Tigers? Not So Much.

We spent a day in the bus, Mike and I, trading spots on the back bench for naps. Lots of small villages, bad roads, crops (mustard is a biggie) and women working. Everywhere the women are working, from hauling water in pots on their heads, to rock carrying for road work, weeding and hoeing the fields, tending the animals and making cow pies into wood stove fuel. The men sit in circles and smoke, hang around the shops and watch the village television and take naps on woven beds that sit outside beside the house doors. Occasionally you see the men urinating beside the road. We discussed the inequality of work at great length on the bus, but Mike and the other fellows thought we were being sexist.

8 hours later after a delightful potty stop beside the road in the bushes(only a few of those thistle thingies stuck to my pants) and a surprisingly good Indian lunch at a tourist bus stop, we arrived in Ranthambore and hopped on the condor vehicle for our safari into the tiger park. Unfortunately we were late getting to the hotel and so had to speed at breakneck pace through town honking at all traffic coming our way till we got to the park for a quicky 50 minute tour before dusk drove us out. I guess you wouldn’t want to be stuck in the park after dark so they have strict rules. Mike and I have arranged for a private jeep tour into another area of the park where we hope to have some photographic opportunities that might be a bit less hectic without our fellow 16 travelers along.

Right now we are listening to gypsies performing outside our room (we are so lucky to have drums and singing so close-yeah, ask me in an hour how I feel), we’ve had a very good dinner and have sorted the laundry for tomorrow. Off to bed. Hopefully will be able to post some delightful tiger shots or at the very least a few Sambor or spotted deer photographs that will take your breath away. Tomorrow we have a 6:30am safari and an evening safari with shopping and swimming in the pool in between. Kind of a relaxing day comparatively speaking of course. –Carol

Mike here: We just got back from our morning “safari” into the Ranthambore National Park. In order to keep the tourist jeeps from outnumbering the animals, each vehicle is randomly assigned a zone within the park in which may travel. We got zone 6. We did see hyena, antelope, gazelle, etc., but no tigers. Still, it was a very pleasant drive and we hardly saw any other vehicles. I will post again after our afternoon safari.