Elephant Ride

Two of our Guests were very keen to do an Elephant ride in the park. Tiger was not their objective but if he is there well and good. We reached Bhadrashila at about 0650 and by 0700 AM we were riding on Elephant Gautam.

Two other elephants were ahead of us following Sambhar alarm call means Tiger is nearby. This excited us more. We followed other two elephants in grassland to get a glimpse of a running tiger. Within seconds he disappeared in thick jungle. We tried to locate him but failed. Soon our elephant ride turn in to a proper jungle ride. Our ride time finished at 0900 AM and so of some other clients. These other foreigners complained to their Naturalist / Driver that for most of the time we were watching the bum end of this elephant walking ahead of us.

When you are sitting sideways on elephants than who asked you to look in-front of Elephant. Mahavat is doing his job. On elephant ride one is going through the jungle to see the forest. This is lack of communication / briefing / interpretation at the lodge. Unnecessarily poor Mahavat got blamed and the visitors didn't enjoyed their ride.

My clients were very happy to see the difference in the forest. Probably my presence on elephant as interpreter made the difference.

After we got off the Elephant our driver and guide said that they saw three tigers running across the meadow and still there is a chance to see them from the road. We came out on the road and we saw one running across the meadow.