KANHA - to reach there

I was casually looking for tickets to various places available in Feb as i was bored and playing with IRCTC sometime Jan. I saw that Nagpur has a train at 6pm and the availability was RAC10 on Friday and Available some number on Sunday nite for return. I quickly booked 6 tickets to and fro with 5 randoms names (all male and 25 :P) and thought will decide who to call when the dates are just a week.

Then I got busy with other trips and finally the monday arrived, the week when i had the tickets on friday. I mentioned this trip to a few friends during the past month and when they asked me where and what from Nagput i just randomly said "KANHA...the land of tigers" (my words totally). I should say they were more amused than interested when i said those words.

Thursday night after a few calls from dropouts, reasons can range from office work (deliverables and client presentations are two best words to choose if u are in IT), personal work (I dont ask what, come on its "Personal") and a few others just simply WORK. Finally managed to get Johny and his friend L Lrishna on-board after Sagar, Sagar (yep i have two sagars as frens), SP, Venu, Kalhan and Aditya V told they cant make it.

We reached Nagpur at 210AM after boarding the AP Sampark Kranti at Sec Stn at 6pm in quite a hurry as usual. After an unsucessful fight to get all our berths at the same place (from S1 and S5) and watching the Yuen Woo Ping's (The Matrix fame) True Legend, we slept around 12am.

Ok the journey to the place isnt even a little interesting how ever i try to potray it in my mind so i will just give you all the important facts here.

Hyderabad to Nagpur: 400Kms approx. Can be reached by bus (Kesineni and Kaaleswari have volvos to this place) and train (all delhi bound trains). Kanha is about 165 Kms from Jabalpur.
Kanha (also referred to as Kanha Kesari by the locals in Nagpur) is 250 to 300Kms from the Nagpur station depending on the route(gate) you take. Call up one of the taxi services and book a cab a day before your journey.

Though Nagpur is a fairly big city it tries it best to sleep till 6AM and you wont be able to find a cab till then. Also, when you call up dont forget to get the best bargain you can get and also dont miss any details like you will not like to return before time and may want to roam around a little. We got ourselves a Tavera from 6am saturday to 10pm sunday for 4500 flat. We took a small diversion to Pench on our way back for no extra cost. One more important point: MP doesnt have any public transport system and the private ones are very very bad so plan your transport there.

About Kanha, Kanha has two gates:

1. Kisli, you have to take the Seoni-Nainpur-ChiraiDongri route (265kms - nice roads) to reach the village Mocha or Khatia where you will find the gate. Khatia is a village just outside the gate and has some good resorts and also many economy hotels and dhabas (food is pretty bad). We stayed at Tourist Hotel Kisli which is an MPTDC owned Domitory (three big rooms with 8 beds each and dont forget to take one or two extra locks with you). Checkin/Checkout time is 12PM.
The dorm cost us 700 per bed including lunch and dinner on day of arrival and breakfast next day at 6am (before the safari). The food they serve is Vegetarian (nonveg costs extra) and very decent and should say quite healthy. You get tea and snacks anytime of the day on order.

2. Mukki, this is the second gate. You have to take the Bhandara-Balaghat-Mukki (250kms - dont know how the roads are). Mukki too has some private resorts and economy stays out side the gate (lesser in number when compared to Khatia). You can cover the other part of the park from this gate.

We had everything planned and taken into consideration till this part of the trip. The thing that actually came as a surprise (unpleasant) to us was the cost of the Safari. Each safari will cost you 1300(jeep)+200(guide)+30(tax)+200 per head in the jeep for park entry. The jeep can optimally fit 6 fully grown adults of the human breed .

There are two slots for Safari:
1. 6am to 12pm with a 1hr break. This one has higher chances of spotting animals according to the forest officials though the it was the other way for us.
2. 3pm to 6pm (no break). This one can be taken after the lunch on first day.

Here is a good plan from my experience:
Take the AP-Sampark Kranti to Nagpur and reach by 2.
Get into the cab (you ordered the previous day) and reach the Mocha gate by 6-7am.
Call up the park previous day and get a safari arranged the previous day.
Or u can get a jeep for rental at the gate withing 5 minutes and take the morning safari.
Once you come back you can checkin into the dorm or room, freshen up.
Have food at the restaurant inside the park and rest a little till 3.
Take the 3PM safari again and you can leave the park once you are done.
You can rest the night here and then go to the Mukki entrance (abt 50kms) in the morning (before 6).
You can take the safari next day from there and go back to Nagpur by evening.
In case you are fed up with Kanha, you can go to Pench (about 70kms from Nagpur) on the way back.
And you can do the safari there and go back to Nagpur by next day 8pm.
Here you can catch the Train/Bus after shopping in the local market (pretty good for girls) or may be some shopping at the Haldirams first outlet.

We reached Hyderabad by 8am by the Karnataka S Kranti Exp and back to offices/homes by 10.

I dont want to add my experiences during the safari or when we spotted some animals to this post in my journal. I will put those in a different post. Also will attach the pics link in that post.

So, KEEP WATCHING.