a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :)

The legendary Gowri...

While people were busy deciding which party to head to on New Years eve, the six of us bums hadn't even decided on a place. Siting at Hotel Airlines we were busy chalking out various plans, and then it was decided, Kabini it was going to be.

Our journey began around 12:30AM as we headed of to Kabini, six of us cramped into one little car(AKA 'Hessarghatta Express').

Our first safari in the morning with some excellent skills by our naturalist Afsar 'Billicatcher' and we saw her, a majestic tigress walking across the game trail. A fantastic moment for all of us. It was even more special for Aditya & Ajay as they had been dying to see a tiger in South India their entire life(26 years to be precise)! While Vinay V, Vivek and I could only enjoy the moment, Vinay L, our champion photographer managed to get an image o her, and what an image it was. You can see the image HERE.

I only managed to get a few images of a Crested Serpent Eagle and a young Tusker.

A young Tusker in Kabini

An Indian Elephant calf at Kabini baby elephant

The evening safari had the regular sightings such as Spotted Deer, Elephants and Sambar Deers. What a way it was to end 2011. A tiger sighting on our last day of the year.

We decided to spend the first day of 2012 in Bandipur, and what a decision it was. Another Tiger. This time it was Gowri, the legendry tigress from Bandipur. She has successfully raised 8 cubs to adults in the last 2 years.

Tigress(Gowri) at Bandipur

Another image of Gowri

Thank you boys for making this New Years special!!

All the images in this post were shot with a Canon EOS 20D & a Canon EF 600mm F4 L IS USM, while Vinay's image was shot with a Nikon D3S & a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 600mm f/4G ED VR

A tip for amateur photographers: Please do not use your flash inside the forest!!

Links for images/reports from the blog:
Ajay's Blogpost
Vinay L Photography
Vinay Venugopals photograph
Vivek Kumar's photograph

Click HERE for my previous Kabini Trip report and images

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All Images are Copyrighted Angad Achappa and may not be used in any form, website or print/online media without written permission of the Photographer. For any inquiry for the photographs please contact: angadachappaphotography@hotmail.com