The early morning traffic was kind to us, and Vinod took the opportunity to show us the regional state Parliament building or Legislative Assembly for Rajasthan, and impressive imperial building at the end of a wide sweeping boulevard.
On the opposite side of the road from us was a war memorial where tributes were going back into the battles of the Maharajas to World War two. In the background you can see the floodlights of the cricket ground, set in gardens here in the centre of the city
We left the city by the old road, giving us the chance to see the city coming to life in the morning as everyone sets off for work.
One way of guaranteeing a good and prosperous day is to pay for grasses to feed the cows, bikes and cars pull over to pay for the grass that is given to the cows standing under the bridge.
Everyone has something to sell, or has bought something and needs to take it somewhere, and how best to do that than load it onto the back of a cycle rickshaw. The owner here is in need of some sustenance, so has stopped for a cigarette to fuel him for the journey.
We pulled out onto the main road where buses headed into town full up with commuters. Whilst these were single decker buses there was space made available on the roof, and it seemed this was very popular, at least there was no cigarette smoke to worry about just the fumes from the cars and trucks.
Over the last few days we had travelled on good tarmacked roads, today that was not the case, we turned off the main Jaipur - Agra road and headed south through villages and farms. In the villages we could see the men all sitting around drinking chai, with the women all heading off into the fields.
We passed goats and pigs alongside the cows in the middle of the road, and every so often the camels pulling carts.
Another feature of Rajastahn are the homemade trucks. They reminded me of the coach chassis that we used to assemble at Ford Langley, just an engine, and drive train and nothing else. In those days they were driven to coach works to have the bodies built on them, but here they were used exactly like that. A small diesel or two-stroke engine, very much like that of a lawn mower, a wooden seat, along with a basic transmission. Oh and of course a huge load on the back. Note the speaker boxes on either side of the steering wheel, more about this later.
Despite the dust and dirty appearance of the buildings, the market stalls as we passed through the villages were a wash with colours.
And of course there was the obligatory cow.
All the vehicles were highly decorated, the trucks painted in bright colours, and garnished with flowers and garlands of all different colours. the trucks too had black ribbons draped over the wheel arches to ward off any bad spirits and protect from accidents.
The tractor though was the main form of transport, again highly decorated, but also with their own personal stereo. On either side of the seat were large speaker boxes and Indian music blared out as we passed them. The larger the speaker, the louder the music, and everything in the world was wonderful.
Coming off the dirt track road we picked up a better one that took us into Sawai Madhopur, it was midday and the roads were busy, we made opur way past the train station and into the centre of the town. Here there was a round-a-bout, and it was negotiated with the usual patience by Vinod, the problem being mainly caused buy the livestock, cows lying down in the middle of the road.
Tractors and Tuc-tucs were everywhere, and we also passed several Camels pulling carts, many of them made up with fancy patterns, eye make up, and a red pom pom on the nose.
Finally we arrived at our hotel, the Tigress, our home for the next three days. In our tour package we were only due to take four tiger safaris, but as we had turned up around midday I was keen to arrange a safari for the afternoon. As we discussed with the rep in the hotel it became clear that there were two forms of transport around the reserve, a jeep or gypsy that carries six persons, or a Canter, an open top van that carries twenty persons. I knew what I preferred, and for the afternoon we were in a jeep, but for the others we were booked into the Canters, I asked if we could upgrade, the answer would come later, but he seemed to be positive about it.
Ranthambore National Park is one of the biggest and most
renowned national park in Northern India. The park is mainly famous for its tigers, and we were assured by many that we would see tigers on this trip.
There are 10 different safari zones for tourists inside the
Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Apparently you
can book your safari and choose your preferred safari zone 90 days before date
of visit. However after 90 days required
zones are subject to availability. Through
our time here it became clear that the travel firm we were using had obviously
an allocation of zones, and that they could allocate us to which zone they
wanted. The highly prized were 1 to 6,
with you pretty much able to go into 7 to 10 on order.
We waited at the advised time for our pick up in much anticipation, several canters arrived before our jeep, and by now looking at them I was becoming desperate that for the rest of the trip we used the jeeps. A White-browed Wagtail fed on one of the lawns around the resort.
Finally our jeep arrived and we headed off out of the resort and across sandy tracks to the main entrance. Our zone this afternoon was Zone 5, the entry to the zone through Singh Dwar. You head off down the main track and then turn off to the left on to a dusty track leading through scrub.
There were six visitors in our jeep, and a driver and guide. The main objective of the driver and guide is to find and show you tiger. Sightings mean pleased tourists and pleased tourists mean good tips. If yo accepted this principle then all was well, unfortunately one of our fellow tourists didn't, but more of that later.
Our first stop was for Spotted Deer, one of the two commoner deer in the park, and very much a good meal for a tiger. There were several hiding in the scrub, but as we approached a water hole a group came down to drink.
Spotted Deer are about Fallow Deer size, and have a similar disposition to them
The largest of the deer are the Samba, maybe a little larger than a Red Deer, and these are considered the tiger's favourite catch, as they are a meal that can last them a few days. The males are sporting antlers something we did not see when we were in Jim Corbett National Park a few years ago. This is a young male.
The females a little smaller.
The Spotted Deer males were also carrying a good rack of antlers, although they are still covered with velvet.
We drove around stopping infrequently, and when we did we would sit still listening for the alarm call of a Samba or Langar Monkey. The search focused on water holes and areas of open water, in the hope a tiger was either drinking or cooling off. At one empty water hole the guide informed me that a tigress had been seen there in the morning, to which i answered "but not now".
We pulled into to look across a river bed, there was mud and water but no tiger, on the far side on the rocks was a Mugger or Marsh Crocodile.
The Mugger Crocodile is found throughout the Indian subcontinent, it is a medium-sized crocodile that mostly inhabits freshwater lakes, ponds, sluggish rivers, swamps and marshes. Males of the species are said to grow up to 4–5 metres in length, which is a good size. The mugger crocodile has the broadest snout of any living crocodile, giving it an alligator-like appearance.
As we sat looking at a stationary crocodile there was the alarm call of a Samba close by, and then calls from Langar Monkeys. As a result the driver reversed away from the river, and headed off in the direction of the calls. We were not the only ones who had heard it and we were met by another jeep coming from the opposite direction. Above us the Black-faced Langar Monkeys were calling from the top of the trees.
We stopped again and waited, the monkeys continued their watch from the tree tops.
After hearing more calls from the Samba, our guide and driver decided that the tiger (if it was there) was walking along the river bed, so it was another mad dash back to the place we had come from. The crocodile had not moved, below us a Grey Wagtail walked across the dried area of the river bed.
Another wait and nothing appeared, the calls had stopped so we were back on the trail. We were halfway into the safari. It was at this point that one of our fellow travelers spoke out. He was fed up with driving around, we were never going to see a tiger, and he wanted to stop to look at deer. The guide was a little taken aback by this, so we stopped for a deer, and it promptly ran away.
The atmosphere now was a little strained, and it was at this point we were resigned to the fact that this was not going to be the safari we see tiger
As we came around one corner I noticed a large bird at the top of the tree in front of us. We did stop and it turned out to be an Oriental Honey Buzzard.
In the open areas the track was very dusty, the driver and another passenger had masks to keep the dust out, something to remember for the next day. The canter vehicles too were horrendous, throwing up plenty of dust, and packed with people who it seemed were more interested in talking.
We stopped at a small lake where Samba deer grazed at the back. The setting sun was begining to change the air to a golden hue as it lit up the dust particles.
The sun was setting and as a result it was getting quite gloomy.
As we pulled away from the lake there was a Wild Boar out feeding in the open amongst the Spotted Deer. On our last visit to India we had seen evidence of their presence, but never seen them so it was nice to catch up with one in the open.
It was then all about leaving the park and getting ahead of the Canters and their dust, which meant some fast driving on very rough tracks. On returning to the hotel it was clear a tip was expected despite the lack of tiger, and we walked into the hotel a little dispirited, it hadn't been the best first experience. the zone was very scrubby with lots of overgrown trees and little open space, as a result it was hard to see anything.
Back in the hotel I discussed once again about upgrading to the jeeps. They were happy to do it, it required an increase in cost which I was happy to pay, the challenge though was how we were going to pay. The final decision was that I would pay in cash, and that they would take me to an ATM tomorrow after our morning safari. It was to be yet another Indian experience!
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