Gir Sanctuary
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2006
1
38
52
Trip End
May 13, 2007
Junagadh,
India
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
We found the best hotel you could imagine called Anil farm guesthouse and it is about 4km down a little dirt road off the beaten track and what we found was 12 acres of mango groves and a lovely old house surrounded by gardens and swing chairs and there was a really big open air tv and games room. The hotel cost 250rs (4 euro) each and we got great Punjabi food too.
The hotel manager told us he would book us a safari for the afternoon so we took the opportunity to relax for a few hours and I even got to watch the entire Liverpool v PSV game before the safari !!
A Forest
We got to the sanctuary at 3 pm and we met 2 Japanese guys who asked us to share their jeep as the more people the cheaper the trip. They had already done a safari that morning and did'nt see any lions. We were not too optomistic now either !!Once we started our guide told us about all the animals in the sanctuary - 359 lions although 6 have been killed by hunters/poachers in last month along with 200 leopards and 300 wild boar. He told us there were thousands of chital,nilgai,sambar and antilope ( all types of deer) and over 200marsh crocodiles and that we would be very unlucky not to see at least a few of all these animals !!
We toured the forest for 3 and a half hours and after all that time all we saw were the deer, some monkeys, peacocks and a mongoose or two !! Our guide pointed to some "lumps" in the water and assured us they were crocodiles but you couldnt really tell !!
It was not a total waste as the forest and animals we did see were really beautiful and it was nice to sit back in an open jeep and take in the country but we were a little disssapointed not to see any lions, leopards or boar ( although with the noise of all the jeeps we were not too surprised ). The japanese signed up to do another trip in the morning ........still hopeful, but we decided theres still so much more to see and do that we didnt want to waste another day hoping to see a lion !!
