Is any further explanation really required?  We came. We cycled. We saw a tiger. Or, at least half of us did.

When you are staying in one of the largest National Parks in the north of India which is famed for it’s tiger population and conservancy activity, there really only is one thing to do on a cold chilly Wednesday morning.  That is to leave your bed far too early and head out on safari.

The group was split into two separate jeep type things; each with about 25 seats.  It doesn’t take a maths genius to work out that we could actually all have fitted in one jeep.  The other half of each jeep was filled with other (random) tourists also going on a tiger sighting hunt.

As we trundled off out of the lodge complex, it didn’t occur to me that there would be a parting of the waves and that the jeeps would be heading in different directions once we reached the park.

Jackie was in the other jeep.  We missed her.

On safari. Having no fun without Jackie.

We saw lots of deer, lots of birds and lots of monkeys; all the while scanning the woodland for both low hanging branches (people kept shouting ‘duck!’ to me, but to be honest I didn’t see any of those) and tigers.

And then, there it was! Nonchalantly walking towards us on the track ahead with two other jeeps behind it.

Tigertastic

Oh my God! Oh my God! An actual tiger! Much clicking of cameras and murmurs of excitement – sector 5 had been the place to be for the 1 in 10 chance of seeing a tiger in the reserve that morning.  Immediately I hoped that that other jeep had also seen one in whichever sector they had been whisked off to.

Of course, they hadn’t been so lucky and I felt really bad for them.  They saw owls though! Twit-twooo owls! Amazing 😉  I wished we had all seen it or no one saw it (although it was pointed out to me that this was a bit like ‘sharing the misery’ when I had actually thought of it as ‘sharing the love’ – never mind).

The 70km cycle today passed in a blur of tiger stripes whether you had seen one this morning or not.  I did much of my cycling with Jackie and India seemed to be rubbing it in for the rest of the week.  A guy on a moped drew up alongside us and asked us if we had been to Ranthambore. The next logical question he asked Jackie was whether she saw a tiger.  Maybe he just didn’t believe her when she said no because the little devil came back a few kms later and asked the exact same question.  Jackie was not a happy tiger.

Seconds later another moped draws up beside us – they don’t want to chat, but they do want to show us their baby. Dressed as a tiger.

Tiger(baby)

The following day at the bird sanctuary –

Jackie takes the opportunity to photograph a Tiger(cat)

The following day again and we stop because I’ve seen another pink temple, and what do we find?

Jackie and the Tiger in the Temple

I have to say, the non-tiger-seeing members of the group took all this in good spirits (I think!).  The tiger painted on the back of a truck as we waited to cross a level crossing and the real stuffed taxidermy tiger in the lobby of tonights ex Maharaja Palace hotel were possibly a tiger paw print too far.

I still will always wish they had been lucky too.