Seeing Leopards

My safari guide continues to be the best. He spots the leopards and then calls all the other guides over, so at least I have 10 quiet minutes with “my” leopard. This leopard is called Nelam and had some babies recently, but today we only see Nelam who has a cut on one ear. She sits on the top of the rocky hill and watches all the Jeeps rush over. Finally she has enough and walks away down the other side of the hill- too much commotion for her.

After following her around we watch her as she descends to the area of her cave, behind a rock. We watch a mongoose as we decide if she will come out again. I count 12 Jeeps which is a small number as it is off season. During season there would probably be 30-50.

We cut over to see if we can spot any other leopards and end up on the top of a hill where there is a strong breeze which picks up a harmonic as it blows.

as we come back we see some dun colored partridges which blend into the landscape. We came back to sit for 5 minutes during which most of the other Jeeps go. My driver says Nelam is probably asleep and suggests we go back to the hotel. The safari time isn’t all used up, but I can’t communicate that I want to use the time to see other animals. We go back early and I found out the leopard came out 5 minutes later. I was so disappointed I didn’t tell him not to go back. Let’s face it, I’m exhausted and communication is an issue. Of the two, I prefer morning safaris to evening as it is definitely cooler. The temperature is climbing- today was 108 in the shade at about 3pm

Evening safari

At 5:30 we were off for another Safari in the same area as the morning which I liked much better than the quarry of last night. We saw the leopard first - my guide appeared to be the most experienced and was the only one who could find the animals. It was again Nelam, but we were in a slightly different place. At one point we were crashed into by another Jeep that effectively backed into us. No one was hurt.

There was a beautiful sunset and a beautiful moonrise.

As the sun was going down we saw an Indian rock eagle Owl.

I was able to use the aid of my new friends- the brothers of aviation (helicopters and a320 pilot) to help me talk with my driver since the hotel owner couldn’t seem to make it out before we left. This made it a more enjoyable evening.

We had more e-ticket rides going up hills for better perspectives.(we had to get back down that hill)

When we left the area we took a slightly different path then they did and came to a beautiful road to a lake where you could see the moon reflecting and hear the frogs. I just wanted him to turn off the engine so we could listen, but I couldn’t get him to understand- even with google translate. Something about the area being owned by a different hotel. Anyway, on the way home we saw a rabbit and a wild pig before ending the evening.