Journay to Indore and Back - A Date with Pench Tiger Reserve

Part IV - Nagpur to Pench and Checking in at Kipling's Court (MPSTDC)

09 May 10
Started from Nagpur post good breakfast at 0910 hrs for Pench Tiger Reserve. Traffic was heavy till Kamthi which is about 20 km from Nagpur. The road is two lane through out and not so good in Maharashtra though when the road (NH 7) enters Pench Forest, the road is good even in Maharashtra.

Crossed Sillari junction (To go to Sillari where Maharashtra Tourism has a out sourced resort where one can stay) and reached Khawasa at 1030 hrs. We had booked FRH at Khawasa which is immediately after one turns left for Turia. FRH rooms were good but they did not have coolers and back up power supply.

Power situation in MP is bad. MP Forest has also upped the room rent to Rs 900 per day. Despite rooms being good, for two reasons ie power cuts coupled with no power back up and no coolers, we decided to check out Kipling’s Court at Turia (A MPSTDC resort).

At Kipling’s Court the AC double room was at about 3900 per day with Rs 800 for extra bed, non AC @ 2900 with Rs 700 for extra bed and dorm at 700 per head. All plans are American plan (AP) with three meals and two tea included but for dorms only Veg food is given where as for rooms (both AC and Non AC) non veg and veg cuisines are given. All meals are buffet.

They have two Dorms of five persons each and have three toilets and three bath common between these two dorms. Dorms and non AC rooms have coolers. Only drawback of Dorms is, only Indian type toilets are available. One can make use of Western type at the reception though. We liked the place and checked in into five seater dorm. One can book all accommodations of MPSTDC at If it was winter we would have stayed in FRH Khawasa.

Gypsies for afternoon safari and next day morning safari were fixed. The rate for Gypsies is Rs 1200 per safari. Lallan would be driving us tomorrow (he is praised by many on the net). MPSTDC also has its own safari Gypsies. One can hire Gypsy if it is not a week end and crowd is less for even Rs 1000 per safari by prior discussions with Gypsy owners/drivers well before actual safari.

Photos would be inserted later.

Part V - about First Safari into Pench Tiger Reserve follows.