At the end of the four mile hike we reach the compound at the end of the road. It is built around a temple with multiple descriptions of the history of the area and how it was a hunting ground of the local king and how all the larger predators were eliminated year after year. It also has a refreshment kiosk that we plan to use but first we want to visit the two watchtowers to see if any interesting birds or mammals are around.
The first watchtower grants us some nice views of the marshlands including a large number of Nilgai but nothing really exciting. However we meet here the only other Westerner that we talked with on the trail about birds and other countries and locations. He tells us about a group of owls at the nearby watchtower and promises to show them to us.
We walk with him to the nearby watchtower and he shows the owls to us. They are a first to us, a mother Dusky Eagle Owl with two owlets just below here. There are many other people here watching them but without our new friend we likely would have missed them.
We then stop for a few refreshments and some snacks which we eat while watching the flying foxes in the trees. We almost miss the macaque spying on us and coming close and closer. After we see him he pretends to be uninterested and we can eat and drink in peace before starting on our return trip.
Returning we keep an eye open for any interesting birds but we see mostly huge turtles, Ganges Softshell Turtles, lounging on the water side. They are quite cute and interesting to watch and we spend some time before moving on.
There are quite a few birds along the road and now also fewer tourists. We really like the White-eared bulbuls, there are a lot of them here but for us they are rare as we haven’t seen them previously.
The herons are especially fun to watch as they walk around then sit poised to strike and then with the speed of lightning strike catching whatever unfortunate fish swam close to them.
We deviate from the main road on a side loop that is less popular. There is a person who really doesn’t want us to go down that road convincing us that there is nothing to see, likely he would have preferred for us to take the rickshaw he was driving back to the entrance. It is a quiet area with only a few village womans passing by as we make our way through the forest.
And because it is quiet there is also wildlife including spotted deer. They really are not scared of us, likely we are more scared that they will attack us if they feel threatened.
We are seriously scared of macaques though given all the horror stories we heard but they are quiet today. We should have been scared of the Giant Honey Bees as they are aggressive but we didn’t know at the time so we passed carelessly below them.
As the loop returns to the main road near the first refreshment kiosk we continue south on the part of the road we haven’t walked initially as we were on the first loop at that point. We pass the interpretative center which likely was impressive at some point but now it is closed and doesn’t seem to be used anymore.
There are few people this late in the day even on the main road leading to animals and birds to frequent also the area close to the road. Spotted deer bucks are surprisingly common but also birds like peacocks. We are quite tired when we reach the parking lot, we walked over 8 miles but it was beautiful and great to be able to enjoy nature for a while. We return to the hotel for dinner and then it is time to sleep as we have another significant drive in front of us to a nature lodge in Chambal, the den of thieves.
