Continued from Part 1.
Next morning we woke up totally refreshed after a solid 10 hours sleep on the super comfy bed. Thanks to the solid cut off curtains we had an amazing undisturbed sleep. For that day,we had planned a trip to Bengal Safari. But before that the breakfast buffet beckoned to us. We got ready and reached Bay Leaf the breakfast restaurant. We were greeted by a wide array of delicious and scrumptious breakfast food. Hubbie had puri sabzi, dosa, and I had multigrain toast, fresh fruit danish, egg white omelette, watermelon and orange juice and a sausage. This was all washed down with a piping hot cup of fresh and aromatic ginger tea. Meanwhile our car was waiting to whisk us away to the Bengal Safari.
Us, happy after a yummy breakfast!
Bengal Safari
We reached the gate of the Mahananda WildLife Sanctuary , the Bengal Safari by 11.30 am and booked the one hour long safari which was to start at 12 noon.Till then we spent a charmed half an hour at the Butterfly Garden.
What is the price of Benga Safari?
Butterfly Garden
The butterfly garden is a charming and magical concept in which they leave larvae of different types of butterflies all around the moderately curated garden. Then these larvae hatch into beautiful butterflies which flitter around the flower garden. In the beginning we could see only a few of the common tiny white and yellow butterflies in between the grassy undergrowth. Eventually the bigger, butterflies started to make their appearance and we were awed. After such a pure and wholesome experience amongst the natural butterfly sanctuary it was finally time for our safari.
Safari
We boarded the camper van and sat down in our alloted seats. The safari started with our faces pressed against the glass windows to catch glimspes of the majestic jungle beasts. Initially we entered the larger herbivores safari where we saw numerous dainty and pretty spotted deers. The best part about the spotted deers is that they are really curious creatures who give great poses for photographic pursuits.
Then next was the Asian black bear safari. 4 extremely bored and superbly slothful black bears lazing around in their enclosures as well as outside were waiting to greet us. Then we moved on to the leopard safari. Two graceful wild cats were going about their daily business and roaming the jungle enclosure, while we the humans were caged in the camper van.
Tiger Safari
Finally we moved on to the tiger safari. As our camper reached a small stone water feature, we were greeted with the sight of a majestic tiger just chilling out by the waterside. Just as we were finishing with the oohs and aahs, another smaller tiger waltzed into the frame. It gave the first tiger a small gesture with its head which we interpreted to be hey why dint you start the show! First he daintily immersed one paw into the water as if checking the water temperature.
Then submerged its body in the pool and progressed to play without a care in the world. Meanwhile there were two other tigers in the vicinity who got curious about what was going on in the water, and gave us a tiger parade to enjoy! Its not everyday that you get to see 4 tigers together and that too if one of them is an exhibitionist!
Our Bengali safari ended with us being treated to this wonderful scene. The Jungle café was waiting for us with the mandatory 1 pm tea break. They were serving momo too, but hubby dissuaded from eating them as that would spoil our lunch appetite.
P.S Bengal Safari is closed on Mondays
We had a simple pressure cooker mutton jhol and rice lunch washed down with gondhoraj mojito. After our lunch we returned to our resort. A leisurely walk through the Chumta estate tea gardens followed by tapri chai was awaiting us. We strolled and clicked some photographs. Then we had some tea and snacks at the tapri . We sneaked in a Darjeeling tea date also at the in house Planters Club tea lounge in between too! Then we returned to our room to relax before the gala dinner buffet
Delicious Dinner
The first night I had a vegetarian meal as it was Shivratri. So I was really looking forward to todays dinner. I would finally get to try out all the decadent delicacies at the spread. Mutton biryani, butter chicken, naan, raita, wide variety of salads, hakka veg noodles, fish in black bean sauce, breads, masala coke, cheesecake, chocolate pastry, rasmalai, dates halwa, chocolate pudding,icecreams are just a few of the buffet menu items that we tried out.
After our dinner, we were attacked by a tremendous surge of post prandial stupor. This we countered with a brisk post dinner walk all around the resort pool and the lawn. Our gluttonous dinner was brought under control by this walk and eventually we returned to our room to retire for the day. For the next day we had planned a trip to Mirik Lake, nearly 60 km drive from Mayfair. A good nights sleep was the need of the hour.
This post is part of #BlogchatterA2Z challenge and this is the E- post
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