Rathambhore National Park is 392 square kilometers and includes the former private hunting grounds of the King of Jaipur. Further details on Ranthambore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranthambore_National_Park
The guy who runs this company is a friend of our local family contact Sharon, and he left his old job to follow his passion and run his own tiger safari business - his website tracks tiger sightings and numbers throughout the park:
www.tigerwalah.com
Anyway, we assembled at the hotel at 7AM for tea, coffee and biscuits. We got picked up not long after in our twenty seater open top safari truck - the other option is a six seater jeep. It was VERY cold, especially on the open road when the truck could speed up a bit. The most welcome street sellers I have seen were the guys selling beanies and gloves outside the entrance to the park!
Each vehicle is allotted a specific sector that they are allowed to tour - we got sector 5 along with about six other vehicles that we saw intermittently. The safari lasts for about 2.5 hours inside the park. Sadly for us - no tigers today!
This is a common occurrence, and our guide mentioned that because there is plenty of water at the moment the wildlife can get a drink anywhere. When it is drier the prey are more concentrated and the tigers slightly more predictable.
We did see tiger footprints, birds, peacocks, spotted deer, antelope, monkeys and a jackal!
It was sad not to see a tiger but it was still a great experience. I have included a tiger photo so you aren't disappointed too!
Here is also a video of someone who saw more tiger than they wanted at Ranthambhore - probably best not to tell Bern about this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqzkEYf6YEU
After this we went back to the hotel for breakfast, before packing up and heading off around midday. I'm a bit hazy on actual travel times as I am a bit behind on the blog but I think we got into Jaipur and our hotel around 4PM.
We had dinner at a local restaurant onsite, saw a puppet show and some local dancing, and retired to bed!
Shame about 'hidden tigers' but it sounds like it was still a lot of fun.
ReplyDelete