21st July - Left Ranthambore early in the morning with a packed breakfast for the early morning train to Bharatpur, situated between Ranthambore and Agra. Heather had read about a"world-renowned" bird park she wanted to see called Keoladeo National Park - described in the guide book as an avian wonderland. Checked in at our hotel, a former royal palace with a great pool which we took immediate advantage of before the arrival of our 3.00pm tuk-tuk to take us to the much- anticipated bird park.

After paying our entrance fees there were various options available for exploring - walking but it was too hot, a rickshaw or bicycles which was our preference. They cost us the grand total of 60 pence each to hire, but if you saw them you would understand why. We were also persuaded to take a guide with us, which was actually a good shout, without whom we probably would have seen very little. He first showed us a pair of spotted owlets which he said were very rare - looking this up later it seems they are quite prolific in Asia! We also saw kingfishers (the feathered variety, not the beer), various types of heron, wading birds, Indian rollers, peacocks. Unfortunately, we were, typically, out of season so too early for the vast numbers of migratory birds that descend from Tibet, China, Siberia and Europe. Heather was particularly keen to see the 2000+ painted storks but they weren't due to fly in until August. Glad we got some exercise, but after 2.5 hours shrouded in our cape of humidity and dripping, we were anxious to get back to some air conditioning and a shower. Leaving the park with not a tuk-tuk to be seen, we started walking but out of nowhere our earlier driver appeared - we were delighted to see him.

That evening we witnessed a spectacular show of lightening along with the monsoon rain ……

22 June - Our plan for today was to go to the "ghost" city of Fatehpur Sikri, 15 miles away but awoke to the continuing rain from last night and the hotel grounds looking like an extension of the swimming pool. Eventually the rain stopped and we were able to continue with our plan.

Fatehpur Sikri was the former imperial capital of the Mughal emperor, Akbar, built between 1569 - 1585 and abandoned in 1610.

As soon as we arrived we were immediately pounced upon by someone wanting to sell his services as a guide (they are really like bees to a honey pot and we are spotted a mile away). Stung again - they are very persuasive and as it's not expensive we do occasionally fall for it. However, an enjoyable few hours with impressive architecture. We did buy a piece of cloth each for £5.00 and went in to the marble tomb to lay it down to be blessed, put our given flowers on it and then tied a piece of coloured cotton around a lattice window 3 times, which gave us 3 wishes. The scarf is left behind and given to charity. Later on I looked around for Dan and he was posing again for photographs in front of his audience, this time with a babe in arms!