The day started as usual. My hubby being a little depressed as it was his 10th safari and still no tiger sighting. He had been to this place before marriage, had been on 6 safari and still no luck. Today, he thought of having a sort of seating combination for the luck. He sat beside me and the other couple sat together. It did feel funny and childish but then I got a feeling something might be different today. What if we get to see a Sloth Bear instead of a Tiger! Off we went inside the park, all eager and set to try our luck. Yes the Owlets were waiting for us, a set of 5. We took the pictures, thinking we might miss them on our return. Raju told we might be going towards Salghat, as he expected the male tiger to be sighted there. The funny part is the tiger’s name is Munna. As we were moving towards Salghat, we got fresh pugmarks of Munna, moving against our track. But Raju continued towards Salghat. I felt like interrupting why are we moving against the route Munna had taken. But, I kept quiet. Later, everyone seemed confused about the same. We kept looking for birds on our way. Raju was so engrossed in finding the tiger that he wasn’t looking out for birds or any other animal. We were about to reach Salghat when we reached a bypass where many vehicles had halted. We wondered why were they waiting there when suddenly one of the drivers pointed towards the bushes and pin drop silence. We stopped instantly. Munna was playing in the bushes. It started moving towards our vehicle. We kept moving back and it kept coming close. All the vehicles were coming behind it. Then it moved towards the bushes again and released a fluid. Had read it the other day, that this was done to mark his territory. Again it started moving towards us, we kept moving behind and the other vehicles kept behind it. All the people behind were making noise, which of course disturbed Munna, he went inside the buses. Once inside the bushes, we were not able to figure out where did it go. Again it came outside, and started moving towards us, this time he walked a little longer before disappearing in the bushes again. We got the best pictures and the best video. As I had thought, as we were eager to see him, even Munna wanted to see us and that’s the reason why he came out and gave us a wonderful warm welcome. What a beauty! I had never seen a tiger face-to-face. It felt as if I was seeing some movie all throughout. There were so many vehicles and still he was not at all scared of anyone. The confidence which oozed out of him was tremendous. Wow! What a feeling!
After that we waited for sometime for Munna to appear out of the bushes again, but in vain. All the visitors who were present there were congratulating us and also a little jealous of us. The day was awesome. I don’t even recollect the happenings of the afternoon safari or what did I have for lunch. I was completely mesmerized and overly satisfied after the morning safari. My hubby was equally overjoyed and was in a lovely mood throughout the day. He was content and that made me happy.
End of Day 3. Content.
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