Animals on the Edge Blog
Animals on the Edge - the start of something new
Finally, it’s begun ... the project I’ve been waiting eight years to fulfil is real and about to start. The journey to India is long. On arrival in Delhi I transfer to the domestic air terminal - a rather nerve jangling drive in a bus (I use the term lightly) that probably first saw service in the late 19th century, and along roads where the only rule seems to be, the larger your vehicle the less you need to brake! At domestic, there’s a long wait with little to do, not helped when a robotic announcement reveleals an hour’s delay in the flight. Finally, I board the internal flight to Nagpur, from where it’s a further five-hour drive to camp in Kanha National Park. In Nagpur I meet for the first time my tiger consultant, Nanda Rana, and his wife Latika. Nanda is a world renowned expert on tigers, having made two films about the big cat and spent two years working with National Geographic magazine’s MIchael Nichols, during the photographer’s documentation of tigers in Bandhavgarh. Latika, too, is a tiger expert, having completed a thesis on tiger conservation and gained her doctorate from Oxford University in 2000. After a late dinner, we set out in convoy. It’s now 11:00PM and I’ve been travelling for the best part of 30-hours, up for 38. The road is bumpy and windy and the combination of tiredness, unfamiliar food and the constant braking and swaying of the vehicle makes me nausious. Finally, at 3:30AM we arrive. I head straight for bed ... in 2-hours I’ll be up and searching for tigers. It begins ...
Posted on 01/13 at 12:19 PM
Posted in: Chris's blog •
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