18th July - Arrived at the local train station after a short 2.5-hour journey, picked up a tuk-tuk to our hotel - looked like we were the only ones staying in the quite large hotel. Ranthambore National Park is a nature reserve famous for potential tiger spotting and we were not in season. Most of the park is closed during monsoon with just a few buffer zones open. Tigers don't come out to drink water when it's raining as there is plenty in the forest. So, why are we here? Heather wanted to chance it and go on a safari with a slim chance we may be lucky and see the elusive tiger. We booked our seats in the jeep for the next morning with an early pick up at 6.00am.

19th July - Awoke at 5.00am to a deluge of rain - this was going to be interesting, safari in an open jeep during the monsoon. By the time we reached the entrance of zone 6 & 7 the rain had stopped, our first blessing. Not knowing what to expect during the next 2.5 hours we were just happy to experience being in the national park and away from a city. 5 minutes into the park we saw two tigers - totally unexpected and very rare at this time of year. 3 guys from Delhi said they had been to this park numerous times and this was their first ever tiger sighting. The two tigers were hidden a little back in the trees with one being more active than the other and did stand up and sashayed like a model on a "cat walk". This totally made our day and we went back very happy and ready for our breakfast. Perhaps the fact that we had watched Jungle Book the previous night was a good luck charm.

20th July - We had booked a jeep to go 4km in to the park this morning to visit the fort, high on a hill. However, the rain was back with a vengeance and our trip was cancelled. Used the time to catch up on our blog, train and accommodation bookings etc. Finally the weather brightened up and we re-booked our jeep for 2.00pm. Interesting drive through the park but only monkeys and peacocks to be seen. We walked up the 200 steps to the 10th century fort which gave us outstanding views of the surrounding park and lakes. We were completely drenched from the humidity and were glad to get back on the open jeep for some breeze to dry off.