The time is around the middle of November, 2010. Delhi is just getting cooler with morning being a bit cold for shorts and a T-Shirt. I usually take a walk in shorts during summers and pre-winters.
We were on our way to the Airport in the wee hours (5a.m) with a bit of nip in the air, making us feel that winters have actually arrived in the capital. Our Indigo airlines (my favourite among the low cost airlines for their servcie as well as on time record) took off as per the schedule (revised). After an hour and half the captain announced that on the left we can see the might Himalayas and of course the towering peak of Everest. My ignorance of the fact we can actually pre-book our preferential seat online put me on the right side of the plane making it difficult to view the mountains. the passenger next to me obliged me (I was sitting in the middle seat on the right of the aisle) by sitting back allowing me to get a better view of the snow capped mountains. It was wonderful. A thought came to me, why cant they have a viewing gallery in the planes for such a flight with full glass structures, like the glass bottomed boats used to see the colorful coral reefs near Maldives and other coasts.
What about the Wildlife sanctuary? We have not reached Guwahati so hang on for a little while.
The flight landed at the International airport of Guwahati on time and we proceeded to our hotel, The Vishwaratna hotel in central Guwahati.
After a day of rest and local sightseeing, shopping etc we proceeded by Toyota Innova to the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary. It is about 60kms from the city. Choose a saturday for the other days it may take a long time to get out of the city which is very crowded with narrow roads (afterall I am comparing with Delhi - unfairly).
There is a small restaurant within the sanctuary catering with simple food. After a quick and simple lunch we travelled on a mud road with its own pot holes, ups and downs. AT one point we had to get down so that the van cross a bad patch. Finally we arrived at the Elephant boarding point. It was good we chose elephants instead of the jeeps as jeeps can only traverse the properly laid out mud paths with in the sanctuary where as the elephants can go whee they want to or where the mahout wants to.
At the entrance we had to buy the entry fee, the elephant rides and also pay Rs500 for the Video camera and Rs50 for the still camera. Was it worth it will tell you later. We booked for the 3pm trip and when we rached the boarding point well in time, some high profile Forest folks hijacked our elephants leaving us fuming and complaining to no avail. We had to sit it out for an hour and take the hurried 4pm trip. The sun sets at about 430 to 445pm in these eastern parts of India. This made our trip shorter and not good for my amateurish photography.
The good part was we are on elephants and could go very near to the many rhinoceros roaming the wild flat lands punctuated with some marshy places. SOme of them looked menacingly at us almost posing as if to attack us (actually the elephants as we are miniscule in front of these two mammoth animals)
The mahout was not trained to take care of the tourists and to stop the elephant for us to get a better view, so had to manage by craning my neck and got some good enough shots. We were sitting on elehants with two seaters which made us sit one behind the others instead of a four setaers who coould sit sideways. The forest department should do something to enhance these facilities and train the mahouts.
We saw some wild boars, buffaloes along with some straying cows..
Pabitora has been made a national wildlife sanctuary in 1971 to protect the one-horn rhinoceros. This place is very small with about 86 rhinoceros making it high density makes it easier one to spot this big animal. You will be guaranteed to see one and more in your trip.
If you went to Guwahati and dont have enough time to go to Khaziranga, you should plan a visit to Pabitora. You wont be disappointed.
Till next time ciao!
