Most Inspirational Moment
Seeing "B2", the most dominant male tiger in Bandhavgar, eating at a kill, washing himself like a domestic kitten, strolling nonchalantly across the track to a watering hole, growling... or perhaps the highlight was getting almost uncomfortably close to tigers from our elephant-back vantage point
Thoughts on Group Leader
Superb. Harish Kumar has so many years experience of leading tours, often birding and nature tours, in India that his knowledge of the wildlife is encyclopedic; and his relationships with the parks, hoteliers, etc. strong enough to make things work as smoothly as they can (given that this is India). India is not a trivially easy place to travel but Harish and his colleagues in India made things work for us.
Advice for Potential Travellers
I do recommend the trip but you do need to think twice before you book. It's a long way to fly then train and minibus to undertake perhaps 50 hours of game drives without the certainty of seeing these (admittedly magnificent) animals. If you think you may take a serious dislike to the public transport, food, high risk of Delhi Belly spoiling a day or more of your trip, or frustration at (temporary) lack of tigers (or indeed if you are very lucky getting 'tigered out' by the end of the trip!) then you might be better off doing e.g. an African safari or a more leisurely 'cultural' tour of India.You need to have a certain level of robustness, in my view, for this trip's rewards (tigers and some, but not much, of the region's history) to outweigh its frustrations and pitfalls. However, if you are committed to the idea of seeing this animal in its last redoubts, then this is the trip for you. While (in my opinion based on what I learned on this trip and from speaking to many other travellers) any trip that spends more than 2 full days in Bandhavgar will pretty reliably give you tigers, this trip gives you time in two other reserves which are not only pretty rich in tigers themselves but have their own characters and strengths: Ranthamore with its ancient fort and hunting palaces scattered through the park; Kanha with its open grasslands and rich bird life.
