ATR - Day 34: Saw P-151 today and that was all; also seem to have lost an entire day’s data

In the morning, we came across the tiger currently rearing four cubs, but nothing else. And I was in for a rude shock when I realized in the evening that I might have lost an entire day’s data.

November 3, 2023

Friday, 11:00 PM

Naahar Bagh Rajbagh,

Panna District, 

Madhya Pradesh, 

India

The upload yesterday got very, very late solely because the internet was way too slow for timely upload and then the videos we export also happen to be pretty heavy, which makes the network creak under its load. Add to it the fact that it took a little while to edit and get the video ready because of the multiple cameras that are used in the field for recording. The late upload resulted in late sleeping, which meant that I was super sleepy in the morning; after all, no matter how late I sleep, I have to get up in time to go on safari. 

In the morning, when I entered Panna Tiger Reserve, we found a tiger right there. It was P-151 yet again — the same tiger whose four cubs we have been seeing off and on. She is always a heartening sight. So I quickly pointed the camera at her and clicked a few pictures; they turned out to be fairly good. 

But that was to be all for the day because once that tiger exited the scene, we did not find anything interesting during the entire 5-hour long safari. Also, I was so hugely tired that I did not know when I dozed off for an hour or so with my head resting on the bean bag. When I got up after a while, there was nothing interesting happening just as when I had dozed off (I had dozed off precisely because there was not much to click — of course, I was tired, too). 

The evening safari, too, was just the same with nothing interesting to click even though I did get a few pictures. But when I got back, there was definitely something interesting waiting for me. In fact, it has started happening when I had come back from the morning safari and was trying to locate the data for today’s upload. A lot of data seemed missing. I started with whatever I could lay my hands on, and thought of giving a more thorough search in the evening. But the story remained unchanged in the evening as well, and could not find much data anyway. 

It turned out that one of my drives had malfunctioned and the data was not immediately recoverable even though I might — might — be able to recover at least some of the data later. So for today I was left with no other option but to somehow manage with whatever data I had left. That’s why today’s Vlog is slightly shorter than usual. I am hopeful that I’ll be able to recover some of the data eventually and will be able to make something of it, but for now it looks lost. Well, such is life — shoot some, lose some.