Kaziranga National Park
Kaziranga National Park in Assam is 430 square kilometers of 'savannah-like' park on the southern banks of the Brahmaputra River. We were there quite early (ie: one day in) to the autumn visiting season which begins when the roads are dry enough after monsoon season to support vehicle travel.
We got there by flying from Bagdogra (Siliguri) to Guwahati and then by road the 217 km east to the park entrances. The park is home to herds of one-horned rhinos, wild boar, swamp deer, wild elephants, wild buffalo and many, many bird species. One can only enter the park in a vehicle, with driver and armed guard (a park ranger). Poachers are always a problem and our first visit into the park was co-opted by the Senior Range officer who took us into the non-public area of the park because there had been rumours of poaching activities and he wanted to check on the rangers stationed in the outposts. So our first visit was very special.
The most exciting experience came on day two when we went out (at 5:00 AM!) on an elephant safari. From elephant-back you can get quite close to the rhinos. On our other trip into the park that day, we were the first jeep of the season into that section of the park. In part two we visited the eastern range of the park which is better for bird watching.
All told we made four trips into the park.
Because there are so many photos from this portion of our trip, there are three different slide shows...
Click this link for a slide show of 43 photos from part one of our time in Kaziranga National Park
Click this link for a slide show of 20 photos from our elephant safari in Kaziranga National Park
Click this link for a slide show of 43 photos from part two of our time in Kaziranga National Park