Day 2

Satpura National Park

Today you will be transferred to the domestic airport for your short (1 hour) flight to Bhopal. We will have breakfast or lunch (depending on the flight arrival time) in Bhopal before continuing onwards to our accommodation (Luxury safari lodge – Reni Pani Jungle Lodge) and on arrival here, you will check in and have your evening meal.

Days 3-8

Satpura National Park

Over the next 6 days you will be exploring this very beautiful national park. With the help of local naturalists and your zoologist escort we will try and find the sloth bears which are usually seen here in the early morning. They are usually one of the least seen and most elusive of all mammals in India but here they are seen well and usually at close range. Other animals which are regularly seen here include the dhole, gaur and leopards. One of the best parts of this park is that you will often be the only foreign people in the park, it is a sure fire way to visit a top tiger reserve (yes there are tigers here too, although they are seen less often than some other parks) with the huge crowds. Amongst the larger mammals, such as tigers, sloth bears, leopards, dhole, gaur, Indian wolves, striped hyena, 3 species of deer, 2 species of antelope and 2 species of monkey; we will also have the chance to see Malabar giant squirrels, jungle cats, Indian palm civet, common palm civet, Bengal foxes, Black-naped hares and Indian mouse deer which are all rare to see in other parks around India. Another excellent reason why Satpura is a great destination is that you are able to enter the park in a variety of ways. As well as the usual jeep safaris which are excellent and highly recommended to see dhole and sloth bears you can also have guided walks through the jungles. These walks will allow you to track down wildlife and really immerse yourself into the environment with the subtle sounds and smells of the jungle. If this was not thrilling enough the knowledge that you are walking in tiger country is just the ticket to make this an experience to remember for the rest of your life. You are also able to observe wildlife from boat trips, canoe or kayak trips down the Satpura River and also take an elephant back safari. On elephant back you will be able to get very close to wildlife the wildlife is very used to the presence of elephants and they are a naturally occurring part of the environment and then allows you to get very close to wildlife without disturbing it. You can pick and choose the activities once you arrive and see how sightings go whilst staying in the accommodation (Luxury safari lodge – Reni Pani Jungle Lodge). You will have 2 trips into Satpura National Park each day, once in the early morning and once in the afternoon. In between you will return to the accommodation and this is where you will have all your meals.

Day 9

Delhi

This morning you will be free to rest and have a lie in before breakfast. Then you will be taken to the airport in Bhopal and catch a short (1 hour) internal flight back to Delhi. Once we arrive in Delhi you will be transferred to your accommodation (4* hotel – The Residence) and enjoy your final evening meal.

Day 10

Home

This morning you will be transferred to the airport in time to catch your return flight home.

The National Parks Authority for Madhya Pradesh have announced that with effect from 1st April 2011, all National Parks within the State will remain closed to public access on Wednesday afternoons until further notice. This order will affect Pench, Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Satpura and Panna Reserves. The inconvenience caused to Royle Safaris tour participants is regretted but unfortunately there is nothing we can do to facilitate entry during these closures. On occasions when our tour itinerary would normally include entry to one of these reserves on a Wednesday afternoon we will try arrange alternative natural history activities either around the periphery of the park. In the event that this is not possible we will offer the opportunity to watch a Tiger related documentary during this time.

Please note that the itinerary stated above is correct as our planned intentions for the tour. However adverse weather conditions and other local considerations can necessitate some modifications of the itinerary during the course of the tour; any changes will be made to make the best of the time and weather conditions available to us.

This tour is available on different date (subject to availability) please contact us for more details about running this tour on a date which suits you more.