Tigers, Birds and Bianca

Ummm...Don't feed the tigers??? Don't get out of the jeep?? What exactly are we being told?

There is a 25% chance of seeing a tiger at this time of year.  We saw one on our first safari...there is no way we were going to see anymore.  Gordon, Ajeet, the girls and I were up at 5:45 braving the frigid morning weather to hunt down these amazing creatures... we were excited and determined to break the odds!  

We were lucky enough to have Bobby back as our guide and an equally skilled driver...15 years experience, and you could tell, he could easily be a professional rally car driver.  Ranthambore National Park is split into zones and jeeps that enter the park must have a tag on their license plate identifying the zone they are restricted to travel in.  Our jeep was tagged Zone 2 this morning.  We had high hopes of spotting the "Queen of the Mountain Tigress" and her three, 10 month old cubs.  Along the way to her territory we saw alot of wildlife in their natural habitat.  It was breathtaking, even though in the back of our minds we were looking for the tigress and her cubs.

Great Cormorant

Eurasian Spoonbill

Sambar Deer

Banyan Tree

Bobby listens for the warning calls of the monkeys and peacocks to determine if and where a tiger was moving.  His experienced ear told him Zone 4 was the place to be (that is where we saw Machali yesterday).  Without us having a clue of what was happening the driver stopped the jeep, jumped out and quickly changed his license plate tags from Zone 2 to Zone 4 then sped off (higly illegal in the park).  I thought what a brave man, jumping out in the middle of the park.  However, near the end of this excursion Savitri had an emergency bathroom issue and her and I had to hop out of the jeep in the Reserve!  The owlets and spotted deer starred at us and Savi thought it was hilarious that the animals were watching her pee!

Bobby took us to the highest point in the park.  It was a spectacular view.  We were all speechless...but still no tiger.

Then our driver, while maneuvering these rocky dirt paths, clearly only the insane would  define as roads, spotted these tiger foot prints!

Queen of the mountain was on the move! Our hearts skipped a beat!

Unfortunately it was not meant to be this time, but on our way out of the park Gordon spotted an Indian Hare (white tailed rabbit!). It was amazing observation, even Bobby was impressed and the girls were  in awe of their Foofaji!  It was still an exciting adventure.

Alok and Bianca arrived just in time for the last safari.  Bianca came with us and Alok went with Neen, Gordon and Jay.  Off we went on our final adventure.

We began again in Zone 2 because Bobby said he got some more of his invaluable "information".  Our driver this time was significantly more reserved this time and it appeared to annoy Bobby (and us).  Bobby was as eager as we were to see a tiger.  We were looking for Tiger 39, a pregnant female.  Bobby hollered at the driver to speed up and pass other jeeps and trucks.  Not 10 minutes into the journey Bobby motioned to us that Tigress 39 was on the move up ahead and brought the jeep to a hault.  We saw nothing initially...then turning the corner this was our view!

At this point, the pictures get a bit blury..why you ask?   We are actually madly reversing in the jeep because she is walking towards us (seriously within feet)!!!!!

Look in the bottom right corner...that is Bobby's camera lens....T39 (Tigeress 39) was less that 5 feet away from us.  We seriously could have reached out and pet her!  Note her belly as well, she is pregnant!  Tigers have a gestation period of 95 days, she is near the end of her pregnancy.

One of the larger safari jeeps drove up and T39 darted off the road...disappearing.  But very rapidly Bobby brilliantly guided the driver to a nearby spot where she lay resting.   It was amusing listen to Bobby demand the driver go through streams and off road to get a closer look. We watched T39 stretch, lick her hind leg, roll over and wiggle her ears for 30 minutes.  It was a truly spectacular sight and we were obviously still on a great high from having her literally walk to our jeep.

While we were waiting to see if T39 would move a Indian Pie Tree Bird thought Bianca's hat was mighty fine and decided to attack it then take a break on her head!

We also got a picture of Bianca's face when the Pie Tree initially swooped onto her head, but can't upload it at the moment...stay tuned because it is worth the wait!  We were all very impressed at how calmly she handled herself, after a moment of initial shock she was spinning around letting tourists on the jeep behind us snap shots of her.

We ended the trip with this sunset....seriously does life get any better?

Overall an amazing day and a truly once in a life time experience.  My only regret...the rest of the crew was not with us...Nina, Gordon, Jay and Alok were in Zone 4 with less luck.

Tomorrow we move on to Agra, where the Taj Mahal awaits us!

Shannon, Ajeet, Jaya & Savitri