Karmazari Wildlife Resort

Karmazari – Its lies smack in the middle of India, a part of Pench National Park (http://www.pench.net/). A protected wildlife area in central India. It is one of the few places in the world where you can still see tigers. 

During the week of 30th Oct to 05th Nov 2010 we were in Nagpur for the Diwali. We (My Wife Suni, son Adu and I) and our friend (Swati, who is also an avid bird watcher and wildlife photographer) decided to go to on a wildlife safari in the Karmazari wildlife resort. We chose  Karmazari because it is one of the closest wildlife resort around Nagpur. We were warned well before by the many people that spotting a tiger in Karmazari area is not guaranteed and you will be really lucky if you could spot one.

But since spotting tiger was not the only attraction we had in mind (which was only emphasized at the end of our trip), we decided to book a day at the Baaz resort (http://www.baazjungleresort.com/) and go on a safari tour (organized by the resort).

Although the resort is just 90Kms from Nagpur, and we had decided to do a day trip, we still booked a day at the resort guest house because we were advised that the safari will be a tiring experience. And it sure was very good advise. For we were tired after the morning safari and a couple of hours of rest and lunch rejuvenated us before next safari . We had booked 2 safaris, one in the morning and another in the afternoon.

On 2nd of Nov 2010, we packed our sandwiches and tea and left out friends home quite early in the morning @ 4AM.

A little bit about my gear here. I would have loved to have my E-30 but it was out of commission since my trip to Mauritius. It had been repaired but had not reached me from US. And I hadn’t yet bought my E-5. So I was left with my 2 cameras neither of which was suited for wildlife photography.

Cameras

• E-P2 – This is not a good choice for wildlife because for photographing moving animals and and birds hidden in trees you need a precise AF and and a very fast AF. This camera offers none. But still a trusty companion because of the in body IS and good metering.
• E-330. I took this because I knew attaching a big lens like 50-200 on E-P2 can be a challenge. However it is not suited for wildlife because even when the vehicle stops there are slight jerks which you get because someone is moving (and we had 3 kids, need I say more!). E-330 doesn't have in body IS. E-330 has bad metering system which tends to over-expose quickly which you need to be careful of.

Lenses

• 12-60 SWD for general purpose and wide angle shots
• 50-200 SWD for telephoto
• EC-14 with 50-200 for greater reach.

My Friend had Canon 7D and 100-400 to go with it. Boy!! was I envious of her!! :-) It was fast to focus and good burst rate which neither of my cameras could match.

Coming back to where I was….

The road towards the Karmazari is not good though out the entire stretch. You will find patches of good road and patches of very bad road. So it took us about 2.5 hours to cover a distance of 90 kms and we reached the Baaz resort @ 6:40AM. Our morning safari was supposed to start @ 7AM.

Just at we reached the resort I took this photo of the morning mist in the pond inside the jungle, just outside the Baaz resort. Its a beautiful feeling to be just one with nature.

Morning mist surrounding the tree	Guard of Forest Rangers on duty at the entrance of the Jungle.

We did not even take our things out of the car, we just quickly used the restroom of our guesthouse and dumped all our bags directly in our safari vehicle which was waiting for us and we are on our way.

One thing I must tell you, when you go on a safari like this, you are simply in awe of the nature around you. You feel blessed that you can be part of it and you want to take in everything it has to offer.

At the entrance of the jungle safari, you had to make an entry and pay the fees for jungle entrance. At any point in time only 50 vehicles can will be allowed and not all on same routes. So if there are over 50 then you will have to wait.

Swati – Our friend, philosopher and guide. Getting the necessary paperwork done. We wouldn’t have gone had she been not there. An avid photographer herself, she is also deeply interested in bird watching. She is probably a member of almost all the local bird watching clubs :-) she loves photographing birds. You can see some of her work here

Once Swati got the paperwork done we were on our way.

Shot just inside the jungle. The beautiful morning mist. Jungle is surrounded by the villages, so its inevitable that there will be encroachments from both man and animals. The toughest task that the forest officials face is to educate the villagers  on how important it is for them to maintain the balance and also controlling them when necessary.

As we moved along, we had a guide in our vehicle who was very friendly. He gave us a lot of insight on the jungle life.

Our Guide. They have a tough job. Most of them are poor and are locals. Most of them do it mainly because they love being where they are.	Our driver.

Kids in the safari vehicle. They thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience! These safari vehicles are mostly used vehicles donated by the army and then modified.

The morning sun brings everybody out for breakfast, and if you are unlucky, you could be someone’s breakfast. :-)

A bare tree inside the jungle.

 

Couple of deer roaming around.	And this guy is busy sucking the morning nectar...

 

Morning Reflections in the pond. This is where tigers come to quench their thirst. We waited, waited and waited some more….not so lucky this time :-)

 

Long winding road in the jungle. Nearby villagers are given access to designated areas in the jungle to collect dead wood for their homes which they use as fuel. The fence that you see is used to hold  weed grass from spreading to other parts of the jungle.

 

Villagers are allowed to gather wood from dead trees and fallen branches. But they are not allowed to touch anything else.

After roaming around for over 2 hours we came to a rest area where we had our breakfast of yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We also had nice paratha with pickle!

Kids enjoying the welcome break with a sandwich and a drink.

 

Suni and Swati being the perfect moms they are…

As soon as we finished the breakfast we were on our way back to the guest house..

We saw monkeys on the way back. Can you spot – A pilot, a co-pilot, passengers and a member of a crew? :-)

 

A wild fox lurking in the shadows…

When we reached the guest house (another 2.5 hr ride), we were hungry again. So we ordered our lunch (of chicken curry, roti (Indian bread), daal tadka and rice -- yummy!!) and again I and my friend went on shooting spree, this time the birds and butterflies.

That’s the entrance to the Baaz resort.

The way to our guest house was nice with a bridge and an old style lamp…Loved the surroundings!

 

A lovely butterfly!	Well, I wont lie, that's actually a moth! :-)

 

This is my beauty….

A pretty bird perched on the stump…	And a beautiful wild grass…

After we had our lunches, we were ready for one more safari.  This time a different route than what we took last time because we wanted to increase our chances of spotting a tiger. But by this time we weren’t thinking too much of the tiger, if we spot it, it would only be a bonus. We were completely enjoying the safari for all its worth!

Until this time I had my 50-200 (which I was mostly using to shoot) was on my E-330 and 12-60 was on my E-P2. But for the afternoon/evening ride I switched them because I knew I would still be shooting telephoto and I will also need the in body IS as the light inside the jungle was fading fast.

On our second ride we saw quite a few characters…

The flycatcher..	This one is a hider, kept climbing up and up when I was trying to shoot it…
This guy wouldn't pose for the photographer…	This guy looks like he is heading back home after a long day…
The colorful one…Swati would know what it is :-)	Sambar deer…looking done for the day…

 

…And this is closest we came to seeing a tiger. These are fresh paw marks made by the tiger. Guide told us that these no more than 12 hrs old. So he was here somewhere. You can judge the size of the tiger which did it by the height of these marks. They are well over 7ft….

 

This is Eurasian something-or-the-other ;-) Swati will surely know… It was so well camouflaged that I couldn't spot it even after the guide pointed to me 3 times. Guide was trained to spot these things and he immediately spotted it.

 

This is the “ghost tree” – It changes colour 3 times a year and hence the name…

 

Long winding road back to the guest house…

Sunset in the jungle – Sayonara….

The jungle safari was one of a kind experience for me. It is one of the few things I will surely cherish in my life. We did not spot a single tiger, but that fact just became an insignificant statistic in the face of the vast and immeasurable beauty that we witnessed. The experience was as exhilarating as it was an eye-opener. Being in a city and doing 9 to 6 job, we don’t realize what’s out there and the how minor and unimportant we and our lives really are. It experiences like these that bring you closer to nature and make you think about your own existence.

“We live because of the jungle out there”

CIAO