India Day Sixteen: A Morning Walk At The Aranyak Bandhavgarh Resort, A Long Drive To The Airport And. Flight To Delhi.

 

It was the last day of my tour of India.    I was traveling with Royal Q Travels and our group saw  so much on our two week tour of India. .   We did a lot of traveling but it was so worth it, seeing tigers in the wild, the breathtaking beauty of the  Taj Mahal, ancient and luxurious palaces,  Hindu Temples and so much more. And of course, the history and culture of India. Our  guide and tour operator,  Aparna  provided us with so much information on these and other subjects on India.  She also  arranged for is to celebrate the festival of Diwali with a friend and her family. It was a beautiful  experience.  But, like all thinks, it was ending.  We had over a 6 hour drive to the Jabapul  airport for our flight back to New Delhi, and then our flights home.

We weren’t leaving the beautiful Aranyak Resort until 9:30 a.m. . For me this meant   a few hours to explore the resort and surrounding neighborhood.  I was up before the sun, and had a cup of coffee  at the breakfast station that was being set up right outside my bungalow.

I left the resort and walked  on the dirt road to toward main highway. I walked past some rice farms along the way. 

There was a mist in the groves of sal trees growing along the road.

When I reached themain  highway, I was greeted by a herd of cows walking on the middle of the road,creating some delays, and horn beeping from the early morning local drivers.

I watched as a few crows landed on the backs of the  cows to feed on insects.

I was going to walk along the highway, but instead  decided to try and find the river that was nearby. I walked through a grove of sal trees.

I came to one that was old and hollow.  It  had fallen to its side. When I seen it the previous day, I thought it unusual and spoke with one of the employees at the resort. He informed me that that is a local favorite tree and that sal trees, like our aspen here in the United States, grow in   large clonal colonies from root suckers.  He explained to me how the other younger trees were feeding this ancient tree and had a spiritual significance for the local people. I  sensed this when I first saw it the previous afternoon.

I walked along the small farms or ranches ,

avoiding the mud pies left by the cows.

I found the small river, it was more like a large stream,

and spent some time watching the waters flow from a bridge. Unfortunately, I did not put on any insect repellent. I was attacked by swarms of mosquitoes, and I believe it was here, that  I acquired my dengue fever.

As I walked  back to the resort, the sun appeared through the haze,

adding to  the beauty of my morning walk.

There was not much birds activity along the  trail , however I saw a few bids perched high on the tree tops above the mist, including this black drongo and,

a large billed crow.

As I made  my way back to the resort I saw this line of ants crawling across the trail.

I returned to the resort,

and took a quick walk  on the nature trial,

seeing an oriental magpie robin and

this Indian pond heron  near the pond. Here is a link to a gallery on my web page with some more photos from my morning hike . India Day Sixteen: Bandhavgarh walk October  25 2025

I returned to my room and finished packing. I took an outdoor  shower  before having a quick breakfast, and rushed to meet the group in the lobby. Our guide Aparna arranged for large comfortable cars for the six hour drive to the Jabalpur Airport. 

One of the reasons for the long drive was there were no major highways to Jabalpur. We had to take secondary roads for our long journey. I didn’t mind since I love observing the passing countryside in foreign countries.

It became  overcast as we drove through many small towns along the way. And we even had a few rain showers on the way, the first rain we had while in India.

On many of the roads near the small towns we passed locals walking along the side of he roadway,

including woman and children,

and many cows.

We also passed through some rural and woodland areas.

About half way we stopped at a nice little restaurant for some coffee,

and to take in the views of the surrounding countryside from the deck of the restaurant.

As we approached the city of Jabapul we ran into a lot of traffic.

It was now late afternoon as we arrived at the airport for our flight to New Delhi.

We  were dropped of at the small airport and passed through security and waited for our flight.

We boarded our plane and, unfortunately I didn’t get a window seat. I have flown many time but I still have a childlike sense of wonder when I fly in an airplane. It was a short hour flight, a little over an hour, and I dozed off for a bit on the plane

 We landed at the  modern domestic terminal of the New Delhi which was still decorated for the Diwali celebration. After making our way to the airport we were driven to the modern Novotel Hotel in the Aerocity complex at the New Delhi International Airport. It was late and we were tired but we all gathered for our last meal at the fabulous buffet at the hotel. In addition to a wide variety of Indian foods they even had pizza. Unfortunately, my stomach was still bothering me and I had to be careful with what I ate. We had a wonderful meal and celebration of our trip. Some of the group had flights that evening and we said farewell.  We all thanked Aparana for the wonderful experience she provided us. It was the first, and I believe of many, tours she will conduct in her travel agency Royal Q Travels, both in India and throughout the world. Her professionalism, knowledge and enthusiasm with assure that.  Most of the group remained  at the buffet but I retired early. My flight wasn’t until the following evening. I was going to explore  Aerocity and the neighborhood around the airport early the next morning. Here is a link to a gallery on my web page with some more photos from my drive to the airport . India Day Sixteen:  drive to airport October  25 2025

“I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide. And everywhere I went, the world was on my side.”
― Roman Payne,

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.”
― Pat Conroy