Just back from a 3 day drive to JIM CORBETT NATIONAL PARK!!!

This had been long due...got my joining postponed by a week...and lo ... we drove all the way from Delhi to JC..one of the best fauna reserves in the country!!

The route:

Left @ 5:45 am and reached @ 1230 with a break for breakfast @ one of the dhabas..yummm...The stretch from moradabad to ramnagar is good...!!! (hit 100-110) :)

Once there...we checked in to our resort and decided to look around the place and explore some places i had read about.... but most of them turned out to be within the safari...

So drove to a place called Garjiya, which has a temple on a rock in the middle of kosi river! The myth is the rock was never washed inspite of years of floods nd water currents..whatever..d place was nice!!

Enquired about the safaris in the evening and gotto know that the best thing to do in corbett is to pre-book a month before with the forest rest houses in dhikala and stay for two days there to capture maximum sightings!

The arrangements otherwise @ corbett safaris are full of twisted ways which is sad...  but somehow we managed to get our safaris booked with dhikala and bijrani!

Dhikala - 10th april - 12 to 1800 hrs (there are only two options...one for morning 5:30 nd d other @ 12)
Bijrani - 11th April - 530 to 900 hrs

On 9th evening we sat beside Kosi river which is kinda drying up ...but on the other side which is one of the densest parts we could hear various beastly sounds!!!

The stories about our safaris can be read in my pics .. with notes and description!

The only disappointment was...we couldnt spot a tiger even once.... all we could get of the beast were its footprints... strangely they were there all our way @ bijrani...but it seemed to be walking ahead of us!!

May be it didnt like my face! :)

My favourite catch was this one
 

I made the tanker wait for few minutes to watch the most humble animal in this vast green land ..three families walking there way to find water...on the way i saw one of them spilling mud over itself with its trunk!!

We were done with our hunt by 11th morning..so left for corbett fall which falls on the way to haldwani from ramnagar...

Before we left... i spoke to the head chef @ our resort cos his food was too good..thoughtof congratulating him...nd he gave me some info..

This guy was working with ITC group of hotels (maurya sherton)...It seems for all veggies .. its advisable to order only tomato soup..as in every other kinda veg soup almost all big hotels add chicken drained water(water in which chickens are boiled) ... it seems to enhance the taste...have to verify this though but the guy was quite credible..so puttng it here!

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Some info i forgot to blog on my ROHA update.

Do we know that the principle of air conditioning was found in termite hills??? well..i didnt...our guide @ roha passed this piece of wisdom!

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On our way back..we drove till corbett falls...nice..nd finally i gotta get lil wet in a water fall..something i couldnt do even @ courtrallam .. we went off-season :( @ dat time...there was no internet to let us know also..

Then we headed towards delhi...when some guy told us a new route from bajpur to rudrapur and den hit mordabad!

Drive till baajpur was awesome...was @ 120kmph for some 2 minutes...nd constantly between 80 and 100..but den things always turn funny....some misguidance...nd we were on r way to rampur..d most pathetic road of all times...specially our old car whose tyres are almost giving away...

But after lodsaa bumps we reached moradabad and by 8..we were home!!!

nd i dint realise .. but m caught with a bad neck pain.... but still loving it as it keeps reminding me of the adventures drives we did!

yay!

nd yeah...countryroads was one song which didnt leave me and my sis' lips througout!!!

Have fun with the pics