9th October 2018
Our last minute decision to try get on to an early morning
safari seemed great at 8pm but when 5am came around, neither of us were
particularly excited about the prospect of getting on a bumpy tuk tuk and
trying our luck at the booking office. We decided to toughen up and at 5.15am
were bumping along a pitch black road.
When we arrived I sent Rory to the booking desk to try and
convince them to put us in to zone six – the zones are randomly assigned to try
counteract bribery but whatever he did worked as they gave us zone ten before
scoring it out and writing zone six! We met our driver and set off to pick up
the first passengers – two Americans who were fifteen minutes late! The next
couple, who were from England, were thankfully on time, so we set off towards
zone six. We stopped on the way to get petrol and once we got in the park there
was more stopping as our guide chatted to every other guide we passed.
At this point Rory and I were on the verge of having a
breakdown. Every other guide and set about trying to find the tiger as soon as
we entered the park but here we were in zone six, which is meant to be the best
place to see tigers (there is a mother and two cubs in the area) and our guide
was too busy chatting! At one point a warning call was heard and eight jeeps
were crowded on to a small stretch of road. We drove on for a few minutes
before turning back. The other jeeps had moved on and we couldn’t understand
why we were back at the same place, waiting, again.
It was then that Rory said “TIGER”. I’m normally the one who
spots any and all wildlife (as Rory is normally imagining that he’s scoring the
winning wold cup goal) so I couldn’t quite believe it but the jeep took off at
speed and crashed over the small rock barrier, designed to keep jeeps out of the
restricted area.
I thought my chance to see a tiger had come and gone and when I asked Rory to explain where he saw it and he responded “over there, just there, over there” (which is absolutely not how one describes the location of anything, let alone a tiger) I lost all hope. But then, out of the undergrowth came a fully grown 20 month old tiger. Listening as it broke the small twigs and branches and seeing the size of it, especially compared to the many, many deer we have seen was surreal.
It walked forward, turned, marked its scent, walked a bit further and after a minute or two, disappeared back in to the undergrowth. I tried to get a few shots but as the focus has gone and my hands were shaking from all the adrenaline, I haven’t got anything National Geographic worthy! I would have like to have stayed in the area longer but as it’s technically off limits we had to get back on the track quickly.
It’s hard to believe that we spend days searching five different zones and here, on our last safari (a safari we weren’t even supposed to be on) we got the one guide who persisted and took a gamble to get us a sighting of one of the most elusive and endangered animals on the planet! Seeing a tiger in the wild was originally Rory’s dream but I’m more than happy to share it with him.
In the 1900s there were over 100,000 tigers in the world. Now there’s around 3,000 and some people estimate that they could be extinct in the next ten years. I really hope this never happens and that habitat loss and poaching can cease. It would be such a shame to lose something so majestic. There really is nothing like seeing a tiger in the wild, where it is meant to be and I hope that one day my children can have the same experience.
Delighted that we finally saw a tiger, Rory and I felt able to relax and one we got back to the hotel we were happy to be heading onward to our next stop; Bundi. Not a particularly well known town, Bundi is home to houses, lakes, hills, bazaars and most impressively, the Bundi Palace. Partly decaying and with an almost overpowering whiff of bat droppings, this place was described by Rudyard Kipling as “the work of goblins rather than men”. I’m not really sure what he was on about but Rory and I found it to be very impressive (when we finally found our way in – it’s very easy to get lost on the winding roads).
Constructed between 1607-31, the Bundi Royal family continued to partly occupy the palace until 1948. Since then it has fallen in to disrepair but a number of rooms still contain ornate murals. There are a few rooms that are locked (these contain the most important and elaborate paintings) but luckily a local guide unlocked them and showed us the rooms of the Maharajah and his wives.
We were tempted to explore some more of the fort but it has been taken over by monkeys and we didn’t fancy getting rabies. Instead we dandered back to the Havelli – a traditional Indian guest house where we are spending the night. I should probably also clarify – you don’t really dander in India, your senses are assaulted as you make your way from one place to another. We haven’t had to do much city walking as we’ve been out in the sticks (or else we’ve been driven from place to place) and while it is nice to experience every day India, there are times when I’d like to hold my nose!
It’s also surprising how quickly you get used to seeing pigs and cows on the street! After our bumper day we weren’t feeling too fresh so we showered and went to the Haveli restaurant. We ordered mountains of food (for under £10) and ate it while looking at the Palace, which is just as impressive at night! All in all it has been a busy day and it’s hard to believe that it started with spotting a tiger in the wild! It’s definitely not a day I’ll forget any time soon!
