Luckily Corbett Motel had a room so we dumped our bags on the floor and crawled into bed for a couple of hour’s kip – well it was only 5.30am. The room is very basic with concrete flooring but is clean enough and the bathroom is pretty good. There’s a super-efficient boiler and private balcony area so he place is a great deal at Rs600. The Motel’s rooms and tents are set around a mature mango orchard with a lovely garden area at the rear of the property. Per usual town (Ramnagar) is noisy and dirty so we’re not leaving the premises other than to go on safari!
Well, hopefully we’ll be spending time in Corbett National Park but today it’s shut due to strike action. The boss here is convinced they’ll have it all sorted out by the morning so we’ve optimistically booked our permits. I sincerely hope it does open as there is no refund policy once permits have been issued. Now I can understand that if it’s due to natural causes such as the monsoon but if they’ve forced the closure it seems unfair.
Since we now had nothing to do for the day we made full use of the Motel’s facilities. I utilised the bathroom’s bucket and hot water to hand wash all our clothes. After travelling on the night buses the fleeces were stinking so much that they were unbearable, but its winter and we need them. A good pounding in a bucket of hot soapy water soon had that sorted out. This is the sort of place that doesn’t bat an eyelid if you hang up your smalls. In fact the young lad working here offered to help me put up my washing line! Steve in the meantime enjoyed the sun drenched garden. Let’s face it we’ve covered about 2000kms over the last couple of days to get here and this is the first place we’ve stayed in with a nice area to sit and relax.
We feared our claims of not leaving the place may have been premature since we’d only had breakfast in their restaurant. However, the Indian meal we had last night was excellent with very reasonable prices.
We were up at 5.30am for a quick brew before jumping in our jeep and heading to the national park. We reached the gates too early for the usual 6.30am opening and wondered if they would ever open. Eventually chief in charge turned up and after some discussion he decided to let us all in. The park covers a vast area and supports a range of habitats with forest, grassland and rivers being the predominant features. This morning’s focus was on finding the illusive tiger but of course our favourite tabby cat stayed hidden. In fact we didn’t see a great deal all morning and left feeling a tad disappointed. We can’t be lucky every time and enjoyed spending time in a beautiful park and hope to be more successful this afternoon.
So what did we see? Well, around 200 of the reported 40 000 chital along with sambar and barking deer, Hanuman monkeys, crested serpent eagle and stork-billed and common kingfisher. Added to which we’ve seen squirrels and macaques from the comfort of our garden.
We’ve obviously moved too far and to quickly for Lady Luck to keep up with us! We had zero chance of spotting elephants or tigers this afternoon as the park had closed again; the strike was back in full swing. Instead we drove to a forest reserve which is under the national park’s jurisdiction but is not given the same level of protection. The level of human activity means that the animals are scarcer and more fearful of people. It’s a real shame as this area of forest was much more beautiful once you got past the villages.
We actually felt like we had a better safari this afternoon as we covered a wider area. In the end we saw animals more frequently and pretty much saw the same things with the main exceptions being; wild boar not sambar deer and instead of kingfishers we saw woodpeckers. Added to which there were many more monkeys including rhesus macaques and we saw grey hornbills too. Obviously it was disappointing mot to explore the park further but the galling part was not having our Rs1800 permit fees refunded. If only we’d known we’d have gone straight to the forest reserve and saved our money.
The final niggle of the day came when we were settling the bill and the room now cost Rs800 a night – and extra Rs200 since checking in. So far as we were concerned that was their tip sorted out! A small thing and overall we would definitely recommend Corbett Motel. The food and service were very good and should the strike ever end the safari organisation if easy and efficient.
