India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 15 & 16

 

At Ramthambore National Park ready for our first safari

Day 15

How foolish of me, I assumed tiger safari would be late afternoon, but no, arrive at the hotel (very nice, but full of two coach loads of Wendy Wu cruise tours) 12.45 to be told that lunch starts at 13.00 and not to eat too much as we have a long and bumpy journey ahead of us and we are to be taken by Ram to meet our Safari vehicle at 13.45! Better get our act together then! Checked into our luxury tent had buffet lunch, so that was easy, and into the car. Don’t think Ram was best pleased, he thought he was getting a day and a half off, but he had to bring us back at 18.30 ish too. The Magic representative said it was very busy, so we had to go a long way, to go into the park at a different area, they will only allow a certain number of people in at one place which I quite understand, but he wasn’t kidding. 46 km and an hour and a half later we got to our park entrance, feeling lucky to be alive. The guide was totally disinterested, the driver was a nutter and we saw a few deer and some peacocks!

On our long (46km, 1.5 hour) drive to 'zone 9' we came across this walking parade with very loud music booming out, completely blocking the road. How was he going to get past in our big safari lorry? Well, he did edge past them all in true Indian fashion!

Did manage to get a shower in before dinner, just as well as I think I had about a pound of dust in my hair. It still feels horrible after a good wash. Early to bed as up early (coffee 05.45 before collection 6.00-6.30, or 6.40 as it happened), earplugs to drown out the noise from the hotel next door and try not to fret about my phone contract. I’d had an email saying the payment had been rejected, and they would try to collect again at 22.00 U.K. time. Lebara didn’t know why, and neither did the bank (at least I could still ring now) finally realised that it’s not actually a direct debit, but a payment from my card, which is a new one from just before we came away. Trying to update to the new one with reception coming and going on the very bumpy roads felt like a recipe for disaster. Added to which the WiFi wasn’t working so if there was a problem……(you know how it is when you wake up in the night)

We saw a selection of deer on our first game drive

Day 16

Anyway, woke up to find an email from Lebara saying my payment had been successful, and to find that I was connected to the password protected STAF (sic) WiFi that a very helpful chap had tried last night before ascertaining that yes, there was no WiFi. First world problems but without WhatsApp India wouldn’t function.

And this, a sunbird?

I’d messaged Ranjeet on our return to say what a disappointing experience we’d had, though we knew he wasn’t responsible for the guide and driver, but if he could get us into zones 1-5 rather than zone 9 we would be really happy. I don’t know if it was his influence or the Magic representative, but when finally collected this morning we were straight in to zone 3. Hurrah.

Dressed up very warm for our dawn game drive the next day

What a difference, very cold, thermal, base layer, fleece and down jacket, buff, hat and blanket cold, but a thoughtful driver and an interested guide. We still haven’t seen tigers, but lots more deer, peacocks, langur monkeys, crocodiles and many birds. Sunrise and a lovely morning. Back just before 10.00 for breakfast and to find that the two coaches have gone. Hurrah again. Lunch at 13.00 out again between 14.00-14.30 to zone 1 fingers and legs crossed for tigers (or leopards or sloth bears….)

And off we went into the park all wrapped up

Having thought we could actually chill for an hour and a half, no, we had to try and get our steps up, so went out for a walk, just locally through the village! Everyone was very friendly, but it was slightly intimidating.

A peacock and peahen getting along famously in a tree

The third safari was also a bust as far as tigers and leopards (the only one of the big 5 we didn’t see in South Africa) go but they tried ever so hard and it was enjoyable. Owls in holes in trees being the highlight of this trip, three different holes, with a total of 5 owls. It’s a shame, but that’s wildlife for you. We also got back to find two new big coaches, Germans this time. Dinner was queuing nearly to the door and we had to bring the rest of our beer back to the room as they were so loud!

Agra and the Taj Mahal tomorrow. I assume we’ll see that!

More deer, but in a nice surrounding

In fact a whole family of them crossing over to an island

A very handsome stag

A fabulous sunrise

Crocodile infested waters

There was a whole flock of these in a tree overlooking a lake. They look a bit like cormorants

A mother and baby langur monkey

Back at the lodge two of these were in residence. Red wattled lapwings

Not sure what this is, some sort of kingfisher?

Lots of these pigs/wild boars wandering around the local village

We may not have seen any tigers but we enjoyed this Indian Magpies company in our truck

And these two little owls

And another one. We'd never have seen them if it wasn't for our spotter

We were wondering if we might be lucky when some of these deers made alarm noises and this one looked very alert. We waited for ages but nothing

We had some more nice photos of deer...

Another couple of owls

And we headed back with no sightings of tigers, leopards or bears. Maybe another time!