Sorry for the late nature of this post… I’ve been waiting two days for pictures to upload!
It has again been a few days here since I last wrote and this will probably be about the right frequency as I find time here when I’m not working. It’s about 7:30 PM MT right now, and I’m sitting in my room awaiting breakfast in Bangalore. Actually, I’m about to miss a trip to some local waterfalls, everyone else is gathering downstairs right now… but after yesterday I’m looking forward to a day of relaxing, maybe even a trip to the gym upstairs, getting some sun by the pool… and a few fancy drinks tonight to top off the weekend.
As I write this, the days somewhat get mixed up in my head because of the work schedule that keeps me from really adjusting. I went to work Friday night into Saturday morning on an Indian holiday, had a good and oddly calm time at work, and then after headed back to the hotel to get ready for a safari of a different kind! If you read this blog you know I went on safari in South Africa (two, actually!) and when I heard there was one here in Bangalore (with tigers!!) it was hard to pass it up. I hadn’t slept in nearly 19 hours when we left for the hour drive to the safari park… but I was ready and willing to stay out late if I had to. We headed off to Bannerghatta Biological Park, just outside of Bangalore.
Brian and I went with coworkers from our Ireland office who are also here to mentor and work, and we had a driver take us from the hotel to the park in his car. When we arrived, our driver suggested leaving “everything” behind in his car for protection against pickpockets. He suggested taking only enough money for admittance, and to be very careful around people. I wasn’t born yesterday… and wasn’t about to leave everything I owned (including identification) in the back of some guy’s car in the middle of a foreign country! That said, I did decide to put my wallet in my front pocket, and we headed into the park.
The safari park does both private tours (which amount to about $50 US dollars for four people to rent a Jeep) and bus-ride tours for about $4-8 per person depending. Cameras are extra, and there is a butterfly area, a zoo trip, and the safari included. The entryway walks through a market where locals are allowed to set up stalls that sell everything from sugar can drinks (freshly crushed) that I really want to try to bottles of water and fresh coconuts that they will open right there with a machete so that you can drink and then eat the insides. We were early to ensure we got a Jeep, and everyone was still setting up. After getting our Jeep, we had an hour to kill until the safari opened and we walked into a nearby park to sit and talk, getting to know the coworkers. The end result of the waiting was actually a nice base for a tan… I’ll have to keep working on that. Once 10:00 rolled around we jumped in our Jeep, and readied ourselves for adventure.
I should start off this next part by saying that I was about to experience a very odd feeling that had nothing to do with Bannerghatta. To a very large degree, the safari was a lot of fun. We started off on the herbivore section, looking at spotted deer, buffalo (not American buffalo), and a few others… before heading onto the lions, bears, and tigers (out of order… so no ‘oh my!’). I’m sharing some of my pictures here, but there are many more that are amazing. We got so close to a female lion that she could have jumped up and taken the camera right out of my hands… … … and that’s where the similarities really started to end between my last adventure in South Africa, and this one.
The Jeep we were in was firstly not a Jeep, but a local brand of vehicle that appeared to be very much a stock version. My Jeep at home could have easily traversed the paths that we did. The roads were artificially roughened (not maintained, but paved) to make the trail seem hard… but overall there was not any feeling of “trekking”, we weren’t earning anything or really trying for pictures… the animals were showing up where the park feeds them everyday (at the same time the safari park opens, of course) on the herbivore side, and in the large “free roam” pens containing the dangerous animals you could see not only the cages they are kept in, but some were still barely climbing out of them, and it became clear quickly that we were not at a safari park, but at a zoo with larger, outdoor cages.
When compared to Kapama (the second and larger safari park I went to in Africa), Kariega had seemed somewhat lackluster to both Jen and I on our trip to Africa. Standing by itself, Kariega was an amazing experience and I would go back in a heartbeat… but the land was limited in comparison to Kapama and the animals were not freely allowed to roam. The safari park had to buy its animals, so it wasn’t about to put the springbok in with the lions. With that said, they never interfered with the health of their animals and would let the lions hunt by putting in a moderate amount of animals they could eat… talk about an accountant’s version of “the lion’s share”!
In addition to those… the animals at Bannerghatta are teased by the staff, encouraged to open their mouths, to be available and to entertain. The Jeep was covered in metal caging so that, should they attack, we could sneak further back inside the barrier and hide. To some degree, this is of course safer than Kariega/Kapama, and you could make the argument that it’s more safe or perhaps at Kariega/Kapama the animals are less dangerous… but I would disagree with you. In Africa there is a lot more respect for the nature of the animals, the killer instinct, and the relationship we have with them. At Bannerghatta… the cage is there to allow the violation of that respect, and it didn’t feel right at all.
Overall, the picture opportunities were great and I can’t begrudge that, though some of these were taken by my driver using my camera as it was on the other side of the car. It was a good way to finish an evening, even if the traffic was terrible on the way back. I couldn’t help, however, but wish I was back in South Africa. I’ve never missed it more.
Here are a few photos from the trip as we went through the park:
