Horseback Riding Vacation in India (Day 17)
Day 17 – In the morning we climbed down from the train in Jabalpur and went to a restaurant for breakfast before mounting up in jeeps for a three hour drive over back roads to Kanha Park which many say is the finest park in Asia and probably the best place to see the fabulous Bengal tiger. We arrived in time for lunch at our attractive lodge on the edge of the park where we were greeted hospitably by the manager, Sanjiv. It was soon evident that Sanjiv cared tremendously about the preservation of this park and its wildlife with which he is very well acquainted. His encyclopedic knowledge of the amazing bird life added to our understanding and interest. The approach here is to head out on jeeps before dawn and spend a few hours in the morning driving through the park. We would then return for lunch and set off again in mid afternoon since the hours around sunrise and sunset are the best for seeing game. So that afternoon we boarded our jeeps and headed into the park for our first view of the wildlife including many species of deer and antelope as well as birds of scores of different varieties. After our drive we returned to the lodge for drinks and what I though was really splendid dinner.
