Jim’s Jungle Retreat

We reached delhi airport and I was surprised how pleasant the weather was even near the end of March. The day was of rangpanchami and it was wild outside.

We had booked the private car and our driver met us right outside the airport.

It’s 248 kms of the distance which is surprisingly not very crowded and much pleasant compared to the route from Dehradun which is 147 kms of distance (we took return flights from Dehradun)

Even though I booked my both flights through jet privilege points the statistics of the well planned planning shows that if you book delhi flight even one weak before it’s around 2000-2500 Rs lesser than that of the Dehradun and also the cab fare is almost half. So you end up saving lot of money if you are willing to invest more hours on the road.

Other reason to take flight from Delhi rather than Dehradun was the road travel which I like and the food of Dhabas on the highway which is one accountable experience if your are a foodie.

The day we reached in the resort it was a wonderful surprise by my husband’s best planning methods to search the hotels that are unique, less crowded and totally worth trying out.

Jim’s jungle retreat was one of the best properties I have stayed so far including international travels. As I was working in the 5 hotel industry that time I had keen eye for the room inspection and the room of this property made me feel pleasantly surprised. The details and comfort in a minimal source usage was unbelievable strategy.

We stayed in our cozy rooms and rested well as we had an adventure planned the next day morning

But the lesser we knew the adventure was we were surrounded by as we experienced tiger growling in the middle of the night very near to our room. ( But there is no reason to be scared or worried as the place is very safe)

The early morning we woke up to take the safari into the quiet jungle and catch some wild sides of the nature with out guide, driver and jeep along with one more family of three. As we started the journey towards jungle we witnessed beautiful sunrise and animal kingdom coming to awake with it. We were lucky to spot wild boar, grey langur, sambar deer, deers, kingfishers and peacocks. Though we were soured by not being able to spot tiger we still had hope in our more safaris to come.

As we returned to the property we were greeted by the monkeys and cats playing around the varanda and sitting on the charpoy.

As we rested there after our lunch we also spotted indian grey hornbill which is one of the rarest to be spotted.

As towards the end of the afternoon we decided to take walking safari with one of the very experienced guides of the resort in the banks of the river Kosi.

As he was explaining and telling us about the experiences of his encounters with tigers the Sun was setting slowly and evening was turning towards dark. We had spotted Nilgay, foot prints of elephants and foxes by now.

As we reached on the other side of the bank there was a small patch of jungle which we crossed and waited to spot something interesting across the other side. While to our surprise we heard the growling and thumping from behind us and our guide warned us what he could make out from those sounds. It was a mother tiger with cubs and she was on the hunting at the moment. We could hear the screeching sound of the sambar deer and then a fight between two animals which ended with the heart tearing scream of the sambar deer. The hunt was successful but we still had to head back to the resort the same way we came from and that wasn’t looking as a very promising route taking in consideration that we were on our feet. As excited as I was to see the tiger in this safari at that particular point all three of us were praying for not to face the tiger.

After around 15-20 as the jungle sounded quite we decided to start walking back as it was getting darker every moment.

As we started crossing the river bank again we saw the kill and foxes hovering over it and no sign of the tiger family.

We returned to the resort with thrilling experience and still without the tiger sighting even after being in within merely few meter radius from the tiger.

We woke up in morning with much cooler breezes as it had rained a bit the previous night and we were excited about one more of our jungle safari.

As we reached halfway through our safari we had already spotted vultures, bee-eater, peacock and many other birds.

As we went on top part of the jungle we could see down the heard of elephants venturing for water some of which later on came up the hill and very close to our vehicles.

We ended that trip as well unfortunately without the golden sighting but we still managed to spot some more deers closely.

Rest of the day we rested well and let our self enjoy the property and foot massage with nice view of pond full of lotus garden.

At night the hotel manager offered and arranged nice private dinner for us on the machan. They took good efforts to make it memorable and romantic.