Well out of the wilderness into the wild city of Delhi! We left Amritsar on the night train. Waiting on the platform we were approached by a Punjabi Sikh Guru who spoke at us smiling and clapped Charles on the back a few times. A young guy came up and started to translate "He says thank you so much for your friend (me) wearing traditional clothes. Many travellers come to our country and show no respect for our ways wearing sleevless tops and shorts. I would like to bless you and say you are always welcome in India as our friend" By this time we had gathered quite a crowd as always who nodded approvingly. Although I am not wearing a Salwaar Kammeez I always wear long baggy trousers , a shapeless top and Dupatti (shawl) around my shoulders and neck. It definately gets you more smiles from the women and I have really started to resent even more those inappropriately dressed travellers. In a country where there is still a long way to go with the way some women are treated I think it is important not to give a bad example of what women in the west are like so we can't be cited as a reason not to progress with female rights. Anyway rant over!

The train was great and we had an excellent vegetarian Thali for our dinner before settling down to sleep for our early wake up call at 5am. We stumbled off in the dark at Moradabad station to rats running along the platform and lots and lots of homeless peopl which I think is pretty much standard at any train station here. Of course we attracted a lot of attention as always and started to panic a bit when we couldn't find the driver that was supposed to meet us. We walked round and round and then finally at the third entrance we tried- "Jemma Miss" a man said and held up a handwritten sign- what a relief. We jumped into the car and started a typically terryfying drive through the countryside whilst we enjoyed the view of Ox carts and seriously overloaded vans. Eventually we started to see elephants and knew that the national park must be close. We stopped for some breakfast and then there we were met by our guide JP and another Jeep- this time an open topped one for Tiger hunting! We jumped in the back very excited and headed to the gates of the park.

Jim Corbett park is the oldest one in India and is regarded as the best in terms of "ecotourism" (if there is such a thing) and tiger conservation. It is the only park in India where the tiger numbers have actually increased over the last few years where throughout India they are going down and quite rapidly due to poaching and the destruction of their habitat. Tiger spotting basically consists of driving round and round the tracks for 8 hours a day hoping that one walks out in front of you. The chances are slightly increased when you hear calls from monkeys (Banda) and Cheetal (spotted deer) but not much- the areas they are calling in are huge and you never know if you are even looking in the right direction! There are lots of other animals to spot though and in the morning we saw Samba (large deer) big crocodile and one with babies, monkeys, Mongoose, Jackal and lots and lots of trees. We went to the forest rest house (Dhikala) where we would be staying the night and ate a yummy lunch there whilst fighting with the very agressive monkeys who run at you with their teeth bared! The next day we would witness them letting themselves into our room when we were in it and going through our bin despite us shouting and frantically waving our arms! In the afternoon we headed out again and first went to see a beautiful herd of 32 wild elephants with little babies playing in the lake. We watched them for a long time enjoying the view before returning to the tiger hunt. We spent a lot of time near a thicket just by the camp where some deer calls had been heard. The chances were looking pretty slim- some other jeeps had caught on too and were driving around the same area. We stopped and waited in one place for two hours with some Russian wildlife photographers with massive lenses and their tops off- they looked quite ridiculous. After a long time they decided to give up and told their driver to keep going. They had probably gone about 10 metres away from us when suddenly there was an almighty roar and huge movement in the bushes- their jeep had crossed the path of the tiger as it was going to cross the road and it had gone for them! It was an absolutely unbelievable sight. The tiger retreated into the bushes about 5 metres back from the road and we stood eyeball to eyeball with it as it sat there staring at us. Eventually it got fed up when loads of other jeeps arrived and moved to a different part of the woods. We could still see it though but not very well despite it being really close. You would never think that orange and black is good camouflage and then you see it- it is seriously effective!

All the jeeps from the area had heard the commotion and rushed to see the tiger in a hilariously Indian way- 4 jeeps hit each other and one drove into a tree. We moved out of the way and JP pointed to a section of road. "get your camera ready" he said- "the tiger is going to cross the road there in a minute." How he knew that I have no idea but 10 years of guiding and tiger tracking paid off and he was right- the tiger casually sauntered across the road right in front of us and it was a truly stunning experience. On a complete high we headed back to the camp really excited. I think JP was pleased too because now the pressure was off! "Now we concentrate on Hindi lessons" he said! I have been trying to learn as much as I can and the guides helped me loads. As soon as you say you want to learn Hindi everyone becomes your teacher from the waiters in the restaurant to the driver. They ae constantly pointing at things and telling you the word which I then write down and try and remember. It is great and I really hope in 3 months I will be able to have a conversation!

Anyway after that we didn't see any more tigers but the park was still absolutely stunning. We drove around for 2 more days soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the hunt. "Bhagh Daka Kiah" (Have you seen a tiger?) every jeep was asking each other and everyone was very jealous when we said that we had seen one on the first day- we felt so priviledged. JP spent the time asking us questions about ourselves and talking to us about life in India and traditions- particularly wedding and family. In the countryside it is still quite shocking that we are not married and people want to know all about it! Arranged marriages are the complete norm and noone we have met has met their wife before their wedding day. On day 2 in the evening we had dinner with Ramesh who is the owner of the company we booked with. He is a fantastic man who is very forward thinking. He really wants to promote women's rights- in particular start a fund to send orphaned girls to school as well as continuing his current work to encourage not littering and recycling to preserve his beautiful surroundings. He told us funny stories about Indians who had come to the park who everyone seemed to dislike guiding because they had no education about the tigers. JP had told us of a Bengali woman who had come back from safari and demanded the complaints book. They asked her guide if they had seen a tiger "yes we saw 3 beautiful ones" he said. Jp, puzzled as to why on earth the woman would complain questioned her as to what the problem was "I saw 3 tigers right next to our jeep" she said "what on earth are you thinking? they could kill me- you should put them in cages!"

So we had a lovely time in the countryside and last night boarded the train to Delhi. We got on late so went straight to sleep and arrived at 5am to another packed station. We got a rickshaw to our homestay and then had a big fight with the rickshaw driver who tried to charge us 250rupees for a 50rupee journey. The homestay owner came out and got involved thank goodness and eventually he left. It was certainly a lesson! Today we visited Ghandi Simitri which is a museum dedicated to him. It is where he spent the last 144 days of his life before his assasination and is really interesting. He was such a forward thinking man and all of the stuff he said then is still absolutely true today- very inspiring. We have another day here tomorrow and then we head to Agra to be at the Taj Mahal for Charles' thirtieth on Tuesday!