India Friday: Moving on to Cicada Kabini

I rather enjoyed re-visiting India via my blog the other week. So I went and dug out the diary I faithfully kept. The events it describes have never yet seen the light of day. For the first ten days I was with the group of people my ex-brother-in-law had put together, to explore aspects of rural Indian life, focussing on small producers working in traditional and organic ways. We had no internet access during that period.

I’ve decided to share my diary with you. This will take several Fridays. I’m pleased that I kept such a detailed record of a piece of personal history, and of a country I’d never visited. I wonder how dated this account would seem to the current traveller?

Moving on to Cicada Kabini

Saturday 17 th November.

Early to rise.  I’m on the water tower, where I’ve been watching the sun rise from 5.45 a.m. I even heard the whistling thrush.

By the way, they eat so well here, and nobody is overweight.

From 6.30 a.m.: coffee and tea, and bananas and fruit to ‘put you on’ if you need it.

10.00 a.m.: cooked breakfast.

1.00 p.m.: ‘light lunch’ (cooked)

5.30 p.m.: tea – masses of fruit and a few snacks – biscuits and savouries like Bombay mix.

9.00 p.m.: dinner: big cooked meal.

Breakfast and lunch is served to 40 – 50 people, dinner to the core ‘family’ and whoever is staying.  Unsurprisingly, there is a team of women cooking all day.

And then – what a morning! We left before breakfast of course, so we had that en route.  Parathas, roti, all kinds of puffed breads served with various dishes of vegetables.  Great stuff!

Then Prince, under instructions from Supi took us to a textile shop so I could choose several plain lunghis to be made up by a tailor in Mysore into salwar kameez.  Ch and C joined in the fun.

Then the journey!  Wow! Even 4 x 4s might find it a challenge in what passes for roads in the National Park.  We could perhaps have walked more smoothly.  But it was fun, even though we didn’t see all the wildlife we hoped for,  Two wild peacocks, spotted deer, two elephants – not wild.

Elephant spotted on the way to Kabini

Checking into Cicada Kabini was a rude culture shock: a sort of Centre Parcs for the Indian middle classes.  Staff all in Securicor type uniform, & individual chalets all around the stunningly beautiful River Kabini,  which looks like a lake  at this point, it is so wide.  But eco it isn’t.  Nescafe in all the rooms, jacuzzis and all the trimmings we had become unused to.

Outside our bungalow

The afternoon though brought with it a boat safari.  We nearly all went, with a few other guests, and we set off in the noisiest motor boat ever, frightening off any wildlife for miles.  But the bird life was stunning! From things we all knew about already, such as cormorants, to the gorgeous Brahminy kite (brilliant glossy chestnut apart from a pure white head, and five – FIVE – kingfishers, some of them Indian varieties.

Many of the birds roosted, hunted or nested in the skeletal dead trees in the water: lots of ‘Kodak moments’, as M would put it (on the whole, my camera wasn’t up to the job).

Not so many animals though. An elephant silhouette distantly glimpsed drinking on the shore, some wild boar, spotted deer, and positively no crocodiles, as virtually promised.  Coming home, a truly wonderful sunset.

Then dinner (the food is very good here) and an early night all round.  I decided, as did most of the others, not to do the Jeep safari early next morning, with a wake up call at 5.45….

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

46 thoughts on “India Friday: Moving on to Cicada Kabini”

  2. Ah, the photos. I only had a fujifilm bridge camera on my African trip. Not up to filming the distant wildlife. If only I could do it again with a digital camera. Still we made do and we have the memories that our photos bring. And the atmosphere. Sounds like a touch of luxury this week.

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    1. Which we didn’t appeciate at all. We were very sniffy about it. And yes, those cameras with their limited pixels – way less than even the humblest phone can offer these days.

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  3. A very mixed part of the adventure, the rough with the smooth.
    I can never understand going on nature safaris with the most noisy of motors or people who want to chatter away.

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    1. Indeed! And I remember whale watching once – the only chance I’ve ever had – with people who barged about with their cameras, intent on their camera ‘seeing’ the best shot, and to hell with anyone else.

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  5. Oh good, it’s ‘India Friday’ time 🙂 Another well-described account of your adventures and some great photos, especially of the boat safari. But I was saddened by the photo of the chained elephant, he doesn’t look well cared-for at all.

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  7. I know so little about India and yet most of my students are from there or their parents are. The Chicagoland has a sizable population of Indian migrants who’ve come to the states for work and have stayed, married, started families, and many have become citizens. Each year a few of my students will take a long break coupled with our two week winter or or the one week spring break to go back to visit family for a month and return to finish the year. What gift your trip to India and your travel diary is… after almost sixteen years of blogging, I often return, re-read, and reflect with my posts. Have a fabulous Friday. Peace.

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    1. Thanks so much for this lay. I wonder if your Indian-heritage students all come from a similar part of India.? We find here that those from India and Pakistan, and living in the same part of the country here often all came from the same community or group of communities, as they all chose to settle in a place where they already had connections established. Happy weekend, lay!

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  9. How large is the Brahminy Kite? Is it a big bird? It has the coloring of the bald eagle we have here, but that’s a really big bird, with a wingspan of 6 to 7 feet (1.8 to 2 meters).

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  10. I’m full just from reading the menu, but I do love parathas, so I’d make room for them. Like everyone else said, that elephant picture is so sad. I’ve seen many of those too and it’s heartbreaking. Maggie

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    1. Not that one. I never liked it in the end. But I have two others, which I don’t wear often enough. Probably because they both have short sleeves, and when it’s hot enough for bare arms, I want bare legs too!. But thanks for reminding me. I’ll give them some outings, because I do like them.

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  20. It really sounds wonderful! Taking pictures in the wild of birds can indeed be challenging and the premium shots ofter require tripod + relatively expensive camera. But at least you got to see it! My own safari trips in India were also fun, but I was slightly disappointed because it was one of the few places with good likelihood of seeing tigers and we didn’t see one.

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