World India Rajasthan Ranthambore

____________Wanderlust____________ Rajasthan, India

Ranthambore National Park Nov 30, 2010

Ranthambore National Park is near the town of Sawai Madhopur which is connected by bus and train from Jaipur. Google maps had told us that it was a 2 hour journey. So, we planned to take a bus in the morning, and we would have enough time to make it to our 2:30 pm safari. We met Kaushik's family for breakfast, where his Dad told us that it is a 4 hour journey by bus; the receptionist at the hotel confirmed that. At that point, we had no option but take a cab to make it to the safari on time. Since we had started at 9:40 am on a weekday we navigated Jaipur's peak hour traffic at a snail's pace. Even after getting out of Jaipur things did not improve much. The highway was in bad shape and there was heavy truck traffic. The driver, Ashok Singh, seemed a weirdly nice guy who wanted to do things his own way many times at the expense of the passengers. He indicated that the trucks / highway situation was very normal and it typically takes 4+ hours by taxi and 5+ hours by bus. We passed through a bunch of villages and a couple of small towns (one called Tonk) and had lunch enroute. We finally reached the forest ticket office at Ranthambore at around 2 pm, which is practically a suburb of Sawai Madhopur. Only when standing outside the ticketing counter I realized that our safari reservation was at 1:30 pm and not 2:30 pm. It dawned upon me that we might have to return to Jaipur and the safaris to the tiger reserve were regulated and all vehicles left at 1:30 pm. The guy behind the counter said the same. Just as this was happening, someone was trying to cancel a ticket on a delayed safari. There were exactly 2 seats on that canter - what a coincidence ! I immediately bought those canceled tickets. The canter was an open roof 20 seater vehicle. The vehicle picked up a couple of visitors and then headed into Ranthambore National Park, which is also a tiger reserve. Apparently the park is home to 35 tigers, which are not very afraid of human presence and roam the forests freely, thus increasing the chances of tiger sighting. Dirt roads took us into the forest, where we saw a variety of wildlife. The Sambar deer looked like a smaller version of the moose. There were stags with huge antlers. Spotted deer were everywhere. Some peacocks flew in short bursts while others stay put on the ground. A careful look into the trees would reveal parakeets perched on the branches. A lonely kingfisher rested on a boulder in the stream. The crocodiles in the river were not to be seen. And no, we were not able to sight a tiger this day. All we did was see a tiger paw mark in the caked mud. Apparently summer is a better time for tiger sighting since the tigers come down to the water holes when they are thirsty. However, during this time of the year, the rains have filled up several small water bodies in the interiors of the forest and so the tigers might choose to just take a drink there and not come out. I should not complain much because a British couple had come earlier in the day too and had not been able to sight a tiger. It was a very nice ride through the jungle. We rode out of the preserve as the sun set. The dying rays of the sun shone off the Ranthambore fort, which looked spectacular on the hill. I wish we had planned to spend a day here and visit the fort. On the way back, we had dinner at a pseuder place because our driver Ashok Singh insisted - he was a weird guy. It was around 11 pm by the time we were back in Jaipur. We stopped at a Rajasthani handicrafts/handloom place where I picked up gifts for back home.

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