Wild Women Expeditions Encourages Guests to Bring an Open Heart and Mind On New 11-Day Jungle and Jewels Adventure in India

A new 11-day itinerary from Wild Women Expeditions mindfully plunges guests into India’s wild world. India Jungles and Jewels Adventures task small women-only groups to comprehend why, for example, tigers, waiver precariously on and off the endangered species list.

“Environmental and conservation challenges can only be met when they are understood,” underscores Jennifer Haddow, Owner/Director.

Helping to make sense of this wild world and the people the travelers meet is Guide Dimple Bhati, who comes to Wild Women Expeditions by way of her home city, Jodhpur, India. Her husband, Tarun Bhati, a naturalist, is the grandson of Kailash Sankhala, one of the first to study tigers in the 1950s and who laid the foundation for Project Tiger, an early tiger conservation initiative in India. Her own immersion in the wild began while helping manage Kanha Jungle Lodges. More on Dimple Bhati’s story: (https://wildwomenexpeditions.com/guide/dimplebhati/).

The learning curve begins at Kanha Tiger Reserve in India’s Kanha National Park as participants interface with volunteers who are on alert around their villages for illegal wildlife activities (poachers, illegal wood choppers and those in the bushmeat trade). Wild Women Expeditions has access to these volunteers through Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFTigers) that supports responsible tourism as a way to save the tiger and the wildlife and wilderness areas of India and Nepal. Kanha National Park was made famous in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and is the home of Project Tiger.

Haddow notes that the conservation-minded history and accommodations her guests enjoy on this adventure, in turn, contribute to preserving endangered wildlife. Wild Women Expeditions engages Kanha Jungle Lodge for guests who learn the importance of utilizing indigenous materials. Thanks to Dimple’s interests here, guests mingle with locals while exploring medicinal plants, learn how to drape a sari and apply ritual henna; experience community environmental awareness programs and learn the art of making masala chai. They even help to bathe elephants excused from poacher patrol and tiger-tracking duties. Habitat explorations are on foot and in 4x4 jeeps.

Later in the journey, a luxury tented camp, Jamtara Wilderness Lodge in Pench National Park, is a glamping home near a savannah-like environment. Guests may also opt to sleep like a native under the stars in a Machaan, an open-air tent with mosquito netting atop. Villagers gain income when guests choose this sleeping accommodation. Dimple and her husband also look after the crucial tiger landscape here, where under the starry sky, as in Kanha, they spread their message of conservation from the lap of nature.

At Satpura Tiger Reserve in Satpura National Park, Reni Pani Jungle Lodge, a conservation and wildlife-focused accommodation, embraces visitors who engage in jeep, elephant, boat and walking safaris.

One night is spent wilderness camping, an experience unique to Wild Women Expeditions. On the last morning, guests canoe on the Satpura River, rife with winged creatures, before transfers to Bhopal airport to connect with international flights home.

In addition to tigers, guests may expect to see elephants, cloven-hooved animals and birds aplenty on the trips scheduled Feb. 8-18, Feb. 27-March 9 and Oct. 25-Nov. 3, 2018. The per person double rate for 11 days and 10 nights is $3,995 including accommodations, all meals, sightseeing in and entry fees to national parks escorted by a naturalist guide in air-conditioned private coaches and 4x4 vehicles, the company of a safari specialist, an English-speaking female tour leader, guided canoe outing, applicable lodge taxes and gratuities and complimentary water and snacks. For more information, please see https://wildwomenexpeditions.com/trips/india-jungles-and-jewels-adventure/. 

For details, availability and reservations for this and all Wild Women Expeditions’ 2017-2018 programs, call 1 (888) 993-1222, email [email protected] or visit online at https://wildwomenexpeditions.com/. 

About Wild Women Expeditions

Founded in 1991, Wild Women Expeditions is the world’s largest women-only travel company.  Since its inception, Wild Women Expeditions (https://wildwomenexpeditions.com/) has pioneered today’s steam-charged movement encouraging women to travel in small women-only groups. After 25-plus years, Wild Women Expeditions offers more active travel departures for women-only than any other company in the world and in more countries (26 in 2018). A high return-guest ratio indicates how hungry women are for baptism-by-wilderness experiences that can be extreme -- or not – without men setting the pace. And always there’s a dollop of cultural interface to round out the edges.

“What Wild Women Expeditions does is give women the opportunity to achieve amongst other women, test boundaries, take risks and become confident leaders,” says Haddow.