From spring to summer

It has been a hectic but fulfilling time for us all at Kipling, and we have only just managed to draw breath after 33 consecutive days of visitors.There has been an amazing diversity of guests; Swedish, Canadian, Australian, Indian, German, American and British – all with fascinating lives and experiences. And, without exception, they have been thoroughly rewarded with all that Kanha has to offer.

 

Vivid green Sal trees

The magnificent Sal trees, which dominate the Park’s forests, have reached their peak flowering. The sweet, lemony-elder smell  pervades every airspace. The Sal’s flush of vivid green leaves is a stark contract to the brittle, dry jungle floor and dusty meadows. Temperatures during the day are now in the mid to late 30°C.

The Lime Butterfly on a mission

We continue to have our own wildlife show; a sloth bear and a leopard sauntered through the Camp recently, and our numerous Palash trees – otherwise known as the ‘Flame of the Forest’ – have erupted with bright blood-red flowers on their otherwise leafless skeletons. Birds have been fortifying themselves on the intoxicating nectar of the Palash, so that they can pursue their relentless courtship and chasing displays. The sky above our water hole at times resembles a scene from the Battle of Britain, full of vivid darting objects, whilst the accompanying chorus of song and flirtatious chatter is both intense and mesmerizing. Not to be outdone, numerous butterflies bounce erratically on the air in a ceaseless display of colourful flashes.

After two months, we were sorry to say goodbye to Rufus, who continues on his Gap year to Darjeeling where he is teaching in a school, and to Theo who is on his way to Nepal via Varanasi.

My own role as Honorary Manager has sadly come to an end and I must now reluctantly  return to a cold, belated British Spring. It has been a wonderfully exhilarating and fulfilling six months, and I leave Kipling Camp with the knowledge that the legacy and vision of Bob and Anne Wright continues through Belinda and the dedicated staff, to impose its principles, formula and magic on all who participate in its great story.

Charles Fraser

The Veteran

60 + 30 equals….. a great few days of celebration

There won’t be much about wildlife sightings in this entry I’m afraid, as I’m unabashedly recounting the happy celebrations of Belinda’s 60th birthday, surrounded by her family, friends and beloved animals. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any – far from it, there have been many encounters both in the Park and around the Camp that have helped to celebrate and combine Belinda’s birthday with the 30th Anniversary of the founding of Kipling Camp by her parents in the 1980s.

Belinda with her mother Anne, brother Rupert and Kim plus some of the staff at KC

There were many amusing and happy events of the week-long festivities, but the evocative photographic diary presentation of Belinda’s life, which she had put together and that featured many of the 30 or so friends who were gathered, was a definite highlight. There was also a Mamma Mia themed series of skits, including a hilarious performance by some of the otherwise very respectable male contingent, who donned Baiga ‘skirts’ and performed to the tune of ‘Dancing Queen’!

Full house !

There were gifts and more gifts, food brought from Delhi and Calcutta, champagne and wine from acclaimed vineyards, 30 year old Malt whisky from the Scottish Hebrides, presents from the staff, kisses from Tara and Kim and much more….. So despite being in a certain amount of discomfort from her snapped Achilles tendon and hampered by the restriction of a wheelchair, there was nothing but laughter and smiles from (and for) the Birthday Girl all week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELINDA

Charles F

The beauty of central India

The past week has seen some very untypical weather, with the temperature topping a muggy C 30°. There was too much moisture to sustain this, and it was followed by two days of heavy rain and thunder. The system has now exhausted itself, and we are back to

The setting sun creates a halo above the Mocha mosque

Theo, Rufus and Shukla at the brickworks

bright blue, sunny skies, with an amazing sunset on Sunday, that cast beautiful violet magenta light over the village mosque and the surrounding countryside.

Despite this unseasonal climate, our guests have continued to be mesmerised by some fantastic tiger sightings, and the ever increasing crescendo of the dawn chorus.

The KC impromptu school transport

Shukla took Rufus and Theo on a tour of the area; they met a family of brick makers working in the rich loamed fields beside a small nullah (stream) and lunched at their first roadside cafe or dabah – they both declared that the food was superb. They also gave an impromptu list to some school children, whose classmates showed unabashed envy at their arrival.

Avian & human arrivals

Apologies for the recent ‘blog silence’; we have been busy with guests. Two new volunteers have arrived, replacing Jack & Henrik who are now trekking in Bhutan. Rufus and Theo are here until the end of the season and have settled in to the rigours and demands of Kipling Camp life!

Verditer Flycatcher

Among our recent guests were three professional photographers from the mid-west USA. Their first day was uncharacteristically damp and murky, but they were rewarded with some fantastic photo opportunities in the Park including a wonderful sighting of a large male tiger; their photographs were on a different plane. Another pair of guests, wildlife environmentalists from the UK, spent time with two beautiful female leopards lounging on the limbs of a Mahua tree.

It has been a period of audio and visual supremes, with the migratory and winter resident birds almost at their peak. Around our waterhole, I was enraptured by this irredescent Verditer Flycatcher. Also in Camp I spotted a Brown-shouldered  Petronia, and the evening arguments between a pair of Black-naped Monarchs just outside my verandah have made compulsive listening. Our Jungle Owlets too provide endless contentment.

Our Jungle Owlet outside the office

In the Park, Rahim and others saw the exquisite male Paradise Flycatcher, a White-rumped Sharma and a pair of exotic Malabar Pied Hornbills, all in the same drive!!

The dawn chorus is almost too much to absorb in one go. To add to this the haunting sounds of rutting Cheetal stags now fill the jungle around us. In the Park, the male Barasingha have started their rut and are constantly bellowing to their hareem …..while in a distant bamboo undergrowth, a tigress commands her cubs with a long, low growl. Magical.

Victory celebrations from the Mocha cricket team

On the sporting front, our own Mocha village team won the three-week 36 team knock out Cricket Tournament, beating Baiher, a town three times our seize, in an electrifying final with a crowd of maybe 600-700. We provided the Winners Trophy in memory of Bob Wright who was instrumental in establishing this competition.

CF

Cricket & other events at Kipling

Viren hitting to mid-wicket

As nationwide interest in cricket enters a lull – after India dispatched the England One-day team back to the UK in defeat – the void has been filled locally by our own village of Mocha hosting a 36 team Knock Out 20/20 Tournament. Viren, our nightwatchman, was the highest scoring member of his team (26) and despite being cheered on by the KC contingent (with our Asst. Manager Shukla umpiring, plus enthusiastic commentary by the Manager), it was sadly not enough to secure a place in the next round.

Half a Sloth Bear

Meanwhile, wildlife sightings at Camp continue: a large sloth bear ventured down to the waterhole at 1.30 am two nights ago and yesterday morning two dhole skirted the boundary just after Kim and I had returned from our early morning jog.

Jack & Henrik were asked to present an award at the Republic Day Celebrations held at the Mocha Secondary School last Saturday. And to cap an eventful week, our very own “writer in residence”, John Elliott has returned from the cold and fog of Delhi, to finish off his long-awaited book (see Blog on 20th Dec).

Charles

Spotted deer sparring at the waterhole

Two cheetal stags sparring at the waterhole

Fabulous wildlife sightings continue, but not just in Kanha. These two young cheetal bucks battled it out by our waterhole, unaware that an audience of camp guests was avidly watching from the verandah of one of our cottages.

Meanwhile, all the safari driving    on the rugged tracks and nulla crossings is taking its toll on the vehicles, and after the excitement of the tiger sighting

The transport dept repairing the rear axle

in the previous blog post, one of our vehicles had to have emergency surgery with the replacement of all the ball bearings on the rear axle – Babu, Rehmat and Mutsu to the rescue!

While we hear of snow in Britain and Europe and cold dense fog in Delhi, our weather has been unseasonably mild, with nighttime temperatures of 13°C and a daytime high of 29°C. But there is change coming with some gusty winds, and we are expecting a return to the more seasonal chilly early mornings.

Charles

Tiger Sightings

Fabulous tiger sightings by our guests have been the dominant feature of the first two weeks of the New Year. Although the beauty and magic of the wildlife and scenery of Kanha National Park is captivating, there is just no escaping that incredible sense of excitement and awe when you see the king of the jungle at close quarters. Yesterday morning, this tigress bounced into view in front of our guests, completely unheralded by the usual alarm calls of deer or langur monkeys. As she walked towards the reversing vehicle she barely glanced at the occupants.

Heading towards the vehicle

Earlier in the week, our previous guests followed another tigress with her two cubs for fully 20 minutes, before they skipped back into the bamboo undergrowth, only to be replaced for the same lucky visitors half an hour later, by a handsome male leopard .

While the undergrowth remains thick and secretive, the taller jungle cover is now a jaded winter green, punctuated by the leafless skeletons of the deciduous jamun, kulu (the ghost tree) and other trees. The dawn chorus is in its early rehearsal phase, though nonetheless distinctly more tuneful than even three weeks ago, accompanied by a commensurate increase in activity.

Early winter morning in the jungle

Freddie, our first gap year volunteer has returned to the cold and damp of London. He has been replaced by Jack Mactaggart and Henrik Carstens, who are enthusiastically acclamitising to the rigors and pace of life in our jungle camp.

There are rooms to book and park entries available, so if you haven’t planned your winter break, get online. We would love to welcome you to our unique home.

Charles