We were up before dawn and although it was obviously cooler than daytime it wasn't the near 0°C we're used to in Africa. We layered up and headed down for coffee and biscuits before heading off for the morning drive where I caused much confusion by wanting cold milk for my tea - I cannot abide chai which is a sweetened tea/boiled milk concoction.
Given L's obvious difficulties climbing into the truck we offered to take the back seats once again and actually I think I prefer that as I can move around without having to worry I'm spoiling someone else's view.
I know it's not "All About Photography" as Ian so often tells me, but for the first couple of hours it really was too dark to take photos, beside which there was very little to take.
Sambar Deer m.
The small white thing in the above picture is a Little Egret
Sambar Deer f. with fawn.
This is a tiger pugmark (pug means foot in Hindi) and the guides can tell when the animal walked along the track by how hard the edges of the footprint are and whether they is any leaf debris in it (the softer/cleaner the pugmark the more recent it is) as well as the direction and whether it is male or female. Let's hope we bump into its owner soon.
Meanwhile I can rely on my lovely Grey Langurs
I wonder if this mum was looking for divine intervention or just hoping that if she ignored me, I'd go away.
Which I did quite quickly, but I just couldn't miss out on this cute little face.
A classic example of our driver's lack of awareness; just look at my view when I asked if we could stop so I could take a picture of the landscape.
Yesterday's Crested Serpent Eagle again.
There are several manmade "water bodies" (as our lady guides refer to even to the smallest amount of water) and I'm guessing when the area was flooded not much thought was given to whether the trees could survive with their roots submerged.
Despite me directing the driver to move the truck so B could take a better shot, I still couldn't get one of my own without a tree sticking out of the deer's head but I gave up as it wasn't ever going to be much.
My first Bee Eater (Green)
This is a Black Stork even though it looks green to me.
This is known as a Ghost Tree and each tree's growth is so unique they are used as direction markers.
About 1100 we headed back out of the park and back to the lodge for lunch. Again a quick turnaround was necessary as lunch was at 1300 and we have to be ready to go out again at 1430 - good job really I don't have zillions of photos to back up and batteries to charge. The food here is buffet style and delicious, we are having the most wonderful curries with just the right amount of spice for us. Lunch is taken at one big table so it's also an opportunity to hear all the wonderful sightings the other 3 trucks have had.
Nesting in a tree along the road, is this little Jungle Owlet which is often peering out of the tree but disappears inside as soon as the truck stops so you need to be quick.
Indian Roller - not quite as colourful as its African Lilac Breasted cousin, but nevertheless a very handsome bird.
I've stared and stared at this picture as I'm sure there was a reason I took it, but try as I might I can't find a living creature - maybe I need to superimpose a kingfisher onto the small stick.
Try as I might I couldn't get an angle which gave me the whole peacock. Peacocks are of course the national bird of India.
We think he was just guarding his territory as there were no other peafowl around.
Back to my reliable Grey Langurs. Not sure what the 'J' signifies.
Open Billed Storks roosting for the night.
And that was a whole day in Pench NP - not exactly exciting.
Checklist, dinner and bed.