Most Inspirational Moment
Seeing a tiger mother with her cubs from the back of an elephant in Kanha National Park was something that I'll never forget - but just the atmosphere of being in the parks in the morning with the sounds of the jungle waking up around you was something quite magical.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Krishna was great - as an ornithologist, he had a great knowledge of the bird species that we saw on our drives through the parks (and could even identify them from blurry smudges in some of our photographs), and as a tour leader, he was passionate and enthusiastic about his country, and made sure we all had a great time.We were in India for the Holi festival, and he organised a party at the jungle lodge that we were staying at, with all natural dyes for us to throw at each other - which we tried to wash off in the neighbouring river afterwards.
Advice for Potential Travellers
Don't go with the expectation of seeing large mammals on every game drive! We were spectacularly lucky, seeing 13 tigers, 2 leopards, 5 jackals and 2 wild dogs in total. Obviously it's great to see some of these amazing animals in the wild - but it's just as amazing to be in the parks, and absorb the sounds and atmosphere of these wild spaces. There wasn't a single drive where we failed to see something new - a new bird species, or deer exhibiting different behaviour.
Suggestions
If you want to see tigers in the wild, this trip is probably your best chance of doing so - there are so many game drives built into the schedule, and the option for further ones, that your chances are maximised. Even on days when you don't see any tigers, it's impossible to forget that they're not far away, with sightings of pugmarks or the sound of distant alarm calls. A fantastic experience, and one that I won't forget!Probably my only criticism of the tour is the way that the group was split across multiple carriages on the overnight trains. Our tour leader explained the difficulty of getting tickets for train journeys, and that quite often we weren't getting on or off at the start or end of a train line, but it still seemed unfair on some of the solo travellers to find themselves isolated in a carriage away from the rest of the group.