🙂 TIGERS! Sloth Bear! Sujan Sher Bagh!
🙁 Hectic and smelly town. Didn’t spot leopards or hyenas 🙁
BUCKET LIST dreams DO come true!! First sighting of a tiger in our lives was a goosebump moment …simply AMAZING. they are the most beautiful creatures. What a privilege.
Our journey to Ranthambore proved to be interesting as we left Agra WAY too late so had to drive after dark….very stressful! Our taxi driver was so sweet and stopped off at his home to introduce us to his wife and children and brother and Mother and Dad and Grandparents and children of everyone!! His wife gave me her shawl 🙂 So lovely.
As we knew we would be arriving late we had booked the very reasonably priced and comfortable Sher Garh Cottage. The food was absolutely delicious – best paneer we have tasted! Our cottage was spacious with a huge bathroom. Staff were really friendly. The swimming pool was clean and we enjoyed a relaxed morning there after our first Tiger Safari. Definitely recommend a stay here.
DAY 1: 6 April 23 – Full Moon! 35C
We only got to bed at 22h00 and were up at 06h00 and our guide was waiting in Reception but did not appear to think that Paul and I were his guests… We had Zone 7. The Driver did more talking than the Guide….We stopped and listened for alarm calls and spent about an hour at a look out point. Exceedingly rocky terrain – not at all what we had expected. Excellent driver! We spotted Tiger tracks … but sadly no tigers…. our Guide only started to engage with us when he realised we were staying at the Sujan! I let Arijit know and he was really surprised as they have used this guide called Harvinder previously for 20 years! Very odd but Paul and I both felt exactly the same way about him…he was really bad. Despite not seeing any tigers we had still really enjoyed the scenery and other wildlife.
We were then transferred to our home for the next three nights – OMG! OUT OF THIS WORLD. The Sujan Sher Bagh evokes nostalgic sensibilities of life on safari during the heydays of an era celebrated for its art de vivre, living elegantly under canvas, whilst on safari. With crackling campfires under starlit skies, sumptuous Anglo-Indian repasts using homegrown organic produce, coupled with old-world service, the camp epitomises life on safari as it ought to be lived. Crackling campfires under star lit skies, naturalists to share the facts of the forest, it’s a place where comfort, style and an unmatchable commitment to conservation meet.With over 40 years experience, Sher Bagh’s guides and trackers are the best in the business. Their incredible knowledge of the park and the behaviour of its star inhabitant, the tiger, together with their passionate enthusiasm, make a stay here unparalleled. AMAZING. Our Butler was Suresh and he was just perfect – you didn’t know he was around until you needed him and he would appear and disappear with complete discretion! I will let the photographs do the talking!
Utterly divine. The only slightly perplexing thing was that we were shown around by a member of the Sujan Team called who told us that he would be our personal guide for the duration of the stay and that he had secured a park Official who would accompany us on our drives to ensure that no plastic was thrown out (?!) and that he would ensure that we saw EVERYTHING! Tigers, leopards, Hyenas as he knew everything about where they are located and he never gives up until he has found them all, he just tells the driver to keep driving …. He also said that as we had booked late we did not have the best Zones which are 1-3 BUT that if we paid we could change our Zones ….interesting …. particularly when we shortly discovered that this was complete nonsense and that he was in fact merely accompanying us to serve refreshments and that the actual guide was the extremely revered and knowledgeable Vijay along with Sujan Driver of Note, Rajenda who has been driving Ranthambore for over 20 years and knows every inch of the Park ….one has to smile….unfortunately for him that meant Paul was completely put off him and refused to leave him a tip at the end of our stay! Not least because he completely forgot that we were the guests and tried to take prime position when photographing the tigers and had a very noisy old camera … ho hum…. oh, and you cannot change your Zone!
Anyway, back to Tigers … We headed to Zone 6 and Vijay told us to trust his instinct …. we drove straight to a tiger in the water!!! We had goosebumps and I thought I was going to cry – AMAZING. STUNNING. SPECTACULAR!
T127 T8) is the daughter of Lagli and T58 (Rocky). we spent the whole afternoon with her on our own until right at the end another Jeep turned up (and proceeded to park right in front of us!) but they soon got bored and moved on. We spotted our useless guide, Harvinder from the morning and Vijay confirmed our suspicions and said he was a very lazy and slow guide….enough said.
We will let the photos do the talking of the Tiger…
And other wildlife…
After that wonderful start we headed out of the Park for the drive back – the sunset was DIVINE.
On arrival we were greeted with warm towels and a welcome drink …. and I was treated to a candlelit bath under the stars and full moon!
Dinner was around the Boma – just DIVINE – another Tali! We met a friendly couple from Ireland who were living in Dubai and a lovely family from Leeds and had a nice chat. The camera trap photos are of a leopard and striped hyena who are. regular visitors to camp once the guests have gone to bed!
We headed back to our wonderful suite and had a Bailey’s nightcap whilst listening to the sound of the Indian bush ….blissful…
DAY 2: 7 April 38C
Up at 04h45 … there is a chap offering porridge for a snack before you head out… We arrived at Zone 10 and were the first cars to enter!
Exciting start with super fresh tracks on the road! Alarm calls galore …. big male tracks with droplets of water – so just missed him. The female track has a longer middle pad print.
We tracked and tracked and other vehicles started to arrive so we made the call to drive right to the other end of Zone 10 …. and we were so pleased that we did so as there were no other vehicles and we found a tiger that Vijay had not see before!! Daughter of T114…. she was roaring away looking for a male! It was incredible.
What a morning … magnificent!
We headed back to camp and enjoyed a delicious breakfast.
After we had eaten ourselves into oblivion with a full Indian breakfast we crawled back to our Suite for a couple of hours in the pool and resting in the sun – glorious.
Collected at 2pm for our afternoon safari. Headed back to our spot and found our roaring female.
Left her to it …and started tracking a male tiger… stunning!
We then followed the other trillion safari vehicles driving at a thousand miles an hour and we spotted a poor male tiger trotting parallel to us in the bush – we decided that we didn’t want to be part of that circus so we left them to it …..
Then we found a sloth bear – really great sighting! 🙂 Much better than chasing vehicles chasing tigers!
Then just as we were leaving we found this beauty! Another magnificent day!
Ranthambore was delivering!
It was Paul’s turn for a bath under the stars….We sat around the camp fire and chatted to a lovely Indian family who had the other family Suite…Dinner was pleasant but we were so tired and ready for bed!
DAY 3: 8 April 38C
Our final morning in Ranthambore – up at 05h45 – a lie in! Headed to Zone 6 …. the peacocks were on great form – all the males displaying to the females – stunning. We spotted 3 dos in the park … they would not be long for this world – apparently the leopards take them.
Love watching Langurs…
Love the Banyan Tree … it is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adventitious prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. The tiger’s poo was also very impressive!
We drove past the spot where we had seen T127 the previous day but she wasn’t at the waterhole … I then scanned the area with my binoculars and found her – HOORAH
A great finale for Ranthambore! Vijay and I exchanged Instagram details – I told him that he needs to be posting his daily encounters as he will gain a huge following with his amazing photos and videos – the day before us he had a tiger taking a warthog right in front of them – the footage was excellent!
Useful Guide to the Zones:
We headed back via Ranthambore Fort. Our annoying chap was there to ‘guide’ us at the Fort … he told us it was too hot to climb the 215 steps …so we simply said NO, we were climbing and off we went… Shame, bless him – he did try to relay the history of the fort and was very critical of all the people who left plastic litter all over the place. He was right – it was Damn HOT but worth the climb for the views of the lake.
One amusing incident was a man holding a baby who wanted a selfie with me … when I suddenly felt my boob being groped I yelled and lashed out … it was only the baby grabbing me and not the man!! Ha!Ha! Ha! I am still traumatised by my last trip to India in 1995!
We headed back for another delicious brunch. Then relaxed by the pool. I had an excellent massage too.
All too son it was time to say our farewells… we were collected and transferred to the station for our train back to Delhi … a very comfortable private and air conditioned cabin …. after our train food which was spicy and hot we fell fast asleep and very nearly did not wake up in Delhi on arrival at 22h00!!
Go to: India
