We dragged ourselves out of bed and down to the lobby for tea and biscuits at 6:30am, then hopped in the canter that was waiting outside (all the jeeps for that morning had been booked up months in advance). After a couple more stops the 16-seater vehicle was filled with Indian and foreign tourists, all excited but not yet too noisy. We reached the entrance of the park at around 7:30 am. Similarly to Bandhavgarh, Ranthambore national park is divided into several zones, and each jeep or canter is allocated a particular route to follow. That morning we set off on route number 5 with our eyes peeled. We were particularly keen for John's parents to be as lucky with tiger-spotting as we had been at Bandhavgarh.
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| Waiting in the canter at the entrance to the park |
The park was set in beautiful scenery, especially magical as the sun rose, with a mighty fort (the second largest in India, we were told) perched atop the hills in the distance. There are many temples inside the park (about 50, apparently), dedicated in particular to Ganesh. Unlike in Bandhavgarh, people are allowed to enter the park to visit the temples and we saw many cars, motorbikes, and tuk-tuks braving the tigers on their way up to the temples.
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| Park gateway |
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| View of Ranthambore fort |
The fort is also the territory where the leopards are most likely to be found, as the walls of the fort offer them a great protection from tigers (who will kill but not eat leopards, eliminating competitors for prey). Leopards can sometimes be spotted on tree branches near the road, especially at dawn or dusk, but that is very rare because they are shy animals. When they hear or spot visitors like us, they apparently stop (instead of moving away like disinterested and fearless tigers) and use their remarkably effective camouflage to fade into the background.
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| Sunlight filtering through a giant banyan tree |
In the middle of the tour we stopped by a small pond for a few minutes to stretch our legs and admire the wildlife, mostly birds. It was a beautiful area, away from the rest of the visitors in the park. After checking that there were no tigers, bears, or hyena in sight, we hopped out and went for a little walk closer to the pond. There was a particularly amusing episode featuring a friendly peacock who had come very close to the canter as we jumped out. As we were quietly photographing him, one of the Indian men shuffled forward like an overexcited kid with his mobile phone held outstretched in front of him, right up to a couple of metres from the plumed poser. Unsurprisingly the peacock wasn't impressed and darted away. An old English lady, with a very proper accent, shrilly cried, "oh no, you stupid man, you stupid man!". She turned out to be a particularly unpleasant woman, but in that instance she did have a point.
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| The friendly peacock (and John's father facing the other way) |
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| Kingfisher ignoring the noise |
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| Posing on the dam |
We had no luck with tigers that morning; the jungle remained very quiet and we did not spot our quarry. All we saw were pug marks on the sandy road. It was hard to be disappointed, however, as we did see a plethora of wild animals, such as graceful langurs, placid sambar deer and spotted deer, beautiful peacocks, and many other beautiful birds (including vocal and easy to spot parakeets). We also caught a very brief glimpse of a blue bull (nilgai), an oddly-shaped creature with the body of a cow and the head of a horse, apparently from the antelope family. We didn't get a good picture of a male, but
here's what one looks like. Very bizarre.
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| A female nilgai |
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| Sambar deer |
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| Owl |
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| An eagle twisting its head around to watch us |
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| Peahens |
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| An Indian Tree Pie, a very friendly type of bird |
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| Another peacock |
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| A peacock doing the mating dance, but sadly he has already lost his bright green plumage |
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| A langur bounding across the path |
The other people in the canter were friendly and managed to stay silent (including a young kid, impressively) while the naturalist was listening out for the alarm call made by the herbivorous animals, particularly monkeys and deer, when they see or smell a tiger. All were cooperative except for the two unpleasant and impatient English women in the front, who demanded to be driven back to the area by the small pond to watch the birds, instead of "wasting our time waiting here." John's mother, Trudie, intervened to support the naturalist and to remind the women that they shared the canter with a dozen other people who might have a different opinion.
On the way out of the park we saw a huge crocodile who was sunbathing in the long grass close to an artificial lake. They are very lazy in the winter, we were told, and were unlikely to attack unless disturbed from close quarters. Nevertheless we did not fancy having a bath in the water (which most villagers do, apparently). The naturalist explained that crocodiles were introduced in the 20th century by the local maharaja to complete the food chain in the ponds that he had built.
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| We can tell you're not a rock |
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| Langurs waiting by the gate |
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| A lonely sentinel |
Back at the hotel we enjoyed a delicious breakfast buffet with toast, eggs, poori (with accompanying curry), saffron rice, porridge, fruit, and tea/coffee. We then rested for a couple of hours before lunch. A local representative of the agency met us at the hotel to confirm that they had organised a jeep safari for the afternoon and that they would pick us up at around 2:30pm.
After another plentiful buffet for lunch, we were picked up from the hotel by the jeep. We collected an American couple on the way to the park. They were much friendlier than the women with whom we had shared the canter in the morning. They had seen a tiger that morning and we hoped that they would bring us luck. Driving in a jeep was a much more satisfactory experience than taking a canter. We had the guide for ourselves and were faster and more flexible as to where we wanted to stop.
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| A rather surprising sight at the entrance to the park, but they did disappear at opening time |
That afternoon we were allocated route number 1. It was a lovely path and it offered less cover than the one in the morning, improving our chances of spotting a big cat. We saw many beautiful wild animals that afternoon, including two little white owls installed almost on top of each other in the hole of a tree, but again we had no luck with tigers. The closest we came was seeing imprints of tiger pug marks that had been cast in plaster from prints fresh that morning. Despite our disappointment at not seeing a tiger it was a lovely day.
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