We awoke at 5.45am and our cereal, eggs and toast arrived at 6, Ruth is still feeling unwell and waiting in the predawn cold didn’t really help, the Gypsy (actually a jeep) arrived at 6.45am and we clambered aboard to join the three Europeans already aboard. Just before departure one of the hotel staff came forward and handed us a blanket each which came in very handy as it was freezing in the back of a moving vehicle and we began our Tiger safari in high excitement. We arrived at Rathambhore National Park a short time later picked up an obligatory “guide” at the gate where I purchased Ruth some gloves from a tout before taking the opportunity to clamber in to the front seat. Each vehicle is assigned a different route so it is rare ... read more

Our haveli is extremely nice, and with it's thick sandstone walls must be extremely cool in the desert summer heat; it is almost like being in a cave. Unfortunately sound echo’s in caves so it was extremely noisy around 6.30am so we decided to get up and head for the roof for a hearty breakfast of omelettes toast and jam as the rising sun turned the walls and buttresses of Jaisalmer’s castle like fort gold. After breakfast we walked the short distance to the fort which is a city within a city with around three thousand people residing within its huge walls. Ruth stopped a number of times along the way to feed lumps of sugar to whatever animal seemed interested until we were pounced upon by a “guide” what a prick that guy was, he ... read more

Twenty one kilometres down the Jaipur road from Fatehpur Sikri is the Keoladeo Ghana National Park another World Heritage site and a former hunting preserved turned National Park set up in 1982 to protect migrating birds some from as far away as Siberia. We hired a horse and cart at the entrance to take us into the park for around an hour and a half, the cart was drawn by a native Marwari horse which had pointy ears that almost touched above its head. After only a few minutes trotting down the track we saw our first owl and then a Hoopoe. The weather is lovely today and the surroundings are for India extremely peaceful. Soon we were seeing Ringed Parakeets, breeding Painted Storks in their huge tree top nests, Greater Egrets, Chinese Coots, Magpie Robins ... read more

It’s a cool morning and there is a light fog covering the ground, after breakfast we were cleaning our teeth when the monkeys took up residence outside our front door, I went out to move them along when the male attacked me and I had nothing but a mouth full of tooth paste so I spat it at him, he was momentarily surprised but then he charged at me again, I stood my ground and he backed off. It is painting day at the sanctuary today but Ruth and I are collating medical files for the bears, we have to record all the details of inoculation history, weight, when they were last wormed etc, it took most of the morning to complete the files we were given. The lads turned up about this time with a ... read more

After months of planning the day had come, we awoke early and delivered the girls to my mum’s where they will stay for a while before going to the kennel for a few weeks, when I got home Ruth had prepared a cooked breakfast for me, we then made the house ready for our absence and headed down to the bus stop. We tend to catch the bus to the airport and get a cab back but the bus is annoyingly slow today and even though the connecting bus was waiting when we arrived. Check in at the airport was hassle free although they did an explosives test on me, the first stage of the flight to India would have been without incident except hostesses kept bringing me raw vegetable meals which were healthy but boring. ... read more