The first National Park of India, established in 1935 as Hailey National Park (after Sir William Malcohm Hailey - governer of the united provinces), in an area of over 1200-sq-kms. In 1957 this park was renamed as Corbet National Park.
It is around 5:00 am, a group of friends (six) waiting in the dark; Screeeech... goes the sound! and a Red Qualis stops right next to them. Aaaw.... this is not a movie scene, but more than that. Beginning of our another adventure into hills and forest.
Recently we (me & my friends) planned for a visit to the Jim Corbett National Park. From Delhi again we moved towards our destination. I must say, if you want to have a gala time, try to move as early as possible so that you are at the park around 11:00. Not sure if anyone is aware but we have to get tickets booked to get inside the park. There is some number alloted for a day and you have to be there, stand in a queue to get those tickets. If you can shell extra money you can even book tickets with private brokers there who will charge you extra but buy tickets for you.
First I would start from the start. On our way we had a gala time, many of us visited farms for the first time. It was all crazy & raw fun. We hit the gates of Jim Corbett National park at around 11:00 am. We had enough time first to get the ticket counter open and collect tickets. Than reality hit, we were on the counter but all tickets vanished in 15 minutes before we could actually get any. Well we had a fight.. than & there with the authorities as all tickets were passed onto brokers. We fought and than we got our share of tickets.
To enter Corbet National Park you must have a Jeep and a guide with you. So we hired both. Now we were all set for sight seeing. Our first destination was Bijorni. This is a small village inside the park. Can you imagine people living in places like these. We think it would be fun, but reality is the other side of the coin.
After Bijorni, we were more towards inside of the park where we stopped for a short time and moved ahead. Surroundings were all serene. Forest all around and you inside; in our Guide’s words "Sher kahin se bhi aaa saktaa hai, isliye please Gaadi ke ander hi rahiye". So we stayed inside our jeep.
We saw animals - deers, black deer and many other animals, , but oops coulld not find any tigers.. as Guides calimed tigers come out only when it is dark. We had fun, most of the time we were asked to keep quite for not disturbing the animals.
We roamed inside the park on our jeep for around 3 hours. You can imagine .. it is huge. Also, we were amzed to know that there were villages inside the park where people used to live and do there everyday chores. Thing about it .. amazing! Kaal movie was all over me.
We left park towards the eveing to our camp. We had already booked place in a camp which was amazing. Residents living nearby our camp told us that there was a fight day before of two tigers. Umm... we were thriled from the very thought of it.
It was a dark night, we could not see each other from some distance. I was amazed at nature, and I bow to its power.
We had a camp fire and we ate and had good masti. Than in the morning we Bathed in a nearby river.
After we left our camp in the morning we went to see a waterfall which was also on the way. Really good. Than we returned back. These memories will always be part of my life. Reall good trip.
I would like to recommend people should go in a group. Also, my suggestion go towards winter November - February because than you can actually enjoy the sun falling on your face. All other times, it would be hard and also in rainy season no one is allowed to go into the park.
It wouldn’t take much to live in a camp, we stayed there for around Rs. 200 per person in the camp. So not much, if you are going to have reall fun. The only cost which adds up is the distance and how you are planning to reach the place. For me it took around Rs. 2000 in total for the full trip.