This wild elephant was close to the jeep track near Malani Camp. My driver stopped and waited 20 minutes to see if it will move off. But it was busy powdering itself, with the mud from the track. When my driver lost patience ... and decided to drive past .... it turned and eyed us warily, seemed to consider a charge ... and took a step forward .. but driver, Sadiq, hit the accelerator ... and we moved away pretty fast!
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I reached the Project Tiger Office (opposite Ramnagar Bus-stand) on 28th May 2007, at 9:30AM. There was huge rush of tourists, in front of the booking counters there .... and it looked like all the Forest Rest Houses (inside the Park) were full! Infact, most of the 7-8 FRHs, including the main one at Dhikala get booked fully, 2 months in advance!
The waiting rush of tourists, had to be satisfied with the day-trip Safari rides, in the 18-seater "Canters" to Dhikala Camp.
But I was lucky... I met up with a group of 3 boys from Delhi who had booking for a full cottage (with 2 double rooms) at the Malani FRH. They agreed to let me have one of the rooms, at half cost and they would use the other bedroom, with an extra bed. Yeah ... I was lucky!!
The cottage at Malani campsite, where I stayed the night. The jeep parked there, was my hired ride into the Malani Camp .... plus two 3-hour Safari rides inside the park zone of Malani.
Malani was a nice colonial style cottage, in a beautiful forest setting. Bedrooms had attached bathrooms and fireplace. As nice Dining Hall and a Kitchen with cooking gas stove, crockery and a Cook too! You could cook yourself and family a pretty decent meal out here ..... all you had to do was buy the vegetables & provisions from the Ramnagar Market and bring it in.
Next day, after Malani Camp stay, I did a Dikhala Canter Safari starting at 1:00PM . The Dhikala Camp was even bigger and nicer than Malani. I agree a Dhikala stay would have been the best!
During the 2-3 park rides in the Jeep and in the Canter, I did'nt see any Tiger at all. I wasn't too disappointed.... I knew the chance of seeing a tiger was only 10% . But we did see plenty of Deer and Wild Elephants and ofcourse, birds and monkeys too.
To see all the Corbett Park pictures (as a slideshow) click this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ks_bluechip/sets/72157600300116144/show/
