Neil Island, Andaman

Friday 13 June 2008

Jim Corbett

The seven of us started on a midsummer night for Ramnagar. Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve has several entrances, the most accessible among them is Ramnagar. With few hiccups we reached there by 5 AM. It was critical. The booking for rooms/dormitories within the jungle start at 6 and one has to be among first few in the queue to get them. Manas took care of that. As a temporary arrangement, a circuit house was booked for us to rest and relieve ourself in the morning. By lunch we finally entered the gates of reserve and were settled in a large dormitory in the middle of the jungle.


The evening was spent in a jungle safari which proved more adventurous that expected thanks to a female elephant which started running towards us. Those were few scary moments. We were not expecting to see tigers. It is a rare sight even in Jim Corbett.


Later in the night we were surprised to be served delicious homely dinner by the servants. The seven of us then fell asleep after some chit chat and bantering. I woke up at around 4 AM with some noise that was coming from outside. It was still dark. As I came out I realized that two of my friends were already standing outside. It was raining hard. The entire area was almost flooded.


That delayed our exit till 9 AM. Just before we were leaving, two jeep full of girls alighted and the look on our faces was worth a mention. We couldn't believe we were leaving with a worst possible timing. Later we went to Gharzia Temple and had a dip in the flowing river while it was still raining. We were back to Delhi before 9 and a compact weekend holiday was well spent.