The Ranger’s Lodge Calling

The Ranger’s Lodge has been operational for more than 6 months and has been thoroughly appreciated by 6 of the total 10 rooms/guests so far, as there reviews have been published by the TripAdvisor till mid April. A German lady, known to me from the days of my former project, and her 8 years old son had experienced my hospitality & naturalistic instincts along with her friend and a same age kid, as the two kids studied in the German school in Delhi and their mothers wanted the two kids to unwind with me.  Possibly, after the first satisfactory trip, the same guest repeated, within a month, in a bigger group – her entire family (three kids and husband besides her visiting brother-in Law and his two kids from Germany).  During their first trip, I had exposed the kids to bird watching, ethno-botany, nature interpretation, understanding the indirect evidences in the jungles and tiger tracking besides making them taste the local flavour in the Mangal Bazaar of Kaniya village where the kids had made jalebis and eaten them too.  Two jeep safaris, an elephant safari and a walking safari had satisfied their quest for tigers, the cynosure of every eye.  We had 300% tiger sightings from all the above safaris.  Finally, I planned a safari to the biggest wetland in Corbett landscape, just 20km from The Ranger’s Lodge through the forests of Corbett Landscape.  The place offers excellent wetland birding opportunities in winters right from the first week of October till the March end.  Though late in the season, our trip caught quite a few resident ducks and waders besides a few species found on the grassland – farms ecotone.

We had spotted a great Crested Grebe, one of the prized sightings at Tumariya.  All the 05 kids somehow insisted on using my Canon 60D and being at Tumariya at the sunset was an icing on the cake, as Tumariya offers one of the most beautiful sunsets of the region.  We had an adventurous safari to tumariya, as on the way back in the pitch dark I had lost the trail to The ranger’s Lodge and instead took a wrong trail into the plantations.