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Published: March 13th 2007
Taking a Snooze
A Spotted Owl, Ranthambore
(photo courtesy of Bill Thornley)“For the animals shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complicated than ours, they move finished and completed, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.
They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations - caught with ourselves in a net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
Henry Beston
The cycle out of Jaipur was really not bad, we even met another Indian Cyclist on a very old road bike, and it was the first and only Indian bike we have seen with gears. In fact once we were back on the bikes much of the bad vibes we had experienced in Jaipur melted away, as the simple task of turning the pedals and enjoying the views kept our minds occupied. The road was flat, passing though agricultural land but it was fairly quiet with most of the traffic being pulled by camels. Big wooden carts with old truck wheels glide silently along the road behind the stately beasts, and often it seems as though the camel is pulling an empty cart all by itself, as the drivers squat on the carts and are hidden behind the bulk of the camel. The camels themselves are decorated with geometric patterns shaved into their fur and often these have been enhanced by charcoal or dyes. When we stopped the people were curious but politely quiet and helpful; staring constantly, but thoughtfully offering us use of their air compressor when they realised what it was we were doing with
Ranthambore
The first time in months we have looked out into wilderness. our pump and tyres. The men all wear the most enormous turbans we have seen, usually brightly coloured and often they have long, drooping moustaches too, it is quite a sight.
We were heading towards Tonk, and were making good time so when we actually realised we were on a piece of road that was empty of traffic and there was no-one else around to see us, we pulled off the road happy to be by ourselves and enjoy a cup of tea under the shade of the Acacia trees. Unfortunately we had not thought very much about the vegetation at the roadsides; massive thorns embedded themselves into our tyres and shoes and when we finally got back to the road I had a puncture to repair. Then another 3 km further on, and when we finally arrived in Tonk I had my third flat tyre of the journey. When we looked at the many inner tubes that night we mended 7 punctures and pulled out at least 17 thorns from the tyres. The lesson learnt well; never pull off the road under Acacia trees again.
Tonk itself was a very weird town, not many tourists stop there
it seems and we were cautious of locals advice for a hotel when they kept saying Raj Palace. No, we thought, we want a cheap hotel. We were well used to locals automatically directing us to an expensive place because they assume foreigners want that. We had already had a tiresome conversation with the owner of a hotel who would not tell us the price of her ‘luxury resort’ but just kept saying to follow her car. Still in the end we found the Raj Palace (which was definitely not palatial) and were happy to get one of the last available rooms for a decent price. Later that night we realized this was the only hotel in town and that many young guys had to doss down on the floor in a cheap dhaba (restaurant).
What should have been a relaxing evening with no rushing turned into a bit of a disaster; repairing the punctures had absorbed masses of time , so when we finally went out to eat the dhaba had nearly run out of food, had no rice and served us the most disgusting dhal we have eaten in India. In fact even in Pakistan the food
was never this bad. We went to bed hungry. The cycle the next day was through more flat, dry farmland. The distance was not too great and we thought that we would make it to Sawai Madhopur and Ranthambore National Park before lunch time. The lack of food from the night before caught up with us, however, and we got slower and slower, the wind as usual not helping either.
We passed a few rocky outcrops all crowned with impressive forts, though not the most famous of Rajasthan’s many forts, they looked intriguing and if we had been on a motorbike we may have stopped to investigate. But the detours did not appeal when only on pedal power so we pressed on, stopping for a snack at a well. We thought we had got off the road with nobody noticing but within minutes an old man appeared carrying a jug of water and some sweets for us. Soon his family had gathered round to make us welcome. He chatted for a bit and he told us that the deep, dry well beside us was his but that also the large bund behind us should have been holding back a
lake which was now also dry. He complained about the lack of water and rain. We did not know what to say to this lovely man and his family. Obviously he did not have much but he had a farm and probably a reasonable quality of life and plenty of food. Well at least in the past he did, but now with the terrible changes in the weather his future was worrying and yet he happily had insisted on feeding us sweets and being hospitable. We cycled onwards concerned again that society does not pay any attention to the massive problems it is causing for the rural population and the environment.
Back in Jaipur we had also learnt that people have to continually deepen their wells to maintain their water supplies - the city of 4 million plus population lives of a dwindling supply of groundwater that gets lower every year. The wells there are now down to 250m, and we wonder how long it will be before they start to run dry too.
We did not really know what to expect at another Indian National Park, but really hoped our experience would be better than the depressing
Animal House
In many of the villages around Ranthambore the houses are painted with images of animals like this. time at Bharatpur. This was despite the fact that the Park had only just re-opened to visitors after being closed due to a court case against the Parks' staff for poaching tigers. Ranthambore is India's highest profile tiger reserve yet 10-11 tigers had disappeared in the space of a year, with park rangers acused of colluding with gangs of poachers. There is a highly lucrative trade in tiger skins and body parts, mostly to Tibet and China where they are believed to have medicinal and spiritual powers.
We knew there were lots of 5 star and expensive hotels near the National Park and had been warned that it might be difficult to arrange things as independent travellers. Luckily even though we were very hungry and tired we had time to go from hotel to hotel and we stayed in Aditya Resort for a very good price. We had found a small family-run hotel and the family there really wanted to serve us and was totally honest. They told us about booking on to the jeep rides into the park - “There is a black market you may end up paying a lot.”
In the end we managed to figure
Ranthambore Fort
Looking across the buffer zone woodlands, which you can walk through despite there being leopard and tiger there! out the real deal with getting a jeep safari. We had to become quasi tour agents in order to get around the rip off system that the local hotels and agents have in place for the poor independent traveller who has not booked in advance, and who does not have a bike to get themselves to the ticket office for 5 am. If anyone really wants to know more details about how to do this without paying 3 times the price to touts you can contact us directly.
We were finally happy; we were at Ranthambore National Park, the first area in India where we actually looked out and could see nature spreading into the distance without the sign of man. The National Park was the hunting reserve of a princely ruler in the past and has a massive fort towering on a hilltop in the middle of it. After the flat of the rest of Rajasthan it was great for us to be in the rocky dry hills again. They are covered in mostly dry deciduous woodland, which has a good few magnificent banyan trees in it. Langur monkeys and peafowl are everywhere and there is a hugely
diverse flock of birds to see too. Ranthambore was famous for us from countless BBC documentaries showing the famous tigers hunting on its picturesque lakes and we were anticipating seeing the many species of deer and antelope that are the tiger’s favourite food. Of course we hoped for a tiger sighting, Robin particularly felt he would see one for his birthday, but we were realistic; we knew that a forest cat like the tiger will only let us see it if he/she actually wants to be seen.
We loved Ranthambore. Although the central reserve is vehicle access only we were able to walk through the buffer zone everyday and it thrilled us to know that we were walking in woods frequented by big cats. I got my first ever view of crocodiles and we saw many birds. We loved that although we had to spend quite a bit to do the safaris, there were walks to be had for free and we could go up to the fort and find peace and quiet and spectacular views to stare at in wonder for free too. One evening whilst walking through the buffer zone Robin pointed to some tiger tracks in
the dust at the side of the road. Just as we bent over to look at them we heard the roar of a big cat nearby through the dense jungle, and froze. Walking slowly on down the road we rounded a bend to find a pair of Leopard busy mating on a rocky ridge a few hundred metres above the road! We watched them for over 10 minutes before walking on, as a crowd of jeeps had arrived by now. Amazingly about another km down the road we found another leopard sitting on top of a high ridge, looking out across the forest as the sunset for the day.
The quality of the safari’s got better and better too. It does seem to be a matter of luck how good the guides and drivers are that you get on you safari, our first trip was disappointing and frustrating as the bus sped past many interesting things without stopping, seemingly only interested in finding a tiger which it hoped to do by running into one at high speed. By the day of Robin’s birthday however, we had a jeep full of new friends and we had a fantastic and intense
early morning, tracking a very large tiger through the wonderful woods, all the time listening to the mating and alarm calls of different deer. We did not see the tiger but the feeling of properly tracking it was great and we loved being there with all the other animals and birdlife. That afternoon we got a tour to the famous lakes and almost by appointment Robin saw a tiger stalking the deer in the long grass just before sunset. The whole vehicle was elated it was a perfect end to a wonderful day in a very special place.
We spent a week resting and enjoying the nature surroundings. We even liked going into town since it was a small and local place with minimal tourist fuss. Most of the tourists to the area come on the pre-paid tour and the friendly locals never really get a chance to see them. So it was with renewed enthusiasm and hope for a good road ahead that we set off into Madhya Pradesh (MP) and the promise of some more nature and different scenery up on the Deccan plateau.
The road around and through the jungle covered rocky outcrops of the
Junglist on a bike
On the way to Sheopur, cycling through the fringes of Ranthambore Nat Park. National Park was great, finally we had a few easy hills to negotiate. The surface was not bad but more importantly there was not much traffic and it was a quiet cycle. We even saw gazelle from the roadside, which we had not managed to see from our trips in to the park.
We were heading towards Sheopur, a small town inside MP. It was an easy road out of the hills and down across some flat farmland before we got to the town ready for a climb up on to the plateau the next day.
Sheopur was bit of a crazy place; we found a couple of hotels with weddings going on, but they tried to charge us a massive 2000 rupees for a basic room We pushed on into the centre of the bazaar and asked for a cheap hotel, and a policeman pointed out the basic lodgings ‘suitable for residents’. There was no sign in English on the outside, but it was a nice place. While I was checking out the room Robin stood outside guarding the bikes, and a crowd of several hundred people soon gathered around. In fact the entire square was full of
The road to Sheopur
At least its quiet on the traffic front... people staring at the strange foreigners and was soon completely blocked to traffic. The crowd even followed us half into the hotel as we checked in! On our enjoyable walk around the bazaar we were warned that the road we intended to take the next day to Shivpuri was “very dense.” Thinking this meant that it went through forests, we were very happy, but the locals seemed to be afraid of this prospect and we have come to realise that many Indians do seem to be nervous of actually being in the countryside without hundreds of people nearby!
Anyway, the next day after a good early start we enjoyed the long and deceptive uphill through dry woodlands. It was indeed quiet, which meant that we were able to have plenty of stops by ourselves to enjoy the natural surroundings. However, I started to feel the strain and it was not until we reached a big down hill that we realised just how far we had been climbing. The descent was great; we hurtled passed a troop of monkeys on the roadside looking out at the steep jungle clad slopes before we sped down onto the farmland scenery and another
My God!, its a foreigner!!
Some of the crowd in Sheopur, and these are just the ones who followed us into the hotel! river system. The road made rolling and gentle progress across this farmland and we were doing well for time when we entered some thicker forests and decided to stop for a banana butty, with vultures to look at soaring overhead. Just as we finished our snack however a police car pulled up to tell us that we were in a remote spot, and that we had better not stop outside of towns because of a risk of robbery. OK, we got back on the bikes and really enjoyed the rest of the day to Shivpuri although the police warned us again that the area we were in was “notorious” and that we should not be out in town after 10pm.
We had planned to take a day in Shivpuri to see another National Park, but we did not want to pay for a jeep ride again since our main interest in this park was the birdlife on the large lake there. Shivpuri National Park is very different from Ranthambore. I do not think many tourists go there and it was difficult for us to find out any information in the town or hotel about the set up. So the
Rural Life
Village women collecting water in the "dense" country between Sheopur and Shivpuri. next day we cycled out there and managed to persuade the officers to let us in just to the lake’s edge by bike. There definitely were some interesting looking storks and pelicans out far across the lake, but we were not able to see them without a telescope, however we really enjoyed the peace and quiet of the park and were able to bird watch without a group of people instantly forming around the bikes and us. However, that afternoon as we sat on the lakeshore envious of some Indian tourists in pedal-boats out on the lake I started to feel the onset of a cold.
Unfortunately, my cold developed and we spent two more nights in Shivpuri resting and being ill. The town didn’t seem half as dangerous as the police had made out, although on our second day things got a bit interesting as there was lots of noise outside and we noticed truckloads of farmers coming into town, loaded into tractor trailers, and chanting and waving colourful banners. It turned out to be a massive BJP (Hindu nationalist) political rally that engulfed the town in a noisy fashion. There were a lot of police about, but
Bambi
Well actually it is a Chital, or Spotted Deer, aka Tiger Food.
(photo courtesy of Bill Thornley) even more men armed with shotguns and not wearing any uniforms; they did not seem to be plain-clothes police, but rather the hired guns (goondas) of the politicians - this is how democracy in India works. We didn’t really understand most of what was going on and it felt a bit edgy wandering about in the crowds full of men, so we mostly stayed out of the way.
Although not recovered fully I felt able to set out on the third day to try to make it to Orchha, which we had heard was beautiful and peaceful, and a perfect place to rest up from a cold. The road there was very good; through more sparsely populated countryside and although there were farmed fields everywhere there were plenty of trees about to keep the view interesting. We enjoyed some boiled eggs under some trees and cycled on with ease to dip back into Uttar Pradesh (UP) at the town of Jhansi before returning to MP and Orchha.
Our peaceful cycle came to an abrupt end the moment we made contact with UP, it was suddenly mad again, we had obviously been lulled into a false sense of peace
Tiger
You'll probably have to zoom in to see it, but not a bad birthday present really.
(photo courtesy of Bill Thornley) and calm by 3 days of quiet rural surroundings. All our long earned experience of crazy Indian driving was suddenly brought into full focus as we dodged and dived amongst the rickshaws and crowds of people, and found the correct road out of town. Then almost by magic the traffic disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived; we had turned at the edge of town and back into wonderful MP. Red flowers lined the wide, rolling, empty tree lined road and although the shock of noise, fumes and chaos had reminded me of my cold and tiredness we pushed on through more jungle for the last 10km to Orchha, one time capital of the Bhundelkund.
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Kapil Jain
non-member comment
Wild Lover
Hi iiiiiiiiiiii Life is Journey. so enjoy it. with the nature that god gifted us. i like your travelling exprience that you made ranthambhore national park