March 15
Today we were back to what we thought would be a typical game drive day: up at 5:00, coffee/tea/juice and muffins, then into our jeep. When we got to the park entrance we discovered we were going on an elephant game drive, that is,we were going to ride elephants. From a platform, we climbed onto our elephants in groups of two or three, then headed out into a grassy meadow, mostly consisting of elephant grass. We were able to get very close to Asian rhino and have an interesting perspective. The game drive lasted about an hour, which was a sufficient amount of time. After a post ride breakfast we headed out in our jeeps for a more traditional game drive. We saw more rhino (Kaziranga holds more than 1600, two-thirds of the population) and a herd of wild elephant, which crossed the road right in front of our vehicle. We stopped off at an observation platform to see what was in the surrounding area. We spotted various water fowl and some river otters. Our guide asked us to quickly and quietly go to our vehicles — they had received word that a tiger was spotted. We raced off to find the tiger, driving fast over very bumpy dirts roads. Riding in the back was quite an adventure. We were able to spot the tiger. He was in the river that runs through the park, a bit in the distance, but still visible. By the end of our morning drive, we had seen the Assamese big five: elephant, rhino, tiger, buffalo, and swamp deer.
After lunch, we headed out again for our second game drive of the day. It was a short one because Kaziranga, though well east of Delhi, is in the same time zone, so both sunrise and sunset are an. Hour earlier here. We saw lots of rhino, at least 35, including one about five weeks old and another about two months old. We of course had many bird sightings both in the morning and afternoon, several that were new to us.
Our trip leader asked us to observe the differences between the tigers we saw in Central India, for example Kanha, and the one we saw here in Kaziranga. You first notice that the Central India tiger has more white on the face and the manes are bigger. The eye shape is also different. The Kaziranga tiger is a bit more orange in color, and bulkier.
Pictured: elephant ride, wild elephants crossing the road, Assam tiger in the water, Indian rhino
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