Bandhavgarh National Park is one of three well known tiger reserves in the Indian state of Madya Pradesh. Our journey from Varanasi was an overnight 11hr train ride which went by quickly while we were in a deep slumber.

Once we exited the train and began haggling with a taxi driver who’s price seemed outrageous, we settled on an auto rickshaw for the hour or so drive to Tala, just outside the park. We soon realized why the taxi was expensive. As we bounced our way along the chewed up asphalt we regretted the rickshaw decision. After checking a few accommodation options we walked down the street and met the friendly “manager” for Bagalha hotel and decided to stay there because it met our budget and the staff were very friendly. Almost immediately we made plans for our evening safari.

Bandhavgarh is famous for its high density of tigers and is where many of those famous tiger shots of National Geographic come from. We befriended a professional photographer/hotel owner who specialized in shooting tigers and provided us with a lot of info on local parks and tigers. He was to come along on our safari the next day.

Our safari the first evening was enjoyable but unfortunately we were stuck to zone 2 because the primary area was booked solid. Our chances for viewing tigers was minimal but we still enjoyed the many sambar, spotted deer, langur monkeys and wild boar we saw.

With the sunlight leaving it was time to exit and we began to look forward to the morning safari. On the way down the main road back to town, something caught the corner of my eye and after they adjusted I realized I was staring a cat in the face. Too small for a tiger, it was a leopard crouched between the grass. The driver slammed on the breaks and just as I was readying my camera the leopard turned, revealed his beautiful spotted coat and was gone in an instant. The guide was amazed and informed us this is even rarer than viewing tigers and he only sees them once a month or so. It was a good start.

This is where the good news was to end unfortunately and that evening we learned that permits were stills old out for Nov 16th for the main gate. The next day was spent waiting around in this one horse town for the following day when we were permitted to enter the main park. Luckily there was a beer shop across the road.

That morning we were devastated to wake up and find it had rained all night and was continually raining off and on. Our photographer/tiger expert explained that this severely affects our chances of tiger sightings as the tigers prefer to hide in the bushes and do not roam around when it is raining. Even more frustrating was learning that this is extremely rare weather for this time of year and that no one could seem to remember the last time it rained in the fall.

Our morning safari was a wet one to say the least and despite our best efforts and some exciting moments discovering fresh tracks and hearing alarm calls, we could not spot any tigers. In fact, no one had that morning. We prayed that the evening would clear for our final safari. It didn’t! We were treated to another soaking wet jeep ride with no tiger sightings.

Due to our lost days because of problems with permits, weather and uncooperative tigers. We made some last minute changes to our train schedule and planned to stay one final night at the park and give it one last go early the following morning.

Again we awoke to rain falling on the roof and spent the next 3hrs in the soggy jeep. We were less than thrilled with our luck. Tiger-less again, we were on our way to the exit route the sun began to shine and our driver heard the alarm calls of some sambar alerting that a tiger was near. Our heart rates quickened and we positioned ourselves with two clear lines of sight. We then heard the langur monkeys emitting an alarm call and our driver explained that the tiger was in the nearby bushes walking or sitting near the deer. Of course this being the place of bad luck for us, we were already late for exiting the park and had only a few minutes to see if the tiger would show itself, so we were forced to leave.

Back at the resort we discovered a strange twist and our so called “friendly manager” who brought us in his jeep, was simply a driver and took commission off people on hotel rates and safaris as long as they believed he was the manager. The only hint that something was weird was when he came to the door of the hotel and had our rates worked out on a scrap piece of paper. Since no one else we knew worked at the hotel and spoke English or told us otherwise, we ignorantly assumed what he was telling us the truth. No harm was done and we only lost a few extra dollars but as we normally do, its good advice to speak to other travelers about the rates they are paying before agreeing on a price.

Despite our bad luck, Bandhavgarh is a beautiful national park and somewhere I would love to come to back to. Our park guides and drivers were all excellent and its lovely to see how much more seriously India manages its national parks compared to what we experienced in Chitwan. But with tiger sightings nothing is ever a guarantee!