Ranthambore

We left New Dehli early the 6th morning to travel first by a/c tourist bus to Jaipur, then from there in a/c car to Sawai Madhopur, the little town closest to Ranthambore Tiger Preserve. Except for a 20 minute bathroom and breakfast stop, it was a straight shot to Jaipur. Delhi and its environs seemed to go on forever, most of it looking bleak, crowded and dusty. Once we were in the countryside our spirits lifted with the familiar sights of fields, trees, animals, tea-stalls and endless signage.

The drive to Sawai Madhopur was uneventful but tiring because the road so much of the way was bumpy and rough due to the heavy rains. Pulling into Ankur Resort at about 4:30 pm was a relief and we looked forward to finding our room, cleaning up a bit and waiting for Nandita's arrival.

In the morning we took our first safari into the jungle to spot a tiger. With us was Shafi-bhai, a wonderful warm-hearted gentleman who was one the first employed by Fateh Singh when Ranthambore first opened as a Tiger Preserve. He told us stories about how they used to put a dead goat out, then ring a bell to call out the tigers so that the tourists could get a glimpse of the animal. That was at night. Then they had to retrain the tigers to come out during the day using the goat and bell system. Thankfully that practice has been stopped; there is no baiting of animals at all now, nor are they beaten out of the jungle just to please the tourists. It's strictly a wild Preserve where the animals are free to come and go as they please, even walking right out if they so desire! In fact, just before we left for India, we read in the papers about a tiger that had mauled 3 people in the Agra area. We found out he was one of Ranthambore's tigers and his name was Mohun. Apparently there was too much male competition at R. so he decided to take his chances elsewhere. Unfortunately he was was threatened by humans outside the Preserve and thus the maulings took place.

The jungle slowly came to life as the sun came up and it was an unbelievably beautiful place. Such varied terrain: grasslands, rocky walls, areas thick with trees, streams and lakes, and high above it the ruins of the Ranthambore Fort. It seemed like we'd entered a time-capsule and had arrived at some ancient Eden where animals were free to roam. The Preserve soon became noisy with birds and the air filled with their colors: peacocks, lapwings, drongos, Indian rollers, parakeets, kingfishers, bee-eaters, etc. etc. Both Nandita and Shafi-bhai knew all their names and charactertistics!

Groups of Spotted deer, Bluebull, gazelle and Sambar grazed throughout and as we drove by, would mildly watch us.

Our vehicle was a Maruti Gypsy and what a vehicle it was! It took us over rocks, into mud, across sand and through water. Never once did we tip over or get stuck!

So even though we spotted no tigers, we were thrilled with the ride and felt incredibly privileged to be there in that beautiful, lush and ancient place.