Tiger Rush

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Today we arrived for our long awaited trip to Ranthambhore National Park, in search of tigers and other wildlife. We started our morning game drive at 6.30, where we later discovered we were not allowed entry to the park until 7 am, so we watched sunrise outside the reserve! On our first drive we saw a wide variety of birdlife - including two Spotted Owlets, Kingfishers, Little Egrets and a Painted Stork, Marsh crocodiles, loads of Spotted deer and a few Sambar deer, Common Langur monkeys - very cute many with young - but unfortunately no sighting of the tiger, which was a little disappointing. The park is set in a backdrop of mountains, with beautiful valleys, and many waterholes which attracts an abundance of wildlife.

In the afternoon, we set out again, with a lively German group... This time we observed Wild Boar, Spoonbill, Antelope, Grey Herons and yes you've guessed it, more monkeys - they are in frequent abundance here, with their energetic amusing antics. Just as we thought we would be unlucky on this occasion, we heard a distant roar from within the valley. Our driver knocked up the speed, and took us to a great vantage point, where we sat and waited for the tiger to become in view as the roar became louder, echoing within the valley walls. Only a few spotted the tiger as it was quite some distance away, but we were in the fortunate minority.

Then as we were making our way back, we saw a huge mob of people gathered near the entrance of the park, which sounded like a party taking place. Our driver crept forward, and we later heard from the other drivers that there was another tiger, this time the daughter of the mother observed earlier, within close proximity of the entrance. We soon realised that we would not be able to get any closer, as the other vehicles would not swap positions, and many locals started to crowd the area where the tiger was positioned, a German traveller, myself and our travelling companion Robin decided to get a closer sighting and joined the crowd - the remainder of the passengers shortly followed. We were only 8 metres from the tiger, so it was an amazing experience, to be in such close proximity to a wild tiger - one we will cherish!

The accommodation was lovely here set in a beautiful tropical garden with a pool, and a great place to observe the monkeys. We just had to keep making a detour around the persistent shop merchant, who tried to encourage us to enter his shop every time we left our room!

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