Having seen the Big Five of Africa, I now wanted to see my own Big Five of India: Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan, Akela (and his family–does that make it more than five??!!), and my favorite, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.
My husband, Leroy, and I had the great pleasure of traveling with Nitin Dhami as our tour leader on a couple of visits to Papua New Guinea, and when we had the idea of this trip to India, our first thought was to see if Nitin would be available. He was, had created and led similar trips with one of the major travel companies, and together we worked on the itinerary until it was what Leroy and I wanted–more national parks and game drives, less sightseeing (we have visited India before).
As usual with my travels, this is essentially a photo memoir with some narrative. Photos are taken by Leroy, me, and probably Nitin as well; I’ll try to indicate who took the photo, if not at the time, then later.
Facts are from our guides, locals and, if borrowed from other sources, credited in the bibliography (will be a bit haphazardous until I get a chance to make it pretty).
If this trip is like most, I won’t have the time or internet access to do more than throw up a few photos, often not every day–but I’ll get caught up when I can.