Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my!

We had Wednesday morning free, and so we all decided that we would get up early and go on an a bit of trip to see something different. Alex had previously asked in Baba’s shop about a National Park that was reachable from Bangalore. Shakeel told us that Bannerghatta National Park was really great, and included a safari experience of Indian animals as well as a zoo. I’m not really a fan of zoos because animals in cages make me sad, but the idea of a National Park and a safari experience did appeal to me.

We had been told that it would be easy to book a car to take us, but in reality it was a bit more complex! We didn’t give enough notice to hire a car and driver, so we decided we would try Uber. I was the only person with a functioning Uber account though, and it wouldn’t let me log in because I had a different sim card in my phone that was not associated with my account. My Aussie sim card is back at home, so there was nothing I could do. Luckily we had been told about Ola, another ride sharing site. When I looked at this one it turned out you could book the rides without registering an account, and could set it to pay in cash at the end of the journey as well – which made it easier to split the bill.

The Ola driver arrived, and we headed off on the very slow drive through traffic-choked streets to the edge of Bangalore and Bannerghatta Park. It suddenly got much more rural on the way to the park, and we saw our first monkeys causing mischief along the road to the Park.

We split the cost of a jeep safari so that we would each have a better chance of seeing and photographing the animals, and while I was a little disappointed that it was a safari park rather than a wild safari, I was excited about seeing the animals, especially the sloth bears and the tigers.

Sloth bear - Baloo

Indian lion

After the safari we visited the zoo for a while, but I did get very sad seeing the animals so cooped up. The wild monkeys were being naughty again, sitting on top of the zoo monkeys’ enclosures!

Zoo monkey

Cheeky monkey

The drive back to Bangalore was slow, dusty, hot, and sweaty. It was such a relief to get back to the house and enjoy the cool air inside. There is no a/c, but the house is well shaded and has thick walls, so the sun doesn’t heat it too much. Augustine and his friend Dominic were there when we arrived, but to my relief Dominic said that “you never preach to an empty stomach” and told us we had plenty of time to get lunch before coming back for more placement learning.