Tigers ? What Tigers ?

We have previously gone on safari in India and were unsuccessful in our mission to spot a tiger. That was in the south of India, near Kabini.  This time around we decided to go north and visit Ranthambhore National Park about 3.5 hours south of Jaipur.  This park consists of over 390 m2  of jungle but only a fraction of that is open for tourists.  The remainder is protected and unaccessable.

The park used to be used by royalty for hunting, but with the massive drop in tiger numbers through poaching and hunting - it was made illegal and since 1972 the numbers have gradually started to increase.  The park is now home to many wild animals including, leopards hyenas, sambar deer, chital, sloth bears, mongoose, crocodiles, and, of course, the Bengal tiger.  This was what we came to see.  They are currently listed as endangered but the numbers are slowly increasing and there are at least 62 tigers living in Ranthambhore National Park.

Go to Ranthambhore, they said.  You'll definitely see tigers, they said.  This is a good time of year, they said.  With that in mind we were pumped for our two days in the park.  The national park entrances are supposedly arranged via a random draw - so you don't know which zone you will be visiting until the start of the safari.  Obviously, some zones are better than others but we were told it was luck us to which zone you were allocated.

We drove down from Jaipur and then headed off on our first afternoon safari,  We saw loads of animals, as you can see from my photos below.  But the elusive tiger was hiding and wasn't coming out to play.  We bounced around in our jeep (commonly knows as a gypsy in India) for 3+ hours in the hope of seeing them in all their glory, but no.  Day one and no tiger.

The temperatures dropped very quickly at sunset, so we rushed back to the warmth of the hotel and the log fire in the bar.  Some fabulous Rajasthani curries and off to bed, ready for an early morning safari to 'definitely see' a tiger.

The second safari was in a more distant zone and it had a large mountain to navigate from one side to the other.  As we commenced the climb we were lucky to hear an alarm call from another animal, signalling that a tiger was around but they were obviously much better at hide and seek than we are and our 3.5 hour safari resulted in no tiger sightings again.

That afternoon we rugged up again and went on our third safari, which was the least successful of the lot.  We weren't happy with our guide this time either, who seemed to be more interested in talking to the driver than informing or entertaining the paying guests.  You guessed it - we finished the day with no additional animal sightings and still no tiger…….

Our final day and we had an early morning safari.  We were getting desperate and also a little despondent !  Things didn't start well when we were told we would be visiting one of the zones that we had already been too.  But we grabbed our binoculars, camera and positive attitude and ventured deep in to the Indian jungle for the final time.  We managed to see fresh prints in the sandy track and were so hopeful of following them to the waterhole and seeing her there.  As the minutes passed we lost more and more hope that we would spot one and as the guide turned to us to say we had to leave and return to the hotel, we knew that the tigers had won.  The game of hide and seek was all theirs and we went home with some fun memories but no tiger sightings.

I have to admit that I was probably the most disappointed out of all of us and, with time, I may find the courage to go again. However, for now, I am just grumpy at the whole thing.

I hope you enjoy some of the photos from the trip, sans tiger.

Spotted Deer - they were very common but so very cute !

Indian Gazelle (Chinkara) - super fast and the state animal of Rajasthan

go to love an Owl sighting in the day time

The Asian Antelope (Nilgai) the largest Asian antelope

Langur Monkeys - loads of them around also known as the Hanuman Monkey 

A baby Sambar 

A female and her baby

the only sighting of tiger we had !! 

another Gazelle 

Large male Sambar getting to the higher branches

he was a big boy !

Another Blue Bull - antelope

This is cow/buffalo dung, collected by the women and children, made in to bricks and dried.   It is then used as fuel for electricity or for building houses

this is Lakshmi the resident elephant at the hotel we stayed in.  She was rescued from a
circus and now has a wonderful 'safe' life

This must be quite the ride !

these are the 'glamping' tents we stayed in - AMAZING !