My Photo Blog: Trip to North East -Part 1 - Assam - The Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary

Note: I am breaking up this trip into 7 parts, links to other parts will be available at the end of the post.

This trips was part of 2 week trip to North East along with my great photographer friend Rachit Shah. Planning was done by Rachit, he gathered information on places and what to capture to visit and booked flight and train tickets. We knew things are going to be very cold in this part of country, so packed additional warm cloths and sleeping bags.

Dates: 5th to 21st April 2014

We started off from Vadodara on 4th April by train to reach Delhi on 5th noon.

Our next destination was Bagdogra, for which we had to take flight. We reached Delhi airport by prepaid auto.

The moment we stepped out of Bagdogra airport there were sights of Tea Gardens all around, it was so pleasant to find green all around you.

Next part of journey was by train from New Jaipalguri to Mariyani on 5th night. We hired a taxi to Jaipalguri station for around INR300. After reaching Jaipalguri we had meal, and waited for our train scheduled around 10PM. It was overnight journey and we reached Mariyani by 6th April Noon.

From Mariyani railway station we took an AutoRikshaw to Hoolongapar Gibbon Sanctury. We checked in at forest guest house. We met forest office and came to know that there wont be any entry as sanctuary was closed for the day. So we decided to explore the surrounding area and find out what can we expect to find the next day. In literal sense our trip started with this walk around the sanctuary.

Following are what we have found that evening

A red wiskered bulbul

A Hill Myna (first sighting in wild)

A type of Taylor bird (it was almost dark in the bushes so had to click this at 6400 ISO)

A black giant squirrel

A Golden langur

A shrike

Tea gardens

Ended the day with following shot

It was amazing evening with atmosphere filled with songs of forest birds, jungle myna, it was very very pleasant, I wished I could stay there forever.

We had dinner cooked by the caretaker and retired for the day so that we can wake up early for safari.

We started 2nd day by watching langurs hopping from tree to tree and some more Black Squirrels

After this session we entered the park for the safari, unlike the regular Safaries this safari was on foot.
On this safari we met My Pratap Bhanu and his son Rachit Sing, learnt a lot for them as they were frequent travelers and wildlife enthusiasts who travel a lot in North East. Meeting them has helped us to understand what to expect from rest of our trip. Rachit is a budding environmentalist and he is working on Butterflies and Moths.

Following are the spotting from this safari session

Mammals