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

Wild Dogs and Englishmen go out…..

There was great excitement early yesterday morning just after 8 am, when a small pack of dhole (wild dogs) skirmished through the camp, enticed by the sight or smell of our resident ducks who, totally in contrast to their normal habit, showed some common sense and paddled round in circles in the middle of the waterhole, thus frustrating their would be predators. Quite unusual to have these primitive canines (they only have six sets of molars on their lower jaw not seven as in others) patrolling through our habitat and certainly there have been very few instances in the last few years. However, apart from the excitement itself, the upshot is that we are becoming rather envied by our local neighbours and the other resorts, who regard our sightings of tiger, leopard, python and now wild dogs as rather one sided in the balance of things. But as our strap-line “Treading softly in the Jungle…..” advocates, if you adopt and maintain a minimal environmental footprint, which from its inception has always been the concept and premise of the Wright’s and Kipling, it will encourage all these wild and natural encounters……who needs a Park safari!

Volleyball

Just as natural, though not perhaps as wild is this photo of the staff thrashing it out on the volleyball court yesterday afternoon, with our English GAP year volunteer Freddie looking very handy at the net!

This morning, led by Gudu and Rahim, we set off on a bird watching expedition, keeping a careful look out for any evidence of the big cats who made such a dramatic appearance two weeks ago tonight (see previous post).

Tiger pugmarks near Camp

There have been constant Cheetal alarm calls at night and we suspect that one of them is still prowling in the neighbourhood. Having seen no evidence for nearly two hours, we crossed the nulla, only five hundred yards from the camp, and came across a series of enormous and very fresh tiger pugmarks. Rahim estimates they were made earlier this morning and by their size must be the large male whom we all met previously. So he is definitely still around … my early morning jogs with Kim may have to cease for a while!!