Next day it was off to the National Park.We had a choice of a quick little bus or the regular bus.Choose the little bus and found out why they are little - it took a route down the mountain that involved going round a set of hairpin bends that no normal bus could negotiate.There were 36 bends in all, we were glad to be down.

As we arrived in the national park we saw our first wild elephant - standing by the side of the road.

We had booked a lodge which was run by the national park - getting in to it proved chaotic.When we got there the place was very rustic and very basic - but at least it was cheap.We decided to take the park tour in a large bus with 30 Indians.Whilst we were waiting for the bus, a group of monkeys descended on the corrugated iron shelter - They made an awful racket and Fran and I jumped out of our skin - the Indians were most amused.. There was not much chance of seeing too much as the bus and the Indians were very noisy.One girl claimed to have seen a tiger - I think she just had a vivid imagination.All we saw was a glimpse of deer and a mangy tame elephant.

We went back the lodge to find that it was at the crossing point for the deer to come back to sleep.We sat outside at sunset watching them cross the river in front of us.

That night we went on a jeep trip which was really good - saw a family of wild elephants with 2 babies, some wild buffalo and lots of deer. We then came across a large bull elephant. It was a magnificent specimen - as Fran put it you can certainly tell he is a boy!

Next day we got up at 5:15 to go on an early morning trek.The walk in the bush was good but very few animals - just lots of droppings.Sadly no tigers!