Gir Forest National Park

Hi!

Today I’m going to tell you a bit about my second trip in India. On the last week of May, we went to Gir National Park, home of the Asiatic lion, which is the main attraction of the safaris there. We went there because it is not too far from here (some 6 hours); because it is in Gujarat, so we could do it in a weekend; and also because some of the lions will be taken away to another park, which means that there will be less and they will be harder to see. It seems that, as they are endangered, the Supreme Court of India has decided that they have to send some of them to another region, so that, if there is a fire, they get sick, etc., they do not disappear completely. Gujaratis are not very happy about that… but I think they are just being stubborn.

The trip started on a Saturday evening and we came back the night between Monday and Tuesday. We had to get to a bus stop, where we took a tiny mini-bus to bring us to the bus for Junagadh. When we arrived there, a car would take us to the National Park, an hour away. We arrived at 7 in the morning and could relax during the whole morning. The place was amazing. Our cottage was in the middle of a mango orchard, and so quiet…

Our cottage.

The mango orchard we were in.

Mango trees.

At 3 in the afternoon we had our first safari. Our guide was very nice and he could speak English… well… a bit of English… ;) We saw loads of birds, such as eagles, owls, etc. (there are over 300 species), deer, peacocks, and, of course, lions! Well, they were sleeping because of the heat… We also had a safari on the second day and we saw a leopard, which is quite impressive, as they seem to be very shy. We don’t have pictures of it because we saw it walking among the trees from quite far away, but it was very exciting. That day, in which the safari started at 6 in the morning, we also saw lions, and much closer. They were a young couple sleeping on a shadow, close to a fountain to have water when they wake up. You can have a look at the pictures.

An eagle.

A peacock.

A blue bird... but I don't remember its name!

A bunch of deers wondering who are the guys taking
pictures of them.

A stag.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps today...

A termite mound.

An owl, I'd say...

Another owl. This was quite far and it was really hard to see. Luckily, the guides know where to find them...

I don't remember the name of this animal, but I found it very funny, as
it seems it is wearing socks.

A couple of coyotes.

A pack of wild boars. There were around 20.

More fauna.

Deers drinking.

A lion track.

Lions sleeping on a shadow.

One of the lions.

Me on the back seat of the jeep.

In the jeep, I was sitting in the back part (because I had less problems to hear the guide) and it was quite nice… until, on the first day, we realized that it was 6 and the park was about to close… so we had to go very fast. I thought that I was going to end up flying away and eaten up by the lions for dinner. Well, I’m exaggerating a bit, I really enjoyed it! It was like a rollercoaster… ;) And, by the way (comment for literature freaks), I was all the time thinking about Francis Macomber…  J

As the safaris are 3 hours long, we had the rest of the time to relax, which was great. We could read, wander around the mangoes, eat mangoes falling at our feet and enjoy them in the shadow… Moreover, the people working there were very nice and the food… what we usually call Indian food… ;) It was delicious! Five or six dishes to choose from (we were eating a bit of everything, in fact), rotis, dessert… And all vegetarian. Except for one day; they cooked a dish with meat and we were a bit annoyed, because we think it was just for us, the foreigners (don’t forget that here being vegetarian is the common thing).

Here is where we used to have lunch, with a nice view.

More mangoes.

This wall was the only thing between the lions and us...

A huge ant. These you can find them anywhere, though.

And that is pretty much it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Next entry will be about another trip, to Udaipur, in Rajasthan. See you then! 

A mango tree that almost looks like a christmas tree.