Between March 2nd to 6th, I stayed at Habre's Nest, a comfortable lodge literally at the Nepalese border with India and located within the Singalila National Park which straddles both countries. Habre means Red Panda in Nepalese.
To get within striking distance of the Lodge an internal flight from Kathmandu to Bhadrapur in eastern Nepal is needed.
The flight gave an opportunity to see some of the tallest peaks in the world with Everest and Kanchenjunga being visible.
The lodge is at least five hours drive from Bhadrapur which is the airport we landed at after flying from Khathmandu. I'll make use of the word 'road' in its broadest possible sense for the journey to Habre's Nest as a sealed road quickly gives way to a track in various states as the journey progresses. However, it is all part of the adventure and the drivers of the all wheel drive vehicles are very competent.
At one point the road bisects the Nepal/India border and you have to get out and walk c.1km uphill to re-join your vehicle and remain in Nepal. This was a little odd as I had obtained an Indian visa for just this eventuality. However, it seems that whilst I might have been able to enter India there was no Nepalese official present to check my Nepal visa and allow me to re-enter that country! At least on the return journey it was a walk of c.1km downhill.
The excellent and hardworking team at Habre's Nest.
Once a Red Panda has been located it can be a challenging but exciting trek to get to a viewing location.
My first sighting of Red Panda in the wild, two in fact, a mother bottom left and a 6 month old cub centre. They were in a Magnolia tree and resting. The cub appeared larger than the adult but this is due to it having thicker fur to help it survive the winter. The cub started to have a wash and then settled back down to sleep.
It was always difficult to get clear photos of the Pandas due to the dense bamboo and tree habitat they make use of. Twigs and bamboo leaves and stems always seemed to be in the way. However, we were able to see the mother and cub every day over five days albeit only for 30 minutes a day. This is a restriction imposed by the Lodge to help reduce the disturbance to the Pandas. It is a restriction that the Lodge is hoping the local community will also adhere too.
The cloud base would rise up the valleys and smother the forest in a dense mist by about 11:00am each day, we only had one day where the cloud held off. With only c.2,000 Red Pandas in the wild, the experience was brilliant, to be able to see the Pandas each day and share their amazing forest home.
Yellow-necked Martens are large, similar in size to a Eurasian Otter with similar fluid movement unlike the ungainly gait of a Pine Marten. They can hunt in packs and are known to hunt Red Pandas.
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