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INDIA HAS IT ALL! by Pete Oxford

21 Feb
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Recently back from safari we are still buzzing about what we saw:

82 rhinos in one day!!

6 leopards in one day!!

Elephant

Buffalo

Wild dog

Jackal

Crocodiles

Monkeys

Antelope

Mongoose

Monitor lizards

& Birds galore.

Sound good so far?

Then throw in;

Peacocks

Gaur

Wild boar

Gangetic river dolphin

Gibbons

Smooth coated otters

a plethora of deer

and TIGER!

No, we were not in Africa but India, one of the best wildlife destinations in the world. India really has it all. When combined with the truly exotic culture, in which we aim for total immersion, a visitor to India comes away with massive sensory overload. The day we leave is the day we want to come back.

This trip was no exception and the wildlife sightings, from a tigress chasing wild dogs, another playing with her three young cubs and then stalking a wild boar to brother and sister leopards cavorting hard in play for ages as we looked on. The incongruity of magnificent peacocks when you realize that this is where they actually belong.

Dozens of the prehistoric looking greater one-horned Indian rhinos, far exceeding the numbers possible to see anywhere in Africa. Fabulous birds, other than peacocks, from giant hornbills, red jungle fowl (the precursor to KFC) large flocks of parrots, babblers, treepies, kingfishers and rollers to pelicans and storks. Being predominantly Hindu the local population has great empathy for wildlife, which is everywhere.

It is customary to feed the Hannuman langurs and rhesus macaques in the cities and is a welcome change to wanton aggression towards animals we see in so many other places. India is chaotic, there is no doubt, yet it works. It is a place of awe, a photo at every turn, a place of ancient history and complex religion.

If you have not yet been, perhaps sooner rather than later to best capture the India we have come to love.

Don was a guest on this most recent trip. To share a part of his review it speaks for itself…

… Of all the marvelous adventurous travel I’ve experienced, Pete Oxford and Renee Bish’s INDIA expedition to 3 National Parks and five cities was the unrivaled BEST three weeks I can recall. Off the charts, unadulterated, over the top, unmitigated Five-Star FUN.

All images ©PeteOxford.

Tigers, tigers burning bright! By Pete Oxford

21 Nov
in
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With having led well over 30 trips to India over the years we maintained our impressive record of 100% of our clients all seeing tigers! Many have left the subcontinent after repeated tiger safaris without ever having set eyes on the world’s largest and arguably the most beautiful cat.

This year we creamed it and got to see an impressive 8 individuals, over 9 sightings, from a single park. Not only that but we were often able to spend extended quality time with them. Half of the sightings we found the tiger and luxuriated in being alone with it way before others arrived. Perhaps the cherry on the top was a lovely female who we accompanied a long distance with her two adolescent cubs in tow!

Indian wildlife is, however, about so much more than just tigers. We heard leopards mating, saw sambar and spotted deer, chinkara gazelle, blackbuck, wild boar, a sloth bear, nilgai, striped hyena, Hanuman langurs, rhesus macaques, flying foxes, crocodiles, jungle cats and a plethora of exotic birds including thousands of demoiselle cranes, painted storks, woolly necked storks, kingfishers, thick knees, parakeets and the omnipresent ‘trash’ birds the unlikely peacock!

Our trip included a large dose of Rajasthani culture, ancient forts, markets and the amazing people living close to the ground in the countryside. We could not have been better received or more welcome and posed with locals for selfies too numerous to mention. I just love full immersion into a culture of strangers, always remembering that when we travel to far flung destinations we are the foreigners not they. We laughed hard, gelled as a group and maintained a high level of ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling as we breezed through each day marvelling at daily life and the cows that were everywhere.

The timing of the trip was centered around the amazing Pushkar camel fair, said to be the largest camel fair in the world. A true exhuberence of India condensed into a single venue. An assault on every sense from a riot of color, blaring music, Holy men, pilgrims, a longest moustache competition, Yogis, exotic flavors and pungent odors to the rough texture of a camel herders handshake. There is something about camels. They are always taller than you think and can be somewhat imposing. Yet, despite many kilos of decorations adorning necks, heads, backs and feet or the intricate patterns that cover their bodies or intricate shaved designs in their pelage they always seem to remain aloof. They crave no affection and stoically perform their duties where the reward of a full bag of fodder at the end of the day justifies their effort.

City smog was bad, terrible actually and an industrial agricultural revolution seems to be advancing fiercely. Of course, it’s always good to be home but no sooner had we landed back in South Africa than we were ready to go back. Incredible India – we miss you already!

*Keep checking our website for our next India itinerary.

All images ©PeteOxford.