India Day Twelve: Agra To Khajuraho: A Long Train Ride, An Evening Safari And Another Tiger!

It was another early start in Agra  Tuesday morning on my recent travels in India. After an exciting day  visiting the magnificent Taj Mahal,  my  group with Royal Q Travels was off to Khajuraho and the Panna National Park. I was excited because we were taking a train. I love trains.

After breakfast we were on our bus and driving through the  busy traffic on the  streets of Agra to the train station.

The train station was a mass of motor vehicles and humanity. We walked through the crowds followed by many young children looking for a handout. It was sad and hard not to give them some money. But we were told this only encourages more panhandling so we politely told them they should be in school.

We walked through the crowds,

and made it to our departure platform.

This two youngsters followed me all the way from the bus. They were brother and sister. After chatting with them and giving them some advice about school I did give them about $6 US dollars each. They were very happy.

These women asked to take a photo of me and they let me take their photos. Americans were treated with curiosity and respect in India.

Our luggage was brought to the platform by porters hired by our guide Aperna.

We boarded our train around 9:30 for the 5 1/2 hour ride to Kharuraho. I had a window seat,

and enjoyed watching the passing, mostly rural countryside.

We did pass through a few towns and cities,

but I was surprised how rural and wooded most of the landscape on the long train ride was. Some areas reminded me of the mountains of Pennylvania.

I watched as we drove over a few rivers,

and observed the people along the tracks  in the towns we passed.

I was now having some stomach discomfort and was staying away from the spicy food but was served a nice meal on the train.It included white rice which I was able to eat.

I looked out the window,

and worked on my blog and edited photos and the train ride went very quickly . I love riding on trains.

We arrived at the Khajuraho train station around 3:30 and,

and after getting our luggage,  we walked through the busy station past a lot of people and a few cows.

We boarded our bus and drove through the town of Khajuraho .Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web-page with some more photos from my train ride to Khajuraho. India Day Twelve:  Agra to Khajuraho train ride October 21 2025.

We didn’t drive to our hotel, instead we drove directly to Panna National Park,

and began a late afternoon safari.

It was another successful one. Located in the Madhya Pradesh state,  the 200 mile park is a tiger preserve. The forest is a dry broad leaf forest.  We drove through the forest,

first seeing more of the common spotted deer we saw at  Ranthambore National Park.

And, after driving through the savanna like landscape,

we saw three more tigers,

a female and two juveniles.We were very lucky to have seen tigers on all three of our safaris.

We drove through the forests and,

and saw a few sambar deer,

and a lot of giant golden orb weaver spiders.

It was getting dark as we were leaving the park. We saw on  last critter in the forest a sloth bear, unfortunately  this was the best photo of  I could get in the poor lighting conditions.

We drove to our hotel, another beautiful resort, located in Khajuraho.   It was too late to explore the  grounds of the hotel. After  checking into the hotel and unpacking I had a light dinner, avoiding the hot foods.   It was another long day and after editing some photos and working on my blog. I retired early, looking forward to another safari in the morning.  Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web-page with some more photos of the birds I saw on my safari in  Panna National Park.  India Day Twelve:   Khajuraho   Panana National Park safari   October 21 2025.