Bird watches paradise

Trip Start Mar 24, 2010
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Trip End Mar 31, 2011


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Flag of India  , Rajasthan,
Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Another dark cold early morning, up at 6:00am to catch the train to our next destination; Keoladeo Ghana National Park. This park is famous for its birds with over 400 species within the park at the peak season (Oct – Mar), most of which have migrated to India for the comfortable winter temperatures. Before this place was made into a reserve it was privately owned and used for shooting and the record for birds killed in a day 4,300, pretty awful really – but that was 60 year ago.  We were dreading the train journey as we could only book onto 2nd Class seater, which was the cheapest ticket, cheaper than the Sleeper Class we had such an uncomfortable ride on last time. Though we were both happy to find out it’s just like being on a normal train; seats are for one person only, there is space to breathe and people happily move if sat in your reserved seat.

Once at Keoladeo we dumped our stuff at the guesthouse, had lunch and headed straight for the nature reserve. We got a guide/cyclo driver to take us through the park and point out the different species of birds. Neither I nor Shereen are fanatical Birdwatchers, it’s just that Keoladeo was in a perfect position to have a break from the smelly and chaotic Indian cities we are visiting. Once in the park we definitely felt like complete novices. Wealthy, clean looking Europeans armed with DSLR lenses as long as my leg were going crazy when they spotted a bird, acting like paparazzi. We were told that this was an amazing sight to see such a rare bird, but to us it just looked like a colourful sparrow, maybe a bit wasted on us, but it was a stress free day in the countryside nonetheless.
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