Ranthambore

This national park is more than 1300 square kilometres of so called “jungle” which is more treed scrub land bordered by rocky hills in winter. It has been an animal refuge since 1970, even though, oddly enough, it remained a royal hunting ground for fifteen years after being designated a sanctuary. Only 20% of it is accessible by tourists, in 6 person jeeps booked in advance and checked by passport before each 3 hour safari. That 20% is divided into 10 zones, and each safari is designated one zone, with about 6 trucks or so allowed in each zone during any 3 hour block.

We went on two safaris, one in zone 6 and the other in zone 10.

The first took place before dawn, and we wore every stitch of clothing we brought against the cold morning drive in an open jeep. Our park guide and driver bounced us along rough ground – one hesitates to even consider the word “road” – for 3 hours to look at the terrain and hope to catch sight of some of the animals and birds that live there.

The main goal of course is to see a tiger, and there are a number of them living in the sanctuary: about 70 live in the park, although most live in areas not accessible by safaris. Tigers are very territorial so each of the 10 zones has a few – and some even have cubs.

As the sun coloured the sky and then rose in a ball of red, we were lucky to see many critters, including both types of deer (spotted and blackbuck) both types of antelope, elands, and wild boar. The bird life was incredible- so many didn’t get the names of. The Indian treepee (I think it's called)  was curious to see us when we stopped to stretch our legs and go to the loo at the halfway point. We also saw peacocks, a sort of heron, egrets, drongos, woodpeckers, larks, flycatchers, kites, bright green parakeets, orange eye-rimmed mynah, and the amazing kingfisher, looking exactly like it does on the beer label, with a rust coloured beak and turquoise wings.

But no tigers.

Back to our hotel – encouragingly named The Tigress - for breakfast and a rest, then safari #2. On the way we saw camels and a working elephant so felt great promise. There are two kinds of monkeys in India, one with red faces that are aggressive and others that have black and white faces that are not. WE saw quite a few of the not aggressive kind watching us from sand hills, along walls and bouncing along tree branches, many with wee babies.

There are crocodile filled lakes here, but it is winter and the water holes are mostly dry or low, and so only birds are in evidence. We saw two mongooses (mongeese?) skittering across the road, and more birds and more deer and antelope. A banyan tree with its roots having down from the high branches.

And then – this

Fresh foot prints of a tiger!

Alas that is all we saw of a tiger that day, and had instead to listen to other hotel guests talk of their exciting sightings, complete with photos and videos of these gorgeous creatures who calming moved among jeeps on their morning or afternoon paths.

Another reason to come back to India.