Hello from the Khajuraho Airport, where there is only one outgoing flight a day and the one today is delayed several hours. Ugh. We were supposed to leave for Varanasi at 2:30am but that time kept getting pushed out further and further and now we’re not supposed to leave until 7:50pm!!!! I guess the incoming plane is coming from Delhi and the delay has something to do with the night landing. Who knows. We’re just sitting around, waiting, waiting, waiting. The thing is...this airport is so small that there are no restaurants or shops or ANYTHING. They gave everyone a boxed lunch, which was really nice but I will definitely need more food soon.
Our plans have changed for the day, obviously. Once we got settled, we were supposed to do some sort of musical thing and the women were supposed to dress up in saris and then we were to have our farewell dinner. So at least it isn’t anything major that we’re missing. The flight is only 40 minutes long!
The new plan is to eat a very late dinner at the hotel when we arrive and then still do all our Ganges River activities tomorrow. And have our farewell dinner tomorrow. Right now it’s 4pm, so four more hours to go.
Below are some photos of our safari this morning. (I went with Paul, Diane, and Charlie). We didn’t see any tigers, but we saw paw prints, heard deer alarm calls, and also heard a tiger growling! Our naturalist, Mint, said it was probably a female tiger calling her cub. We had boxed breakfasts from the hotel, and ate them at a spot high above overlooking a river. While there, an American family (Mom, Dad, two adult daughters) came over and chatted with us. Turns out the older daughter got her undergrad at Loyola in Chicago! And then she worked downtown for a while. So we talked about Rogers Park for a while. Small world!
The best part happened toward the end when I happened to be facing forward in our stopped Jeep and saw a tiger! “There’s one!” I shouted, and the Jeep lurched forward and sped toward where I saw it. It had walked across the road about 50 feet, past a mound of dirt. I was wrong about it being a tiger—Mint knew right away that it was a leopard, which really excited him because seeing leopards is less common than seeing tigers. Yay! When we stopped we could see the leopard in the tall grass, walking slowly away from us but turning around every now and then to look at us. Sooo cool!
Now it’s 4:16. I hope we get out of here tonight.
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| Morning mist |
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| Ari, our driver |
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| Savannah |
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| Tiger cub prints |
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| The entrance |
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| Safari traffic jam |
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