Day 2

Tadoba Andhari National Park

This morning you will leave the hotel in Mumbai and travel to Nagpur in a short internal flight. Once we arrive in this industrial city you will be met by you new driver and transferred to the national park and the lodge. It is around 3 hours from Nagpur to Tadoba and a lot of this drive will take you through agricultural lands where rice and mustard are the main crops as well as through buffer zone forests made up of tall stands of teak trees. These buffer zones and community forests help to make up the protected corridors of forest that link various national parks, tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries. The success of such corridors is debatable however it is much better to have these corridors than not to have any links for wildlife to move between parks and reserves. It is also here within these forests we may see our first rhesus macaques, southern plains langurs, golden jackals or chital. You should also keep your eyes peeled when travelling through the agricultural lands and small villages as the telegraph wires and fence posts are very good perches for various species of birds including black-winged kites, black kites, spotted doves, jungle mynahs, common mynahs, cattle egrets, Indian pond herons, red-vented bulbuls, house crows, Indian jungle crows, white-throated kingfishers and dozens more commonly seen Indian countryside birds. Once we have arrived at the lodge we will check in and have lunch (if our flights are late or delayed we may get some lunch en-route) and the rest of the afternoon will be free for you to relax. The lodge has various activities that can be booked and arranged for you. If you have time activities such as birding, Indian cooking classes, bicycle tours and a visit to the nearby Gond tribal village. All of these activities are payable direct to the lodge. After dinner you will retire and prepare for your first tiger safari in the morning.

Days 3-7

Tadoba Andhari National Park

The next 5 full days will follow the same patterns as you explore the park in search of the striped gentleman. Each morning you will rise early (before dawn) and after some tea or coffee you will be taken to the parks entrance gate and be designated a local guide to work in conjunction with your naturalist escort and professional safari driver. As you drive through this rich park you will notice that teak forest predominates in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, giving way to tracts of mixed forest at higher elevations in the hills. To the north there are expanses of grassland and bamboo. Often overlooked by tourism till recently because it was off the beaten track, it offers some wonderful wildlife experiences. It is also one of the few parks that are open all year round, offering visitors an opportunity to visit in the monsoon season – this extraordinary active time for all manner of plants and animals, yet otherwise closed to keen nature lovers in most other parks of India. Lying in the s in the Tadoba hills of Maharashtra and with an average altitude of about 200-350m. This hilly terrain is perfect tiger habitat with the Tiger Reserve is spread around the serene and beautiful Tadoba Lake which lies in a basin at the central region. Tadoba and other adjacent reserves form a well-protected unit for the long-term survival of endangered species such as the tiger, today’s (2014) count of which stands at 74 adult Tigers and 26 cubs. The total area of the park is 1,700km2 and we will explore the Tiger Reserve by following a network of jeep tracks that will lead us into the forested areas. Our excursions in the Tiger Reserve will by jeep, and the movements of the resident tigers are well known to the local guides and we will rely on their intimate knowledge of the terrain and territories to locate them. They are elusive creatures and quick to vanish into cover, but a huge paw print in the dust or the alarm cries of deer or langurs often betray the presence of an animal. At moments like this it is essential that we are, as a group, both silent and patient. Our reward for this will, hopefully be an unforgettable moment. When the king of the forest saunters into view with scarcely a glance at the human intruders, then walks in a deliberate manner across the track only to disappear again into the undergrowth, it is one of the most thrilling wildlife spectacles in the world. As well as making early morning and afternoon excursions we will also have periods

Day 8

Mumbai

After breakfast you will be transferred back to the city of Nagpur (around 3 hours) and then catch your flight back to Mumbai. On arrival you will be met by your Mumbai guide and be taken back to your hotel for your final night in India.

Day 9

Home

After breakfast you will be transferred to Mumbai International Airport for you to catch your flight home.

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.