Gir National Forest

As I was trying to figure out what to do with the last two weekends I had to spend with my mom, I had to go against warnings that it would be too hot and head to the state of Gujarat to try to see the Asiatic lions. I had heard from other teachers who had made the trip out, that it would be a toss up as to if we'd actually find a lion or not. For the most part they either saw one on every safari they took or  didn't see one at all. I decided it was still worth a try, especially as these lions are restricted to such a small area of India (about 7,700 square miles) and have only reached an estimated population of 523 in May 2015. Needless to say I wasn't holding out high hopes of seeing a lion, but I figured the trip would be worth it anyways, to check out one last nature reserve in this country before I left. We scheduled just two safaris, due to flight times and a 3 or 4 hour drive from the airport to Gir National Forest, and I could only hope that would be enough.

We told our naturalist that we were interested in birds and weren't just there for the lions. (although I have to admit as I said that, I had to wonder how true that was....I really wanted to see a lion). The unexpected advantage of that statement was that the he allowed the other jeeps to tear off ahead of us, and we took our time to go through the part on our designated route. I found out that I really do like owls (and owlets) and could watch them for a long time. The variety of birds was fascinating - from eagles to small woodpeckers the it was a colorful and plentiful mix.

With about an hour left in our safari, all of a sudden our guide said, no more slow....they might be a lion at the end. Let's go! So off we headed at what at times felt like a break neck pace (literally, when you hit the dips of the dirt road) to come to a halt by about 6 other cars. Climb up on the seats, and there, under the tree (as mom said, where the shadow moved) sat a lioness resting. To be honest I would have been happy with that. An honest lion sighting. Then a couple of the forest walkers hopped out of jeeps and circled around so that as the lioness began to walk she headed towards the road. Then...there....there are two of them! And they climbed up to the edge of the road, walking along as if they owned the space (well, I guess they do here) And so we got half an hour of following the lionesses at a slow pace. Taking breaks to breathe hard until they had had enough, and sat down to rest while we were chased out of the park as our time was up. We saw lionessssssesssss!