, again with a few new birds. The rhino carcass including vultures was still present. In the afternoon we were taken to some tea plantations for birding the rest of the daylight time.
7-12-2002: This day we tried another part of the Panbari forest, called Modarjuri. This area looked quite a lot like Panbari forest and produced the same birds and some new ones. No problems with Elephants this time. After lunch we drove to Nameri NP. En route we stopped only at the Brahmaputra crossing but this produced no new birds. We first made the arrangements to visit the park at dawn and then drove to our hotel in Bhalukpong. It took a bit of convincing that we liked to have our dinner before 8 o’clock, because days start early when you want to be in the park before sunrise at 5:30, including an hour drive from the hotel to the park. The cook was also willing to arrange packed breakfast and lunch.
8-12-2002: We arrived at Nameri National Park headquarters before sunrise but the guide was a bit too late. Nevertheless, after crossing the river and entering the park the area was teeming with birds. We walked the trail to the east, along the river, which brings you to the best spots for White-winged Duck. Most of the day was spent following another guide who was anxious to show us the duck (see Highlights).After crossing the river again in the afternoon, we walked back to the headquarters (about 1,5 km). The forests on this side of the river are very degraded and not productive. Nevertheless we heard Vernal Hanging Parrots here too and there even was a Great Hornbill on this side of the river.
9-12-2002: Our second day in Nameri NP. Again around sunrise in the park. This time we took the trail heading north. This leads to some grasslands but these were not very productive. Most of the morning we checked the western part of the park. Quite some new species proved that we were not yet finished with Nameri. At 12:00 we went back to the headquarters and had a lunch at the Eco Camp. We spent the afternoon rafting the river wild.
10-12-2002: On our last day in Nameri NP we decided to try to improve our very poor sighting of White-winged Duck. This time we approached the pools carefully, fortunately with great success. Still some new species and a huge group of Oriental Pied Hornbill (about 30 birds). We decided to take the afternoon off, to get ready for the long journey back home. The view from the balcony was exceptionally good.
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