Next morning, we start from Delhi to Corbett, home to Jim Corbett National Park. This has been extremely renowned for its jungle animals especially the tigers. The kids were looking forward to seeing some animals up close and personal. As soon as we reached out of Delhi and into Ghaziabad district, we regularly came across bad stretches of road till we reached the NH which till Moradabad was a dream. The nightmare began when we had to cover the last 90 odd kms. to Corbett and had to take a deviation from the highway. First, there was a massive jam on a narrow road where construction was on. That caused us to lose a good 45 minutes, and then the stretch of road was so bad that for the sake of life, limb and vehicle, one had to do dead slow. The 60-km stretch took us over 2.5 hours. We were exhausted and angry, and the road was so bad that all trees and vegetation had turned black with the rising dust and sand from the pathetic road. We cursed Mayawati all along whose smiling face is there on the entire horrible stretch. The driver had some horrifying tales of his own to narrate. As we touched Uttarakhand, the roads magically became fine, and we managed to reach our resort by 3.30 pm. We also bought some really tasty apples and guavas here. Tired and famished, we attacked the food which was super awesome. Home cooked in UP style with hot phulkas, it was heavenly :). The other outstanding element was the extremely good service and courtesy of this tiny resort called “Corbett Serenity.” Definitely recommended if you visit here.
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| Lovely Corbett Falls |
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| Another view |
We were then told that for the safari, one requires to fill some form for permission with ID proof for which my husband had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3 am. What was meant to be done in a jiffy took 3 hours of his precious sleep time! All excited about the safari, we started at around 6.30 am and were in for a huge disappointment. Except for a couple of exotic birds, deer and a sambar, we did not see any animals. It was such a waste of time! Are there any tigers there or are they a myth now? The jungle though was lush and green and cold. So, I guess to see animals we should have gone to our local zoo or better still the National Park close to our home in Bangalore. Thoroughly disappointed we came back, had a wonderful breakfast and headed out towards Nainital. Thank God, no UP roads to traverse on this stretch! On the way, we visited Corbett Falls, the only redeeming feature of the trip to Corbett. The spring water was so fresh and tasty that after a long while I drank unfiltered water and even filled some in a bottle. It was crystal clear! After spending some time here, we started our trip to Nainital and the steep mountain roads that were almost 40 kms. The roads were pretty good but had to be traversed carefully. Ah! we reach Nainital, it is as beautiful as I remember it from the days of my childhood…
I would recommend skipping Corbett when you plan your itinerary and preferably take a train till Nainital unless you want to rattle your bones on Maya’s roads. I originally belong to UP and was saddened to see the terrible state of infrastructure and apathy first hand.
Thanks for those tips Rachna. Yeah, the infra in UP is worse; sad but true. Did you get to click pictures of those in wild?
You seemto have had quite a trip, Corbett Park & the UP roads notwithstanding. A pal had been to the National Park earlier this year and he had a similar story to share. Am an adventure buff – do a lot of camping/trekking -done the Himalayas, one-day treks in and around Goa, night trails too, safari in Dandeli but never quite seen the wild. Earier tonite, I was checking on my cuz vacs pics to Kenya. So lucky she – saw a wide range of wild animals in the open forests.Even leopards with their kill.
@Insignia True! Yes, I did click pics in the forest and of the few animals that we saw too.
@Basil I would love to do more of trekking but with young kids that does not seem possible. You have done quite some adventurous stuff though! Wow, Kenya, would love to go there some day.
see what politicians can do..UP is sliding downwards in everything except the statues of mayawati.
Corbett has tigers..but spotting may not be easy..once went to mudumalai sanctury and I didnt see anything except elephants:)
That Moradabad area is my home town and there you can have traffic jam for 3=4 hrs evry day ..its horrible there.
Nainital…may be in the next post?
@Renu You are right! Behenji is a megalomaniac who cares nothing for the people. Gundagardi is at the peak, and development at the lowest. There is a bypass and hence we did not need to go through Moradabad town. I am sure, it must be terrible there as you say.
You are right about not spotting tigers, but there were no animals there except deers. They can’t first trouble by creating stupid procedures for something that is so disappointing. There are so many forests in Kerala or even in Karnataka. Why would I need to go to Corbett for that? Yep, Nainital next :).
Really?! Thats disappointing. I always wanted to visit Corbett National Park. Do you Project Tiger was first launched here. No I will have to rethink some vacation plans. 🙁
Talking of UP roads, once we had to go to Aligarh from delhi, which is a distance of just 135 kms. It took us 7 hours, with a driver! Of course it was during monsoons but the roads are awful. As for tigers, it is an elaborate sham I think. I have even heard of forest guides creating paw prints of tigers to keep up the anticipation and excitement. It is sad.
🙂 soon we will have mayawati’s statues in the wild too.. on top of that waterfall 🙂
JAI HO …
Bikram’s
I had been to Delhi for sight seeing trip..But fortunately corbett was no there in our itinerary
I have never been to Corbett till now. The two safaris I have taken in India had been a total waste too. So I can totally understand.
Thanks for the tips. These are the things that I look forward in a travel post. Not many tell about the hinderances they have had and how to overcome it. Great work. Keep them coming. 🙂
@deepa Yes, I know that, and when quizzed the locals have all kinds of myths to narrate: that it is a large forest, that one has to go really deep where most are not allowed to spot the tiger. Forget the tiger, why were there no other animals visible? And, if there is such a small population of animals then is it worth having a safari there especially when the procedure is so stupid and painful. There is nothing here that one cannot do in any other forest in India. So, why go all the way?
@cybernag.in You know I agree about the sham part. Our guide started showing us a couple of “exotic” birds right in the start of the safari because he must have known that we were not really going to see anything! It was quite a disappointment. And, the less said about UP roads the better.
@bikram Hopeless woman! This is all that she can do.
@Tomz And that was very wise :).
@Juxtaposition Actually, the safari we did at Bannerghatta National Park was much nicer. There were so many animals that the children enjoyed seeing. Of course, since there is an attached zoo, that is so much fun. I guess for the real safaris, one needs to go to Africa! And, thanks for the wonderfully encouraging words :).
I have been living in Delhi for quite some time now…but..haven’t been to Corbett yet..But, one of my friends went there few months back and they had very things to say…
May be…seeing the wild animals in their natural habitat is a kind of luxury now..but I think the Corbett park in itself is quite beautiful..
🙂
I personally think India is not a road country. With trains to everywhere, we shall consider trains…Infrastructure is bad in several parts of Delhi too…
@Kunal for those living in Delhi, it might be okay to visit Corbett, but we have good forests here in Karnataka and Kerala, so why go all the way just to see the jungle?
@A That’s actually not true! Living in Bangalore, most places in the South, in Mumbai, in Gujarat have excellent freeways, and cars are especially comfortable with kids.
the Corbett thing came as a surprise. there’s so much talk/publicity about it & the truth is something else. hmm
maya’s roads!! and as Bikram said, her statue on top of the waterfall – LOL but sad really
Thanks for warning us about Corbett. One feels really disgusted when after all the trouble one gets to see nothing.
I suppose Nainital must have been good, waiting to hear about it. The pictures are cool.
It was a lovely post, and being a travel freak myself , I could relate it very well!
You can try Sariska next time. 🙂 It is better. Roads are not that bad. Hope you see more species there and TIGERS!
Nice profile pic! 🙂
@Sujatha I felt sad too.
@rama Yes, one goes all the distance for nothing and it feels such a waste. Thanks!
@Rahul Welcome to my blog, and thank you for your nice words.
@Chandrika Thanks for the nice pointer and the compliment :).
Have been to Corbett many times, for work. Yes part of the roads are terrible and the ones in Uttrakhand are so very smooth!
We also couldnt see any tiger!! 🙁
Hello…wait a sec! You went on a full-fledged long tour! Okay, I admit I am jealous 😉 Hey, but the waterfall views are just splendid. Bet they made up for the bad roads 🙂
@Shilpa Yes, you are right! I felt similarly
@Destiny’s Child The only saving grace was the waterfall. These roads within Uttarakhand were good :).
Not meeting tigers is not such a bad thing 🙂
That’s true too, Agnes :).