Tiger Safari #1 - (morning) - The moratorium on early rising ended all too soon and we were up at 5.45 am on our first day in Rajasthan - much brighter than usual due to the veritable squishiness and comfort of our massive king size bed. And the excitement - don’t forget the excitement. Theoretically we shouldn’t have been too excited. It is a game preserve and not a zoo... the tigers aren’t in cages... the Ranthambore National Park / Tiger preserve is huge 392 square kilometres, it’s divided into 10 zones and your allocated jeep can only drive in your allocated zone, there are no guarantees, some people do 6-7 safaris and don’t see a tiger.... blah blah blah. We’d booked 4 safaris - two morning and two afternoon - so figured we were in with a better chance than lotto (at least).

We were ready to go at 6.15, out the door at 6.30 am and going through the gates at the 7.00 am opening time. Honestly. Zone 6 was crawling with tigers! We were exceedingly lucky to come across our first tiger just strolling in the scrub after a hard night out hunting. We arrived second on the scene and then one other jeep behind us also saw the big male tiger... Then a few other people turned up - when it comes to tiger spotting a minute either way can make all the difference. We were absolutely chuffed to have seen one of these beautiful big cats in such short order. Not for long enough and you’ve really not taken photos until you’ve tried doing it in a moving open top jeep whilst holding on with both hands and seemingly developing prehensile toes to hold on with them too - but a tiger - wow!

The rest of the wildlife was obviously very nice - spotted deer, mongooses (mongeese?), antelope, gazelles, owls, monkeys, peacocks, etc etc - the standard tiger all-you-can-eat buffet. It was being very nice indeed. But realistically everyone in the jeep was there to see tigers. We were sharing our 6 seater jeep with only 2 others as the other scheduled guests had decided to take a private vehicle. The two people with us had actually taken the el cheapo option the day before - the 18-20 seater ‘Canter’ open top vehicle - with a couple of screaming babies included. We suppose they could have been useful in attracting tigers in bait form... but our fellow guests were devastated to have not seen a tiger on their first of two safaris. They ‘only’ saw a leopard. Only! They felt much better when the guide informed them that leopard sightings are even rarer. They were ecstatic after our first tiger sighting.

We were driving about, enjoying the sights, and the driver was wending his way back towards the gates of the park when we got the word from a passing Canter than 3 tigers were basking in the grass in a particular spot - miles away, right back into the centre of our zone. We spun a quick 180 and screamed, literally, across the savannah - screeching along. Hold tight! was repeated over and over again by the driver and guide. Tight? We were simultaneously holding on for grim death and dear life - if we’d let go for a second we would have been bounced out of the jeep immediately. We have concluded, without a shadow of a doubt, that we never, ever need to do the Paris to Dhakar rally. We just did the Indian equivalent. Not only were we rushing in case the tigers wandered off - we were also under huge time pressure as the gates are shut and locked and all vehicles on the morning safari have to be out by 10.00 am at the latest.

Wow! There’s certainly a lot of Wow! going on right now. We arrived at the sighting and saw one tiger sunning himself then moved a little further along and saw a pair together - incredible. We’ll let the photos speak for themselves as the superlatives are simply not super enough.

We then had another extreme drive to get out of the park - and the gates were locked when our jeep and one other got there. Lots of raised voices - but it was only a couple of minutes and hey - what were they going to do? Keep us there? Nobody cared - we had seen tigers!

We returned to the resort on a high and it was high fives all round with the wonderful staff. Every evening they wish you ‘good luck’ for your safari the next day (good luck seeing tigers? surviving tigers? surviving the driving? Heaven knows our jeep kept stalling and the clutch was in a parlous state.) Upon the return from a safari the only question is ‘Did you see tigers?’ - YES! We said... ‘Ahhhh - you must have been in zone 6. Indeed we were. And so many others weren’t. Lucky, lucky, lucky. And another safari tomorrow - how could it possibly beat today? Tigress with cubs along with a leopard doing the Can-Can in the middle of the road?

Stranger things have happened.