We finally made it to our stop and we got up with our bags on, along with all the other westerners on our train, so we knew it was the right stop. A guy that worked on the train pointed out of the window and said Ranthambore, and then asked for a tip. I don't know what he thought he deserved a tip for when we were already getting off, we told him this then got off.
We got a tuk-tuk to the hotel, even though we were expecting a pick up but no one was there. The hotel was very nice, the nicest we had stayed in and it had a nice pool and courtyard restaurant.
We planned to do a tiger safari that afternoon, but because of the late train we had missed the afternoon safari, even though it wasn't for another hour after we checked in. This was because you needed passport photocopies and signatures etc etc, made really complicated for no reason.
We didn't do much that afternoon, we ate in the hotel which did very very good food, each meal we had was really good. We booked on the morning and afternoon safaris the next day, which meant a 5.30am start.
We got up the next day and had tea and toast before getting on out safari truck, a 12 seated bus with the roof cut off. We picked up some old British people from another hotel, they were cringeworthy pompous people that were complaining about the form we had to sign, how a lawyer would throw it out off the window or how they didn't want to sign it because they didn't know the safety precautions or how they were signing under duress. They were embarrassing and we were embarrassed to be from Tue same country as them.
We set off into the park which took about 20 minutes to get in, the guide was good and then informative. We stopped to look at some birds, some deer, a crocodile, some boars, a lizard and some more birds, they kept listening out for signs of tigers but there was nothing, we didn't see anything interesting at all in the morning safari.
We looked forward to the afternoon safari as we thought we would see something if it got dark. We had a really crap afternoon safari, the guide didn't notice anything that we drove past, mostly deer and monkeys, it seemed that we raced into the park to the toilets, spent 15 minutes there and then we raced back out of the park before it got dark. Visitors are only allowed in the park during the day, which is absolutely stupid considering the only animal anyone is there to see is a nocturnal animal.
As we didn't see anything again we decided to try again the next morning, hoping we would get in for sun rise and get a chance to see something. Again we got picked up and went to the park where we waited again to get tickets in swap details, register etc etc. Again by this time it was about half 7 and the sun was well up before any truck can even get in the park. Everything is made so difficult in India, how can you be picked up at 6 then not get into the park until half 7 when it is less than an hours drive. There is no organisation whatsoever which means no one has a chance of seeing anything because you are always late. The trucks pick up 2-3 people from each hotel until it is full, even though each hotel could fill a truck easily, for some reason they make it really random and time wasting.
In that safari we saw some tiger prints and the guide stopped because he could hear other animals warning calls, he knew that the tiger was over the hill laid by the lake, but we couldn't go see because we had to stay on the road, this was the best we got.
We went back to the hotel and had a hot shower, which was a real luxury and finally felt like a decent wash.
We ate in the hotel again and then went to the train station, where our train was amazingly on time.