After a 3 ½hour drive from Jaipur we arrived at The
Tiger Den Resort in Ranthambore. The
drive was very similar to the drive from Delhi to Jaipur – lots of cows, goats
and pigs in the road, constant horn blowing, cars and scooters driving in all
directions, and small villages where the poverty level is unbelievable. Shacks and tents make up most of the
housing. It is really an eye-opener. The one exception was a town we drove
through. The road was blocked in both
directions by a mass of Indian men, who, as best as we could determine, were
protesting against some of the big trucking companies – at least they had one
truck surrounded and they were yelling and taking pictures. It was very scary for a while, until one man
with a pole began pushing men aside so our car could pass through. Unfortunately our driver did not speak enough
English to explain what was going on.
The Tiger Den Resort is a beautiful resort with
separate cottages for its guest. The
lawns are well kept with a large rose garden in the middle. The food is all spicy Indian, but we had a
really great waiter who got us plain (not spicy) sautéed chicken and
vegetables.
Our first game drive was the afternoon that we
arrived. There were two other couples in
our range rover – one from the Washington, DC area and another from
England. The Ranthambore National Park
is divided into 10 zones, but only about 4 are open for game drives. We went to Zone 8 – it is the farthest –it
took about an hour to reach it over very rough terrain. I’m not sure the neck and hip will ever be the
same. Once in the park, we began the
hunt for the illusive tiger. We saw large
Sambhar deer and small spotted deer, a monitor lizard, a brown-tailed mongoose,
and two species of antelope – the small Indian Gazelle and the large Bluebull
Antelope (the male’s fur has a blue tinge to it), but no tiger. We did however see several sets of tiger paw
prints. Oh well, we have two more drives tomorrow. The trip home was harrowing – it was dark,
the road was pitted and rough, cows still sat in the middle of the road, and
all you saw were the headlights of on-coming vehicles – most of them in our
lane.
The next morning our game drive started at
6:30. This time we were in Zone 6. It was not quite as far as Zone 8, but still
took over 30 minutes to get there. Again
we saw lots of antelope, deer, monkeys, beautiful birds, including an Indian
Roller that rivaled the Lilac-breasted Roller in Africa –but no tiger. At our little rest stop there were about 15
monkeys that everyone was taking pictures of.
On Indian family had left some food in their jeep, and while they were
taking pictures of the monkeys, the monkeys were eating their snacks. Two game
drives down, one to go. Hopefully the third one is the charm.
This afternoon we were on the same game drive as an
English couple who were on our morning drive.
Again we were headed back to Zone 8.
Not our first choice – Zone 8 has the roughest roads! As soon as we entered the gate to Zone 8, our
guide spotted a sloth bear – we spent the next 20 minutes tracking him to get
some good pictures. Our guide said that
only 1 in about 20 safaris every saw a bear.
It was an encouraging thought. We
drove around for a while, seeing more deer, antelope and birds. We stopped on the crest of a tall hill for a
rest with 4 other cars, when our guides got word that a colleague had spotted a
tiger. Off we went at breakneck speed
(Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride) to the location where the tiger had been spotted. This time we were in luck and saw the tiger –
one of the two cubs in this zone. It was
the male cub about 22 months old. We
followed him for about 30 minutes, snapping pictures and taking videos. Our day was complete; our mission
successful. We had seen the illusive
tiger and he was magnificent. It didn’t
even matter that on the way home, a rain storm descended on us. We were all in such high spirits that the
rain could not begin to damper them.
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