Leopard Sightings

Sunrise at Jawai

Lake

Snacks an hot coffee atop the jeep (Shantaram serving)

Village women carrying food balanced on their head

Tombstones of Hindu Priests buried alive

My new favorite porridge with cognac and nuts!

Outdoor breakfast

Shantaram driving us to the leopards

Goat traffic jam

Jawai Leopard Camp offers two safaris per day. The first one leaves at 6:30am, the 2^nd one leaves at 4pm. Cathy skipped the 6am one.

It was pitch black when I left are tent and was escorted through the bitter cold to the gathering place for the safari. I was wearing a tee-shirt, a wool long sleeve undershirt, a sweater and a jacket and I was freezing. The temperature drop here at night is amazing.

I didn’t know what to expect but when I arrived at the departure spot, there was a blazing fire with chairs around. I was offered a hot cup of coffee to start the day. I was then offered the perfect cold weather dish. They had a large pot of porridge bubbling away, suspended over a log fire. They ladled out a portion into a bowl, then added cognac and nuts and raisins to the dish. Next time you are serving a hot breakfast cereal add some cognac, you will have a new appreciation for porridge!

We climbed into our open-air jeeps and began what to me was the coldest car ride ever. They provided us with blankets and hot water bottles which didn’t help with the cold wind in our faces and hands.

We were headed to see leopards. They apparently live in caves among the rock formations, coming out at dusk and then disappearing with the sunrise.

Among our group was a pretty serious naturalist who had the biggest damn camera lenses I had ever seen. They looked like the guns on a battleship. We were separated in 5 different jeeps. The jeeps spread out over the Leopard reserve and were in radio communication with each other. We drove down empty river beds, across rock formations and up down gullies. I have no idea how the drivers knew where they were. The Leopard reserve is quite large and incorporates several villages. The villagers all wave at us, and the children chase our jeeps, wanting to shake our hand. We passed a Hindu temple where at the end of their lives the priests were buried alive believing they would go directly to heaven without going through passport control. The villagers maintain the graves and pray over them daily.

We eventually arrived at a location where other jeeps were lined up facing the same direction. We could spot a mother leopard and 2 cubs playing on the rocks. We stayed for quite a while then drove looking for more leopards. None were to be found. We stopped by a wonderful lake where they surprised us with coffee and food.

We continued our jeep ride, the driver pointing out birds, plants and animals. I was still freezing but the sun was coming up starting to warm the dessert.

By the time we returned to our camp, the sun was up and it was starting to warm up. Cathy joined me for an after the ride for breakfast where we both chose the cognac infused porridge. Boy I can tell you it is perfect on a cold morning. By that time it wasn’t cold anymore but we pretended it was so wouldn’t feel guilty drinking alcohol with breakfast!

We decided to relax and read for a time. We had separate appointments at the Spa. It was then time to head out on the afternoon safari. It was much warmer than in the morning no jackets required (although we put them on towards the end of the safari when the sun had set and the temperature started to drop).

The jeep dashed madly over rocks, up and down riverbeds, up hills seemingly too steep to traverse. Occasionally we would get stuck and several attempts would be made backing and forward to free us up. There were no seat belts so you just had to hang on. We stopped at several places after going through some small villages. In one village we had to wait while a shepherd was herding a large number of goats down the road. He was carrying two cute tiny baby goats only 4 hours old.

We would arrive at large rocky formations and stop the jeep. We all pulled out our respective binoculars and started looking for leopards. After maybe 45 minutes we gave up and drove to another site. This continued until our driver, Shantaram, received a call that there was a leopard sighting at a particular location. The jeep scampered to that location where we saw 3 leopards. The eventually disappeared and we waited for them to reappear but eventually gave up.

By then it was dark and we were driving mainly with our headlights off. Shantaram had one hand on the wheel, with the other he was scanning both sides of the jeep with a very bright spotlight. He was looking for reflections from a leopard’s eye. We eventually saw a reflection and when he shined the light directly at it, we saw the leopard next to a dead cow. The leopard had dinner that night and is definitely not a vegetarian. We left the leopard and proceeded to spot where the staff had spread a blanket and pillows on the ground. They served us snacks and coffee or cold drinks in the middle of the wilderness. It was quite a surprise. We then circled back by the dead cow (the leopard hadn’t killed it – apparently it had died of natural causes) but it was left by the farmer as dinner for the leopard and other wild animals.

Upon our return to camp we were met with hot tea. We then had drinks at outdoor bar sitting around the fire talking to Shantaram about his life at the camp, his education, relationship with his parents, etc. They do something very smart. You are assigned a naturalist / driver for your entire stay. A bond is formed as you spend time with the driver. You get to have an informed conversation over a period of days. I think it is effective.

We then had dinner and returned to our tent for our last night among the Leopards.