Our next stop is at the Jamtara Wilderness Camp, a 30 minute drive along heavily rutted dirt tracks from one of the gates into Pench National Park and Tiger Reserve. The park itself is split between the states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, but mostly in the latter and was a 5 hour drive north from Tadobe, our first Tiger Reserve.

Pench, another park less visited because of difficult access and limited accommodation is home to a wide variety of Indian wild life including tigers and leopards. The park is centred around a vast and dense forest recognized as one of India’s wilderness areas. As we learn rampant hunting, deforestation and shifting agriculture needs led to destruction both of the forest and the natural habitat of the indigenous wildlife. Conservation began in earnest in 1975 and a few years later, the national park was created.

“Mowgli Land”, because the forest was the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book”

Day 1

Once again we set out before dawn…..and in our open-top 4-wheel drive, it’s cold! Our guide is determined to find a leopard for us and we scour the park in the early morning light looking for any sign…..which usually means looking for groups of parked vehicles with their passengers frantically pointing both fingers and long-lensed cameras. And encountering one such grouping, we do indeed spot a leopard, a distance away strolling through the undergrowth. Unfortunately too far away and hidden for a photo

But that all changed towards the end of our afternoon session in the park. Most of the afternoon was pretty quiet with a few wildlife sightings, but not the big one. Then as the afternoon was drawing to a close, our driver/guide spotted a jeep behind us speeding up. So he did too! Once again, the “bat out of hell/pub is about to close” scenario until we come across a large collection of jostling jeeps filled with excited camera toting tourists all pointing in the same direction. And we weren’t disappointed as we treated to the sight we were all hoping for…..a female leopard who we couldn’t have been any closer to

Day 2

Up and out again by 6:00 am - still dark and surprisingly cold! During the morning, our closest encounter with a leopard is talking to another jeep-load of tourists who had just seen one and showed us their photos.

Much else to see though in the spectacular forest (check out the photo album). But perhaps the most memorable sight was of a white-throated kingfisher enjoying its mid-morning snack - an entire frog. The bird was obviously having a bit of a struggle trying to swallow it whole and repeatedly bashed it on the branch it was perched on, presumably to ensure it was dead and well “tenderized”.

Our final afternoon Pench safari was eerily quiet. We see very little wildlife beyond a few spotted deer (the commonest creature in the park) and the occasional monkey, seemingly deep in thought. We are on our way out of the park in the late afternoon close to closing time, when our guide picks up a message that leopards have been spotted. “Bat out of hell” time again as we tear through the park at alarming speeds holding on for dear life (and remember, this is a completely open vehicle with no seat belts)! But boy, is it worth it when we spot a pair of leopard cubs perched together on a rock hidden amongst the trees

We’re offered another early morning safari on the day of our departure but decline as we have a five hour drive to our next camp - and besides which it would be difficult to best what we’d already seen. Instead we decide to visit the nearby village of Jantara together with our guide and one of our camp employees who lives in the village and was keen to show us his home and introduce us to his family