The Weekend Trip to Chikhaldara Wildlife Sanctuary
It was the “bada weekend” so to speak. It’s been too much for the last couple of months. All this work was killing me. And so I decided to kill that stress bottled up within me. I took out my Royal Enfield and headed for the hills. This time it would be the Chikhaldara Wildlife Sanctuary. Vinod would be my partner in crime this time.
If I could leave my home in Nagpur early enough, I guessed, I would be able to reach the place in about 3 hours. After all, Chikhaldara was just 230 kilometers away from the city. Of course, we’d have to stop for some chai on the way. So I guessed it might take an hour more max. But whatever, we’d reach our resort before lunch. Vinod wasn’t used to driving the Enfield, and I wasn’t ready to drive it for three hours in a stretch. But he’s an amazing partner otherwise.
I wanted to see the Tiger here for a change. I’ve been to a few other forests and sanctuaries, but have never been lucky. But my friend from work did manage to see the big cat on his last visit to Chikhaldara Wildlife Sanctuary. So I was hopeful that perhaps lady-luck would shine my way too. I wanted to try some rock climbing too at Bakadari Kalalkund. I’ve done this before. Let me tell you, it’s an adrenalin rush. You’ve gotta try it someday man, if you’ve not done so already.
Anyway, we headed out around 8 in the morning, and as planned, we reached our resort just in time to catch a shower and grab a good meal. The resort wasn’t premium property. I wasn’t looking for one honestly. Just a decent and clean place would do for me just fine. The food was sumptuous though.
The next day was the big one. We had already booked our safari on reaching the resort, and were in time to take our seat on the jeep. I was excited in anticipation of coming face-to-face with the yellow stripes. Would I be lucky? I didn’t know honestly. So we headed into the forest with mixed emotions.
It was an exciting couple of hours certainly. In the end I felt a bit sad because we could still not see the tiger. But the wildlife we saw more than compensated for this loss. We saw barking deers, langurs, sambar, and even wild dogs, which we were told is quite rare. We also saw a couple of amazing waterfalls. So in the end, it was a happy experience.
I’d like to return to the Chikhaldara Wildlife Sanctuary someday, for some tiger may be if I’m lucky.
