Sawāi Mādhopur

OMG - what a day! Didn’t sleep that well though most other people seemed to do so! The Sawai Vilas (probably should be Villas) are a two storey 3-sided (the 4th being the restaurant/bar/reception area) structure forming a square in the middle of which is the beautiful swimming pool and green garden area. A free morning, thankfully, so had a sunbathe and a swim before the talk from the Ranthambore National Park naturalist at 12 noon. He was a bit difficult to understand but interesting, showed us some slides and hyped us up for the afternoon safari which set off from the hotel at 2.30 pm and the object of the exercise was to see the Bengal tiger of which there are 70 in Ranthambore Park. It’s all about the Tigers here!

The group occupied 2 “canters” (safari vehicles). Phil had said we were well placed at the hotel, as it was well into the Park but.. we seemed to go the other way, through the town, to “Gate 10”. This took 40 minutes and people were a bit disgruntled. Our Ranger guy was very confident and loud, said he would “do my best for you” but at first people on the cater saw various deer/spotted deer, monkeys, birds before he did.! Confidence was not high. The canter was a bone-shaker (literally!) and the Park was like an arid-looking desert, not a bit like the two brilliant safaris we had been on in South Africa - you could feel the discontent. Phil obviously felt a bit panicky and kept apologising for lack of anything really stunning. It was also very hot with the sun beating down.

Then we rattled into an open area by the dried up-looking river with a clump of bushes in the distance-here, we were told, tigers had been spotted earlier in the day. Trouble was that our canter swept into position parallel to the vehicle on our right, completely blocking the occupants’ view! Then more and more vehicles (canters and land rovers) arrived, all pointing in different directions, all blocking each other’s view and kicking up a cloud of dust in a noisy fashion as they did. Excited chatter abounded, almost an air or hysteria, with the biggest lenses I have ever seen anywhere pointed at the clump of bushes in the distance. Ted and I were just getting a little sceptical thinking they probably did this every afternoon when our ranger let out a shout of excitement causing everyone to leap up and point their binoculars/cameras at the clump. The Indians around us were in a frenzy of excitement, jostling for position and the ranger declared it was a “large male” (really??) and Phil asked us had we seen it.? Really? Seen what? Was it a figment of their imagination? We sat for a further 40 mins with the sun beating down during which various vehicles came and went. At this point I got a bit giggly and we laughed silently, shoulders shaking, til our stomachs ached especially when a straight-faced man in our group, in a panama hat, staring straight ahead, caught my eye, and said it was like going fishing….

So, about turn and then, horror of horrors, another gathering of canters by the side of the river! We sprinted at top speed to join them. The tiger, the tiger! New hip or no new hip I leaped up onto the seat, caught up in the moment, shouting “Ted-grab my legs!” This Ted did, which was a good job as the driver was desperately jockeying for position and I did in fact catch a glimpse of our boy on the other side of the river. This was nothing to the furore caused when the tiger then leisurely crossed the road in front of the foremost vehicle and made a stately promenade onto the other side not a million miles away from us. Amazingly, I had an uninterrupted view and clicked away on my little mobile phone.

And so dear readers, the moral of the story is, don’t doubt the experts (never thought we’d see a tiger outside of Blackpool Zoo!) and don’t be cynical! I ended up passing some of my 🐅🐅🐅 pics to those who missed them! 🤣😂Read more