India…It’s everything you imagined and more than you imagined.

Early mornings are part of life in India. Day break will see us rattling along some forest track in our little jeeps. There are three ways to find tigers – you can follow their pug marks, you can listen for their prey’s alarm calls or you can just bump into them.

Finding a good place to just park up and listen is the key. An open space, on a slight hill overlooking a valley is best. Listening to the world awakening in such a place is simply an unforgettable experience.

In the distance, way in the distance, a monkey calls. It’s a single alarm made by a grey langur. A full minute later, another call. Langurs will call for both leopards and tigers. This call is too relaxed as a response to a leopard. Leopards can hunt langurs in trees and so they really react strongly when they see one. I can visualise a tiger lying down under a tree on the dry river bed somewhere down in the valley. We make our way slowly in that direction.

We search for pug marks as we drive. We soon find them. Now things are getting real. A tigress has walked on this road just before dawn. The prints are still shiny. Ahead, it looks like a barefoot human has crossed the road – a sloth bear is on the move in the area too. We turn off the engine and listen again. Another call comes. We now spot the monkey. He is on top of the tallest tree and looking towards the dry river bed, a nala as it is known. .. My guess is that there is a tigress having a snooze right there. I know the area. There are evergreen jamun trees there that provide shade- their roots connected deeply to the underground river – unlike the dhok forest all around with its deciduous, now dessicating leaves But it’s inaccessible to us. We wait. Now the langur starts to call repeatedly. The tigress appears to be on the move, heading south. A spotted deer starts to call, then another, and another. We drive on to a spot we know where the nala comes close to our track. Two enormous banyans frame our field of view. We can’t quite see into the nala itself as there is a slight rise blocking our view. The troop of monkeys are now all calling and  the spotted deer in high-pitched voice. The queen of the jungle has her audience. This is what makes the tiger so special. It’s the effect that that it has on all the other forest creatures. The biggest of the deer, a sambar, barks in alarm and comes running over the slight rise in front of us. It disappears behind us in full flight. She is close. Then a delay…a pause for dramatic effect….and the tigress steps out on to the stage right in front of us, framed by those two enormous spirit trees. She stops and gazes, assessing her options. Which way to go. She ignores us completely. We all listen to the sounds of the forest with her in a moment of togetherness. Another monkey calls….but this is from further down the valley. And now the deer are calling too. She is on high alert. She knows there is another tiger not far away. One tiger is exciting. Two tigers in an area. Now that’s spine tinglingly exciting. Anything can happen now. They are highly territorial. Who might this new tiger be? A parent, a sibling, a rival, a male……..we are about to find out……because it’s coming in our direction….

We tend to spend about four hours morning and evening moving about in our jeeps and finding what we can. In Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan, tigers are top of the list I guess! .We go out on each drive with them at the fore front of our minds but we  run into so much more along the way. A hyena skulks home after a night out, a serpent crested eagle swoops down for a snake, a mugger crocodile hauls itself on to a sand bar. Tigers prey is plentiful – chital, sambhar, wild boar, nilgai. Fantastic and varied bird life. Wonderful scenery and hidden, ancient buildings, covered by the forest. Peacocks displaying. Screaming parakeets. Barbets calling. It’s just magical.

Assam is a different world. In Kaziranga, in the vast Brahmaputra river valley….we search for Indian rhinos, herds of elephants, groups of river otters, giant hornbills, hog-nosed badgers, hoolock gibbons, giant squirrels….amongst the elephants grasses, waterways and subtropical forests. An entire new set of birds are here. Amazing birds of prey. Tigers too in good numbers but are much more difficult to track…but could be just around the next corner….

Fantastic jungle lodge accommodation, amazing food, excellent service at every turn. Come if you can….