Day 6- Just chillin'

Today is a much needed Chillin' out day! As I type  by the side of the swimming pool, Nigel is reading his Kerala Guide, probably hoping for more nerd points as he impresses us with his "knowledge" of the entire area in preparation for Saturday.  Sue is deeply engrossed in The Far Pavillions, a book I have read twice now, perfect Indian historical, romantic fiction..sigh...Ashton......D is into "The girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and me, I've been cutting and sticking into a scrapbook and have made a mess all over my hands with pastel chalks!

Behind me, some members of staff are having a break, playing...I wonder if you can guess....the sound of runs being scored with enthusiastic cheers!

I can hear the Brain Fever bird going up the octaves and she gets more fervent, a chipmunk is running past my feet, a red wattled lapwing (ooh err listen to me!!!) has come to drink out of the pool. D and Sue are keen to inform us of all bird varieties that cross or paths or fly overhead. We are on a steep exotic bird learning curve!  I stand amazed as Sue makes small notes against each bird she sees and dates them on the page.....

A monkey has come to join us, Sue says "Quick, grab your stuff!" however he is more intent on having a drink too, as you can see!

Tonight we are catching the Night Train back to Delhi and then it will be full on at Asha for two days. We arrive at 05:30 and are hoping the train is delayed again as the American Diner doesn't open until 7am, then we'll leg it over to "On the House" and dump our cases, get changed and then out ready to be interviewed and do workshops.  Let's hope we get some sleep tonight!


21:45

On the train now, not nearly as stressful as before, names on the board with compartment letter and even markings on Platform to tell you where the A1 carriage will stop.  D and Nigel had to  dodge running cow on platform, whilst Sue and I were in the corner of the waiting room with men gradually invading our personal body space. Thankfully cases provided  a sort of moat! By now Sue and I didn't know where to look, having discovered that eyes right meant Men's toilets and eyes left meant young men staring....

Station announcement "Stand clear of the cow!"

Just because they were teasing me about charging up my netbook on the train!

Now the train is making good speed and there is even a plug to charge up your mobile/lap top so I'm well happy as it means I can get this blog up  sooner rather than later.

Day 5-Afternoon- The Bear Necessities!

This afternoon we had our 5th and final safari.  D. has bought an Indian Bird book which has been invaluable in identifying all the varieties we are seeing fly overhead or perch.  Nigel is getting some great close ups with his zoom lens.  Sue hasn't been on tripod duty today!

White throated storks....

Parakeet nesting in a tree...

We've seen vultures and woodpeckers, tree pies, kingfishers, honey buzzards and a whole assortment of others!

Breastfeeding monkey!

More monkeys which are everywhere!

Ancient Ranthampore Fort above....

and then this...The Sloth bear!  Very rare to see, the driver of our vehicle had never seen one! What a day we are having! He was up a tree when we first spotted him....

He had knocked down a bees nest and we watched him climb down the trunk and proceed to scoop out the honey with his claw and lick, whilst all the bees encircled him!

It was a classic Winnie the Pooh moment!

"That buzzing-noise means something. If there's a buzzing noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee. ....
And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey.....
And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.”

After this episode of watching "Baloo", we heard that some people had seen a leopard "Bagheera", but that was not to be us today!  We were all quite stunned to have seen 2 tigers and one rare Sloth bear in one day!

Day 5 -Morning-The wonderful thing about Tiggers!

Another 5:30 wake up call and we're off!   Within 5 minutes of arrival at the National Park, a tigress strolls down the road!  Everyone is amazed!  We don't get a very close view, but it gets us all excited and on the look out.  The guide tries to track where she might go, but after a while we move on. Little did we know what lay ahead....

Sitting out in the open was a tiger, panting in the heat, no one could believe their eyes!  We thought yesterday was a good sighting, but there was more to come!

Panting in the heat

After a while, he gets up and slowly ambles off, we follow...

He walks in front of the Cantaur (Open topped vehicle)

and down to a small pool beside the road....

Had a drink whilst we all watched from above....

and lay down in the water to cool off!

Look at the pads on him!

We watched him for about 20 minutes!  I can't believe we'll ever ger a better sighting than this! Some people we have met haven't had a single sighting after 5 safaris.  We feel very privileged.

Day 4- On which which we meet a tiger and are very excited!

Alarm sounded at 05:20, coffee on the veranda at 5:45 and we set off for the second safari, complete with warm long cardigan.  On arrival at the gate someone spotted a leopard (no pun intended!) high up on a ridge.  It took a while to work out where different people were pointing, there'e nothing worse when everyone else can see something and you can't!  However, it moved, then I saw it before it sauntered off!

I will let the pictures tell the story of the tiger sighting which was incredible!

Pug marks in the dust....we track them.

We came around the corner and there she was!

Not sure I would have fancied being the the opened top jeep! The tiger just about brushed the side of the bonnet....

Spraying her territory

Day 3-Sawai Madhopur Lodge and Tiger Safari 1

Woke up and through the carriage window  watched villages come to life as dawn broke.  Women working in the fields harvesting wheat as it began to get light.....and I thought to myself....I have it so easy, it was a sobering moment.  Life revolves around lighting dung pat  fires, cooking food, harvesting crops, getting water (twice daily) washing and cleaning.  The children help out with the chores from the moment they are able to, no whining, no excuses, if we don't all muck in, we don't eat, end of....

It's not that I don't know this, but sometimes I need to be reminded of just how different life is for other women, to see it before me, walked out in all its daily ritual.

After a day and a night in the same clothes, chewing gum for toothpaste and dreaming about a mug of coffee, we arrived at the lodge travel weary but jovial, to be greeted by a smiling host, offered coffee and shown our rooms.....Oh my word, I actually jumped up and down, much to Nigel's amusement "Julie, I never seen you so excited!" A huge shower with steaming hot water that pummeled into aching shoulders.

A deep bath, 2 four foot wide beds and somewhere to charge up my netbook! 

The grounds are beautiful with hammocks strung between trees, a huge variety of bird life,  watching mongooses ( I think that's correct!) from the cane furniture on the cool veranders (as in temperature, although there are pretty cool too!)

Breakfast consists of fresh papaya and pineapple chunks, plus both Western and Indian choices, cold and hot....Fill up on breakfast then you don't want any lunch, that's the plan!

Apparently our luggage has been sent to "On the House" in error, so will be now arriving tomorrow afrernoon....so off to buy more clothes for Sue! I've bought a shirt, but have been generally okay as I had 2 changes in my hand luggage (smug) Not sure how we will cope with the choice of what to wear when the suitcases do eventually catch up with us!  I can just see them arriving just after we we have left again to go back to "On the House" for our 2 days at asha later this week!

The first Tiger safari is booked  for 2pm.  They go mornings at 6am for 3 1/2 hours and the same from 2pm. A cantor picks up around the different hotels/ guest houses which takes about  1/2 hour, then off we go. As I have said previously, we are booked on  five, so hopefully we should get a tiger sighting at some point.

Later......

Well, I have had every part of my body jiggled and jolted on this cantor which seats about 16 I guess.  We had the bright idea of sitting up high on the back seats.....my entire body left the seat on a number of occasions, I gripped the back of the seat to keep from hurling myself into the lap of any unfortunate passenger!  I think I have lost a few centimetres of intra vertebral space and will measure less than my 5'2" on return to the UK, but we have had a brilliant safari, no tiger sighting, but seen just about everything else in terms of bird life.  My highlight was a kingfisher which was perched on  a branch really close to us and then flew off in all its blue irridescent beauty!

We saw crocodiles in the lake, samber deer, spotted deer, bird song all around us! Amazing experience, didn't feel at all cheated to have not seen a tiger. Banyan trees are incredible with their aerial roots, we saw a spotted owlet (so cute!, Nigel has a brilliant shot as he has a zoom lens to die for!)   Monkeys, being monkeys just  at the entrance and tree pie birds eating out of your hand if you have crumbs...

Came back, quick shower, then dinner was served.  All  you  can eat buffet type, I can cope with that!  Actually discovered that Kingfisher Beer is really refreshing, although the boys had to help me out (not literally in terms of carrying, those of you who know what a lightweight I am, one glass and all that) but the bottle I insisted would be fine was asking too much....tomorrow, I stick with water!

Dick and Nigel played Pool 1:1  That aside, there is a Nerd contest going on, which Sue and I are awarding points.  They are fairly equal at the moment, except in the area of trip preparation where Nigel has stunned me with his file of "interesting" information. Sue shrugs it all off with a resigned smile...although being asked to become a human tripod (as his is in the suitcase....which as you know.......) on more than one occasion, just about takes the biscuit!! May try and get a photo of this for you, I'm sure there will be other times!!

Excellent day which  seems to have gone on forever!