Bengal Tigers?????

We began the day with a drive from Japiur to Ranthambore.  Considering it was only a 4 hour drive we thought it would be easy…however on Indian roads it was more like a 4 hour roller coaster ride.  

To say the drive was chaotic is a vast understatement.  We narrowly dodged fire trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, pedistrians with a death wish, tractors, camels, pigs, warthogs, uncountable other animals and motorized modes of transportation.  I am shocked that our driver didn't flip our mini-bus on countless occasions.   Actually at one point, when I was holding baby Jay, we went over a road bump (about a foot high) in the middle of the one lane highway that sent us literally flying out of my seat onto the floor.  Luckily, I had a death grip on Jay so there were no injuries but the trip was frightning.

Gordon was feeling slightly ill, I was unable to spot even a fragment of road that was not bombarded with pot holes and the kids, they just giggled away.  The icing on the cake was when I heard Mom (Pushupa) tell Ajeet that she was amazed how organized and well built these roads compared were to Varanasi!  We are in for quite the treat there.  Ajeet believes that the Indian roads are one of the reasons that people in India are so religious.

And we thought our ride was bumpy!

Rudolph the red nose camel!!

We made it to our hotel Oberoi Vanyavilas where we will be spending the next 2 nights in a Luxuary " tent".

As the gates to the property opened we were greeted by 3 monkeys!

We didn't realize what a common occurrence this was!













Next stop…Ranthambore National Park.  Covering 410 square km, Ranthambore runs along the easternmost spur of the Aravalli to the Vindhya Mountain ranges.

At one time, Ranthambore was a private hunting ground for the Royal family of Japiur, and home to 26 villages and thousands of Tigers.  In 1972 it was declared a Sanctuary and brought under the Project Tiger Plan with only 28 Tigers remaining. For more information how on Project Tiger check out this site: projecttiger.nic.in

Since it is winter we would told we would only have a 25-30% chance of spoting a tiger… we were a little disappointed (scared actually) as Ajeet and I were under a severe pressure from our daughters to show them a tiger in their natural habitat.   We kept our hopes up and went to meet our naturalist to begin our safari in an open air jeep.   Now as karma would have it our naturalist was named Bobby and for those who know ChaCha Bobby (the whistling dancer at our wedding) we felt this was a good sign.  Moments after meeting Savitri, Bobby realized the intensity of Savitri's desire (more accurately termed need) to spot a tiger.

Our driver who, thank God, had 25 years of driving experience, sped along on a rocky (by my standard small boulders), narrow, sandy paths at 60km per hour following "information" he had received of a tiger sighting.  I had a death grip on Savitri and Jaya as we sped our way through the jungle.  They giggled the entire time singing and shouting at the wildlife, as my entire body began to seize up with tension.

I was in awe of the dry deciduous forest covers followed immediately by open valleys with lush vegetation around lakes, and wide grasslands in the higher slopes…on steep inclines of up to 60 degree angles to these higher slopes.  The varied flora supports a large number of animals, including somber and spotted deer, langor monkeys, wild buffalo, warthogs, peacocks, crocodiles, mongoose, and a wide variety of birds including parakeets with the most vibrant green I have even seen.

Spotted Deer

The watering hole

…but still no Bengal Tiger..












Moments later we whipped around a corner and came to an abrupt halt….only to see.... A BENGAL TIGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is me controlling my excitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not only did we see a BENGAL TIGER we saw the mother of Broken Tail, star of the documentary we watched numerous times prior to our trip!!!!!!!!  My heart is pounding just writing about the experience hours later.

The tigress' name is Machali, translating to Lady of the Lake, as she lived by the watering hole, until her daughter was born.  After 1 year of nurturing her daughter and the next year teaching her how to hunt, Machali's daughter (born in 2002) kicked her out of the prestigious lake area.  Now Machali resides deeper back in the forest.  Machali was born in March 1997 and she is regarded as the Mother of Ranthambore because she has produced so many litters (5 to date).   She is a beautiful tigress, with exquisite markings.  She has a unique stripe on the side of her face that is in the shape of a fish.   The pictures tell the rest of the story far better than any words I can muddle together.  Please enjoy and wish us luck tomorrow as we venture out again at 6am!

Shannon (photography by Ajeet!), Jaya & Savitri