Wildlife trips are never short of
uncertainty, excitement and, at times, disappointments. Sometimes, however, uncertainty
can turn the excitement in to a big disappointment even before the trip starts.
While Ranthambore was an all boys escapade, Corbett was going to be a family
trip. One fine morning, a few days before leaving for the trip, the missus
called from office, and in a very low voice, informed that she would have to
cancel the trip due to some last-minute commitment at work. After a lot of
deliberation (and some persuasion) we finally decided that she would stay back
and the rest of us would carry on with the trip (part of the reason behind this
decision was that none of our bookings were refundable!!). This led to another
problem though!! While the two couples and their kids were booked at Club
Mahindra in Corbett, the missus and me had planned to stay at The Wild Crest which was around 5kms
away from the Club Mahindra property.
As it turned out, this was not
that big a problem after all. One, the couples were more than accommodative and
hosted me at their place for a couple of nights; and two, I like having some
space to myself. We had pre-booked our safaris through a gentleman who is
supposedly well known for his knowledge and tracking skilss - Mr. Ramesh Suyal. I had
read about him online and was really impressed with what people had to say
about him; plus his charges were reasonable and in line with what the hotel and
others had quoted. I had left the choice of the safari timings
(morning/afternoon) and zones (there are five). He advised that we do mostly
afternoon safaris as the chances of spotting are higher around evening, and
that we focus on the Bijrani zone that has the maximum density (the best zone
is Dhikala, however you cannot enter that zone unless you are staying in the
Government-owned Forest Rest House there - highly recommended that you stay
there; we couldnt as bookings are done well in advance and we were late). We
ended up booking two morning safaris as we also had interests in birding and
early morning would be the best time to spot these little beauties.