Day Seven

It was a pretty simple drive today. We took in the Bandhavgarh morning as we drove through the escarpment areas in order to get to where some 2-year-olds were spending time. As soon as we got to the area we saw a big cub walking in the forest. We watched as he strolled through the trees and wandered away across a meadow. The next tree line gave him cover but we could still tell which way he had gone. We got to a spot where there was a nice arch in the forest leading out to the meadow.

We were ready as he entered the arch and looked at us. We weren’t prepared when he suddenly turned and bolted back the way he had come. His previously hidden brother had come out of the forest and ambushed a huge sambar antelope. By the time we got to the spot he was dragging the kill out into the open meadow towards a stand of trees. There he stayed as the returning brother sniffed the kill site and joined him in the trees. I hope we can come back here in the afternoon. The rest of the drive was spent searching for other tigers and photographing other stuff because we couldn’t find any cats. There were monkeys running with bright backlighting, a kingfisher, wood peckers and fantastically ugly adjutant storks.

The afternoon game drive was simply to find the three sub-adults and see what they were doing. We found the first in a meadow a good distance from the road. As we searched for the others a strong wind began to blow, lightning flashed and thunder crashed in the distance. Fat rain drops began to fall and the lightning got nearer as we found a second in a protected ravine. It wasn’t far from the road but it was so dark which was made even worse by the storm. Here’s where the D4 earns its keep. I put the ISO up to 12,400 and still could only get 1/30th of a second. If I didn’t move and the big cat didn’t move the photos were good.

As the clouds broke up odd storm light filtered into the ravine and there are some magic photos from this shoot. We raced the next wave of rain clouds back to the lodge and had dinner and a Photoshop lesson before bed.

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