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As we rounded a bend, we were excited to see   There was one car on the other side of the tiger, and two besid/behind us.   I was pleasantly surprised to see the car in front reverse to give the Tiger some more room     A bit of spraying Heads along the road and into the undergrowth at the side of the road  

Gin and tonic before lunch!     Preparing for lunch       Waiting for commencing the lunch     Lunch interrupted!!! Elephants in the camp (actually they were all around our table)!!!             To be continued...    

We also came across a herd of Elephant (in deep shade) - always a pleasure to see wild elephants     A really good view of a Changeable Hawk Eagle   And a spectacular Jungle Fowl    

In the afternoon we went to a different bit of the zone - again beautiful and relaxing Riverside scene Himalayan Griffon Vultures near the river   A Great Hornbill in the forest Plum-headed Parakeets Some more Spotted Deer Crossing the track A Langur watches us go by  

We arrived at our base for the next two nights The Golden Tusk Hotel. This about a 10 minute drive from the Jhirna Gate of Corbett National park, so was really well located. I will say more about the hotel later, but it was excellent.   Our guide for the rest of the trip came to meet us in our room. His name was Jay Prakash Khulbey (known as JayP). He is very experienced and lives locally in Ramnagar. He talked through the plans for tomorrow -  an cup of coffee at reception at 06.00, leave at 06.15 to be at the Jhirna gate for 6.30. We will take a packed breakfast with us, but some breakfast will also be available when we return to the hotel at around 10.30.   Jhirna Zone Corbett National Park   There are only two or three cars waiting at the gate. As JayP has a local guide licence, we do not need an additional guide. We will have two jeep safaris in this zone, one morning, one afternoon. We will keep the same driver for both.   We told Rural Traveller and JayP that we didn’t want to spend all our time hunting for Tigers and that we were quite relaxed about seeing them.   Corbett is a lovely park and it is a pleasure to drive through it, enjoying the scenery, the birds and the mammals. Driving through the forest Black-winged Kite with beautiful red eyes Oriental Pied Hornbill Scarlet Minivet Crimson Sunbird Langur Common Kingfisher Wild Pig Very young Spotted Deer   A really enjoyable first safari in Corbett   The morning drive ended at around 10.30 and then a quick drive back to the hotel for coffee, a second very good breakfast. We then birded the very nice grounds before lunch at around 12.30!   A little rest and then meet JayP at 2.15pm for the afternoon drive.  

@Athenethank you @Galanathank you, I am sure you would enjoy it! @michael-ibkthank you. The light was good for most of the trip. We really enjoyed the Kingfisher with snake encounter (I am not sure the snake did!) @Atravelynnthank you @xelasthe boat trip was very enjoyable. I am sure you would enjoy a return!   Continued So we came to the end of the first part of the trip staying at the Birders Inn for 4 nights. We thought that it was a really good choice. Very close to Keoladeo and easy to get to Chambal. We had organised this through Rural Traveller but it would be easy to all of it through the Birders Den. (As we did on our previous visit).They can arrange guides and trips to Chambal.   The food was good, the room was good. We recommend it.   The next morning, after a good breakfast, our driver picked us up for the long drive towards Corbett National Park. Much of the journey is along very good roads. We stopped for lunch with our driver at a “Shiva Dhaba” – a roadside restaurant and had very good vegetarian food. Many restaurants are “100% Vegetarian”; we even passed at least one that was “140% Vegetarian”!   As we got further north we had to take a diversion because of heavy traffic held up by the Farmers’ Protests (“Chalo Delhi”). Our driver took us on some minor roads through small villages so we were not held up for long.   On the way we stopped as we passed some Sarus Cranes in a field at the side of the road   Including a juvenile.   As we were looking a young woman came up to us and asked if she could have a picture with us, taken on our phone. We agreed, so I asked if we could also take a picture of them with my phone. This happened a few times on the trip, but this was the first time I asked for a photo in return! As so many people have phones, using the camera is not intimidating (unlike a big white lens)

White fronted Bee-eater (Merops bullockoides)               Natal Spurfowl (Pternistis natalensis)           Smith's Bush Squirrel (Paraxerus cepapi)     Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides)           African Jacana (Actophilornis africanus)         To be continued...

Ciao @Nik63, great start and looking forward to seeing more from this trip. 

Beautiful photos, and camp looks great! Great shot of the Grysbok, a tough animal in Mana.

End of July 2023, my wife and I.   We spent 3 nights in the Mana Pools NP and 3 nights in the Hwange NP followed by 2 nights at Victoria Falls.   We flew from Milano (Italy) to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and from Addis Ababa to Harare (Zimbabwe) with Ethiopian Airlines. About a month before our departure Ethiopian Airlines re-scheduled the flight and our arrival in Harare was delayed by a couple of hours (not a big issue...we just lost two hours of game drive!).   When arrived in Harare we collected our bags and very quickly we passed trough immigration and custom checks and then we jumped onboard the private flight operated by Grand Air Charter Service (the airplane was a Piper PA41) and in less than one hour we landed in the Mana Pools airstrip.   Our accommodation in Mana Pools was Ingwe Pan a great camp run by Machaba Safaris. The camp is located in a private area inside the National Park alongside a large pan (about 30 minutes drive from the Mana Pools flood plain and Zambesi River). In the camp there are 8 tents with ensuite bathrooms built on elevated platforms that provide a great view of the pan and wildlife around the camp. The food was excellent as well as the game drive activities and guiding. For two nights we were the only guests in the camp and we never had to share our car and guide with other guests.   Harare International Airport - Before boarding the plane that took us to Mana Pools     Before starting the engines up at Harare international Airport     Few seconds before entering the runway for departure     Approaching Mana Pools airstrip     Mana Pools Airstrip       I kept about 600 pictures of the Mana Pools safari. I will post some of them not in chronological order:   Common Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus ssp. ellipsiprymnus)     Close encounter!     White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus)     Looking towards us!     African Hoopoe (Upupa africana)     Brown-hooded Kingfisher (Alcyon albiventris)     Our accommodation                 Walking!     On the run!     Bathing!     Flying!      Climbing the tree! --- Chacma Baboon (Papio ursinus)     Grazing!     Ibis Hadada (Bostrychia hagedash)                 Fiery-necked Nightjar (Caprimulgus pectoralis)       Crowned Hornbill (Tockus alboterminatus)     The baby!     African Harrier-Hawk (Polyboroides typus)         Lilian's Lovebird     A busy Meve's Starlin (Lamprotornis mevesii)     Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)     The shy Sharpe's Grysbok (Raphicerus sharpei)     Swainson's Spurfowl (Pternistis swainsonii)         To be continued...                

Thanks for sharing this trip report. You really had some special leopard sightings.   How was the traffic of vehicles in the area shared with the Shenton camps? 

@michael-ibk I bet the birding is really good. I loved it. I think wildlife spotting is better in Samburu/Buffalo Springs due to it being a bit more open but I loved our time there at Sarara 😁👍🏻

Thanks for sharing. My recent visit was my first in the Amboseli/Tsavo/Chyulu Hills area and you are right — it is stunningly beautiful!  Love to spend more time there!

Wow, that place looks gorgeous - I need to go there. 😁

Most likely September/October 2025. I really want to give myself the best possible chance then