“Khush! There’s a huge insect in front of the toilet door!”
This is not the best way to be woken up especially not at 4 in the morning. I grabbed my glasses, stumbled through the bedroom and went to investigate.
“It’s not that big” I said going forward. The beetle on the doorpost looked 3cm long to me.
“Stop!” Karen yelped “You going to step on it!” That was when I noticed the grey/black weird crusty looking thing camouflaged against the dressing room floor tiles.
“I don’t think it’s moving” I said after we had both stared intently at it for a several silent moments. “It looks more like a cocoon”. Ok any insect that had come out of that had to be large! We both looked nervously around the very spacious dressing room. Nope! There were a few moths, ants and the odd beetle but nothing that size was in here, at least not that we could see.
“Perhaps we should ask the man who brings the tea what this is. He should be here shortly” I added hopefully edging backwards.
So where exactly are we? We are staying just outside the Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, Central India at the Shergarh tented camp owned and run by Jehan and Katie Bhujwala.
A short flight from Mumbai saw us arrive in Nagpur. The camp arranged for an air-conditioned SUV to pick us up and we had a comfortable 5-hour ride to the camp through bustling towns, past dried out paddy fields, along roads edged by carts selling water melon and sugar cane, the colourful spectacle that is India.
When we reached our destination the last 50m or so to the camp was on foot. By this time, it felt good to stretch our legs. Our bags were whisked away to our ‘tent’ (I use the word loosely) while we were greeted by staff with cool hand towels and a glass of ‘Limbu Pani’ (Lemon water) very refreshing after the long trip and as I was to discover later, this ritual was after every safari too.
The camp itself was truly delightful, with a camp house and 6 tented cabins set around a large pond (small lake) and hidden underneath a canopy of native trees. My favourite were the silk cotton (kapok) trees which carpeted the ground in soft white clouds of fluff that disappeared into nothing if you tried to pick them up.
Our ‘tent’ was lovely and had all the conveniences of a hotel room. The beds were to die for, larger than average, extremely inviting and totally comfortable to sleep on. Through a door there was a dressing area with a separate toilet, double vanities and a huge shower with constant hot water.
“It’s a bit rustic” Karen had said to me. Ha! My past experience of camping was while backpacking and this was nothing like that. This was so much more than ‘glamping’ as there was air-conditioning in the tent which in all honesty, I was very grateful for in the heat of the afternoon.
After settling into our tent, we were served tea and cake on our veranda. I have a sweet tooth and the cook had the lightest of touches with the cakes and pastries that I could only envy. One night we had millionaire’s shortbread which was scummy, another lemon pie. The banana bread and the almond cakes were soft and moist. The food here was delicious, with plenty of variety and vegetarian dishes at every meal. At breakfast there was this sticky sweet syrup that looked like treacle. It comes from the mahua an indigenous tree and tastes like liquid dates. It’s yummy on buttered toast. I thoroughly recommend it.
We indulged in 5 safaris in 3 days. The naturalists from the camp who took us into the park were very knowledgeable about the local wildlife, not only about the tigers but the whole ecosystem. The Kanha reserve is split into four areas, each zone having different vegetation. Mukki with its green jungles is thought to have the most tiger sightings, but I enjoyed the Kanha zone with its open meadows and bamboo forests.
While out in the jeep, there was the constant sound of birdlife and insects. We saw the ‘white rumped sharma’, kingfishers and the Indian roller birds, both with iridescent blue plumage. There was the ‘racket tailed drango’, the crested serpent eagle and the brown fish eagle. We saw the common hawk cuckoo, the black winged kite, babblers and the little green bee eaters (looked like green parrots). Cormorants, crows and white rumped vultures, bearded woolly necked storks and colourful forest fowl all lurked around the waterholes.
In the grasslands we saw herds of the Chital (spotted deer), the Barasingha and the Sambar often surrounded by peacocks which for me was a total surprise as I had not considered peacocks in their natural environment. On one occasion we saw the deer in a large waterhole, holding their breathe in order to eat the vegetation at the bottom of the lake. As the edges of the forests, we saw the shy little munt jack otherwise known as the ‘barking deer’. The Indian Gaur were a bit scary given their sheer size and bulk. They were huge. We saw jackals and wild boar. Langur monkeys scampered everywhere including high up in the tree canopy shrieking out warning calls if a predator was nearby.
That was what the guides would listen for to be able to track the tigers. Did I see a tiger, yes, I did. In fact, I saw 3 tigers, one large male (Neelanala) and another time a female (Chhoti mada) and her cub. They are beautiful to look at and a little intimidating when they turn their heads and look right at you.
We saw rat snakes fighting, rearing up 2.5 feet off the ground and wrapping themselves around each other. It was like watching an animal documentary except it was happening right in front of us.
My favourite sighting however was the sloth bear, totally unexpected and unbelievably cute. She was the highlight of my safari.
The Shergarh tented camp is not for the faint hearted as you can share your shower with the local wildlife (spiders, ants etc) but would I go back there?
In a heartbeat!
And Kanha, was it worth it?
Absolutely!
P.s. In case you are wondering, the ‘insect’ in the dressing room turned out to be the start of a termite mound. The breakfast man grinned a lot when we practically dragged him into the room and requested that he remove it from our tent. Our street cred with the locals is zilch!