And with these thoughts in my mind one fine Sunday i just went out for a ride,I have been planning to visit tadoba from quite a long time.But the visit didn't happened due to shit loads of work/dependency at office.
So lsat Sunday.I started towards Tadoba,concrete route has not been planned.But idea was to hit Chandrapur then Moharli gate of Tadoba.But it didn't happened as expected.I traveled till Yavatmal that day and called the day off.Got an stinky/smelly underground accommodation for 300 bucks.The most stupid thing which i did was,I forgot to bring the memory card for the camera..which i came to know when i stopped for a photo break between Mehkar to Karanja in the daytime.So i had to buy a 04 GB card from Yavatmal.
.Around 580 kms of run for today and here is the route which i followed
Monday morning,It was office for me.But who cares about it,when you are out there to live your life.I called up office and i did what i do best 'KALTI'.
In the morning i moved towards WANI,in between i get to taste the awesome 04 lane road connecting HYD and Nagpur.Though the rest of the part of this highway - NH7 is under four laning,hence the other stretches towards Nagpur and HYD are in messy state.
I followed with the plan till WANI - City of BLACK DIAMOND.From there i have been re-routed to some other gate of Tadoba.Public told me that go to Kolara gate instead of Moharli gate,as distance wise its quite close.
So from WANI,i went to Warora.From warora i further inquired and now public told me,no need to go till Kolara.There is one more gate prior to that,take a right turn from a village named Kharsingi.I did found the village after a run of 30 kms.But the road taking towards the gate was all KACHHA

here's what i am talking about
Still i took that route and after 10 Kms i was stopped at a Forest Naka and the officer said other than local peoples no one is allowed to go past this gate. !!!
Oh Fish,then why they have placed that board at the Highway saying 'take right to reach tadoba tiger reserve'.They advised to go at Kolara gate where they have proper arrangement for Safari and Hotel stay.
Now Kolara gate was another 30 Kms from there.I had to reach Chimur and take right from Chimur and another 11 kms and i was there at Kolara gate.The gate looked completely deserted.And my hope of visiting the Reserve just died.
01 km before Kolara gate
When i inquired more about the fees for the entry and safari,they told me that entry fees is very less but Safari gypsy will cost 1500.The problem was,if its been on sharing basis,it would have been shared among 06 peoples.But 1500 for 01 person was very high.Apart from that a guide is required which costs 200.Per person ticket is just 22 Rs.Charges for vehicle entering the reserve is 50.Damn !..it rounds up to approx 2000
So i left that gate,as there were no other visitors.I started towards Moharli gate,which is quite commercialized and has more visitors.
I took an risk of taking internal route.Moharli gate was just 35 Kms from Kolara,if taken the Jungle route.
But the bad thing is other than locals nobody is allowed to take that route.So for me the distance was 65 kms.I had to go back towards Warora.Reach till shegaon and take a left from there.Shegaon to Aashta and then to Moharli.
I reached moharli around 02:40.That means the safari for the second half were already left.So no chance of getting a shared safari

Disappointed me turned back and stopped at a nearby stall to have some tea and Parle - G.While i was having second round of tea,i saw a sumo with bunch of tourists crossing by.I guessed these are the late comers just like me.So i immediately finished my tea and rushed towards the gate.
And yes i had some company for the safari now.the bargaining and ticket booking took some time and we were good to go at 03:30 PM.01 hour already wasted

Beginning was good,Darshan of Gajaraj

Awesome roads inside Tadoba

I did not had any sightings that day,but we missed 06 of them just by 10-20 mins.We saw the fresh pug marks on the gypsy Tyre marks which went earlier from those places.
A bird at rest
Its Ok,if i didn't get to see any tigers.It enough for me that at least i got to went inside.
:POn sharing basis it costed me 350 rs only.
And when the sun went down
Since tadoba is closed on Tuesday,I decided to come to chandrapur as the accommodation at Tadoba was minimum 2000.Chandrapur is just 26 Kms from here,so i came to Chandrapur and stayed for the night for 250 bucks.I traveled around 300 kms for today,mostly circling around tadoba :P
Cheers
Biru




Another Ride!


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