"Riding the Rails" as they call it was not too bad an experience, our carriage (class 2A - basically means 2nd class but its still 2nd best out of a category list of 7 different classes). Our carriage was fairly clean but we had two pet hates 1) screaming and stamping children and 2) mice scuttling about giving us the fright of our lives! Nevertheless, not enough to put us off! Like they say there's no better place to watch the landscape change from city to dry valley to lush mountain forest to lime green rice paddies.

(We do have 2 more journeys, one in class 3A which Helen is petrified about and is going to try and get upgraded! Our final journey in India will be first class from Varanasi to Kolkata!)

We arrived at Tala Village (gateway to Bandhavgarh National Park) at a ridiculously early hour and checked into our accommodation which was surprisingly good - what was better was the price!

Our destination was Bandhavgarh National Park, the home of the Tiger! The Lonely Planet got us excited as it says you're "almost guaranteed to see a tiger" in this relatively small park that boasts the highest density of tigers in India.

We had planned to do a couple of jeep safaris after shopping around and finding a group of people to go with to cut our costs. The first group we found were a trio of Yorkshire lads, but as they were leaving that night we went that afternoon. No tigers sighted, although loads of spotted deer, birds and monkeys were seen! Helen had a really bad cough and is convinced her cough scared all the tigers away!

The second group we found were a mixed bunch from UK, Germany and Israel and we spent all day out on Safari from 6am - 6pm. Again, no tigers sighted but loads of footprints and roars heard. (what was even more annoying was that the taxi driver from the village saw a tiger during our lunch break crossing the road!). Again, Helen's cough scared them all away! This travel lark is battering her immune system!!! (We hadn't really took note of the Lonely Planets wording 'almost'.......)

We also watched the Lunar Eclipse from the village, and had a 'relatively' early night!

The last day in Tala was spent at the Interpretation Centre, which was fabulous considering it's location. We expected a run down place with shabby photos but it was actually a modern museum with fabulous photos and detailed history of Bandhavgarh. The cheek of the woman who tried to charge us 25 rupees each when its really only 5 each. Naturally, We stood our ground making a scene!

As two Canadians had booked a taxi trip to Katni, we decided to go with them and chip in instead of taking the bus which would have dropped us off in the middle of nowhere resulting in a tuk tuk journey etc, too much hassle! Taxi trip went smoothly and we felt like VIP's after experiencing the Indian Rail system! We will blog again from Varanasi, but as its nearly Christmas we would love to hear from you guys :) xxx