Day13 - Day 14 Ranthambhore National Park

Hmm seems like a little while ago now - 2 weeks or so - so the images are not so fresh in the memory! Here goes.

After leaving Jaipur we headed to a place named Ranthambhore where there is a national park - the accommodation, a few kilometres outside the park was nice & they even had a swimming pool - pretty darn cold but ok once you got in & swam about.

We booked ourselves on to an afternoon safari in a canter (20 people roofless bus type thing) after having some lunch & started off all excited about the possibility of seeing the wildlife talked about in our guidebook - the main draw being the infamous Tiger.

It was a hot sunny day & the vegetation within the park was quite dried out, all the same lots of trees are managing to survive (the next rain is not due until May / June) - a favourite tree here is the banyan tree which is quite something to see - as it grows it sends out new branches which grow down - sometimes even on to neighbouring trees - which then turn into roots in an attempt to maximise the water it can take in. Not too much in the way of leafy undergrowth so it meant we could see quite far into it as we kept our eyes peeled on the lookout for our prey.

We drove around stopping every so often to listen & look for fresh tracks in the dusty path ways - still in the canter of course - we did find some tracks on a few occasions but the tigers alluded us. We saw lots of spotted dear, samba deer, black face monkeys & birds which I don't know the names of..oh one was called an Indian magpie - very similar to the European one (about 5 kgs when laden with a coconut where as the European weighs around 3.5 kgs with coconut when it can find one that is!) but with a brilliant copper colour to its plumage rather than the blue/purple we know.

We stopped at a sort of watering hole & were allowed out of the canter & found more tracks in the wet mud around the edge of the water. Lots of wadding birds & peacocks were hanging around talking a drink & eating some of the pond life no doubt - down the way a little bit after some sort of dam we saw a couple of crocodiles - not doing much other than sunning themselves. So the search continued back in the canter & we drove around for another 2 hours or so but alas no tiger.

So a little down hearted we were returned to the hotel - although we had seen some interesting wildlife all the same but also safe in the knowledge that we had another day in Ranthambore so eagerly booked ourselves on the afternoon safari for the following day - they also did an early morning one but no way were we getting up a 3 or 4 am for that!

Afternoon 2 of the Safari

We were taken to the same zone of the park (it is split into 5) but were taken a lot further in - this guide & driver didn't hang around, but they did stop to explain a lot more about the park & the wildlife there. They told us that the monkey & deer hang out together a lot as each acts as a lookout for the other & will make warning sounds if something dangerous is close by.
We saw some mongoose today which the guide said was good luck.
After going around the park for 3 or 4 hours it was time to start heading back as the park closed at 6pm - we had all but given up hope of seeing a tiger & were not interested in the common as muck spotted deer & numerous peacocks strutting around.

Then from no where we heard a strange call being made - the driver stopped the canter - the guide searched the surrounding tree tops & spotted a monkey making the warning call - then the deer joined in & everyone started to get excited - then on the left through the dried out bush we caught our 1st glimpse of a TIGER!! What a creature, what a sight - I can still hardly believe it - he was walking along rather nonchalantly not seeming to care that the monkeys had spotted him , he came out of the bush & on to the track we were driving down, walked along the track for a few metres then crossed to the other side, by this time about another 3 or 4 canters had turned up & also 3 or 4 jeeps - it was turning into a bit of raucous - as everyone tried to fire off a few rounds of .....camera film of course!