Having spent the past week pounding the footpaths of congested Delhi and jam-packed Jaipur, we are looking forward to our next stop, UNESCO listed Ranthambore National Park. One of the worlds best known wilderness areas where Maharajas once hunted and where you can still see a tiger in its natural habitat.
The Train from Jaipur to Ranthambore
Our train arrives late, so we spend our time waiting with the hordes of other travellers in the station’s waiting room. As usual, we are the odd ones out. Trains are long here, ours is over 30 carriages, so it is important to know beforehand where your carriage will stop. Electronic signs indicate the carriage number, but it’s not always easy finding this sign. Low behold if you’re waiting at one end of the platform and your carriage is at the other end. The distance is a few hundred metres and impossible to do quickly.
We sit with 4 locals in a compartment and one of them, a financial consultant, works for Goldman Sachs. He speaks excellent English and fills us in on Indian pensions, superannuation and the economy. Vendors walk the aisles selling their goods such as chai and chips and we are flabbergasted that one can pay using their smartphones.
Ranthambore National Park
Once a private game reserve for the rich and royals, Ranthambore National Park lays approximately 13.5 kilometers from the city of Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan. Surrounded by water bodies, tucked within ancient mountain ranges, this 500 sq km wilderness area is home to an incredible variety of flora and fauna, including bengal tigers, wild boar, Indian leopards, hyenas, monkeys, crocodiles, jackals and much more.
Sawai Madhopur Lodge
It feels as if we have stepped back in time when we arrive at our accommodation, a former gaming lodge where, in 1961, Queen Elizabeth stayed. Taxidermied tiger head trophies line the walls, staff bow deferentially and we are driven around in buggies. To make it even more authentic, the power regularly fails.
Our Indian Safari
It’s an early 430 am wake up for the real reason we are visiting Ranthambore, to safari within the national park. Ensconced in a bouncy jeep, we are joined by 3 fellow Australians and we all listen avidly to our guide. He explains that with only 75 solitary alpha tigers remaining and only 20% of the park open to the public, seeing a tiger is not a guarantee. He reveals how the park is divided into 10 zones and advises that we will be exploring zone 5.
It takes 3 hours to explore this zone and they are 3 hard hours. The roads are rough and dusty. The day is hot and humid, with the temperature rising to a sweltering 45 degrees. Devastatingly we do not see a tiger (on this morning they were sighted in zones 1,2,3,4 and 10), but the wildlife we do see is incredible. Hundreds of beautiful spotted deer, posturing peacocks, crocodiles, monkeys, mongeese, goannas, monkeys, buffalo and more.
Knowing we may not see a tiger, most visitors have a back-up plan, a second safari. Ours is booked for the afternoon, but with the day airless, it’s too much for me. Darryl, however, is determined to see a tiger in the wild, and that afternoon he incredibly sees two. An amazing experience he will never forget.
Onwards to Agra
It’s an easy 2 hour train ride, followed by a 1 hour car journey, to reach Agra. Outside our window we spy fields ready for planting, brick factories, shepherds tending their sheep, while inside, merchants sell their food wares. Chai, chips and lassis’ seem to be the most popular items. As usual, the most difficult part of our journey is knowing when our station has arrived. Indian trains do not seem to announce a station’s arrival so we are reliant on google maps and the App ‘where is my train’, to ensure we alight at the correct station. It’s slightly nerve wracking. Stayed tuned to see if we got it right.
