3 February - Sawai Madhopur

Today is all about the tigers. Reasonable start as we head out on the road from Jaipur to Sawai Madhopur - which is the home of Ranthambhore National Park - and therefore well known for the tigers that live in the park.

Nice hotel - one of the better ones we've had yet - everything works except the hot water *sigh* We have been hard pressed getting hot water since Delhi however, the rooms are clean, beds are comfortable and the doors lock :-) Can't really be selfish and demand hot water as well!!

Back to the tigers. We have an open roofed half bus thingy that seats about 30 I suppose. We get first pick up with the national park guide and driver - then scoot around some of the hundreds of accomdation properties for an assorted collection who have booked seats to go into the park.

Once at the park gate, the route that each jeep gets assigned is done by lottery - i guess to spread the load of vehicles around the park - and when you see how many pour through the gate alongside us, that seems smart!!

There are five routes - with route 3 being the only one where regular tiger sightings occur. Franzisca from our group gets to select the ball from the jar - there are only 3 balls left at that stage - two are for route 1, and one for route 3. What pressure!! Smart, clever girl picks the route 3 ball - and there are plenty of offers to buy her a drink that night!

I am told that even if we hadn't picked the route 3 ball, there would be appropriate ways of ensuring that our jeep got to route 3 - but i guess doing it this way was cheaper!!

So onto route 3 - just like any other safari track i'm sure - and everyone in the jeep is craning heads left and right to spy a tiger - however, it takes the pro to find two down by the lakeside.

Now with naked eye you can barely see them - they are across the lake, under trees and unless they move, there is nothing to give away their location - binoculars bring them closer into view - and they are indeed magnificent. We sit there and watch them for a good 20 mins before moving on to see what else we can find.

Driving around for the next two hours elicits lots of lovely picturesque views of the park, lakes, deer, birds and all manner of animals - except more tigers.

The guide and driver try one more back route on the trail - they seem sure that there is movement and can hear monkeys and birds sounding warnings (seems completely innocuous to the untrained ear!) and sure enough as we sit quietly in the jeep, a tiger appears out of the bushes, intent on deer for dinner.

As we watch him, about 20 other jeeps turn up in a rush and surround the area (appears that you can't keep spotting a tiger to yourself) and the place goes crazy. Interestingly the tiger seems oblivious to the drama - and concentrates on the deer. Not his lucky day however and after a short chase, he comes up empty-handed.

Nicely for us however, he's a bit tired after the chase so gives over to sitting under a tree 30m from the track and allows a whole bunch of camera happy tourists to go crazy watching and taking pictures. Yes i have some very good ones too!!

Bless route 3 - it was the only one today that tigers were seen on - so we were indeed very lucky!!