Ranthambhore Retreat

Having heard there is not much to do in Sawai Madhopur aside from the twice daily tiger safaris we knew we would be spending more time that usual at our hotel. This in mind we decided to “splash out” a little on a nicer hotel. You know.. running hot water, heat, all the luxuries that we have been living without for the last week. It turns out that forking over about the same sum that you would spend on a room at the Super 8 in North America, finds you living in luxury in India. Great staff, clean room, hot water, heat, swimming pool, nightly bonfires, and provided meals(although unfortunately the spices were tamed down a little for the whitey tour bus guests that frequented the place). Despite all the extras, we were most appreciative of the comfortable beds and the peace! The silence was almost deafening at times. Even when the Indian wedding started up next door, the blaring bhangra was tranquil compared to the barking dogs, beeping cars, and general street noise that had been our lullaby for the past week.

We only had one day (two 4 hr safaris) to spot one of the park’s thirty-odd tigers. We figured our chances were pretty slim given the fact that the park is 1300 square km of bush, tall grass, and mountains. Setting out early, I was just looking forward to enjoying the scenery and perhaps seeing a few other native animals and maybe a glimpse of a distant tiger from our spot in the back of an open jeep.

The park is divided up into zones and to prevent the tigers from being overexposed to humans, each group is given a zone by lottery. Zone 5 here we come! We bounced along down a dirt road stopping every once in awhile to check for tracks. We saw deer, peacocks, kingfishers, tracks from a sloth bear and even some tiger paw prints. Finally we rounded a bed to see three other safari vehicles stopped in front of us. We jammed ourselves in between a couple of them, and there they were… two tigers lying right at the side of the road. It turned out that the two we saw were brother and sister cubs, although at two years old they looked almost fully grown. Just on the other side of the road was an adult male. There was definitely some aggression between the siblings and the other male, and a supersized cat fight almost broke out in right front of us. The tigers lay there for several minutes, completely nonplussed even though the vehicles were only about 15 feet away. Eventually, they became a little more active and I became a little more nervous. The female was especially curious, she came around and stood there staring at us over the leaves as we snapped some pictures of her. Of course, as with most tourist outings, somebody had to do something stupid. The passengers that pulled up behind us kept whining and complaining that they wanted to get closer to the tigers (apparently 20 feet just wouldn’t cut it). Finally, one older gentleman, who should’ve known better jumped out of the vehicle to walk closer for a photo. Fortunately for him his guide quickly snatched him back in before he got too far away. We watched the tigers for as long as we were allowed (more park rules on tiger/human exposure), then headed back to our hotel for brekkie and a nice poolside bask in the sun. First time wearing shorts in India- even if only for an hour!

We ended up in the same zone for our afternoon safari which was less fruitful. Enroute our guide stopped at a roadside stand and treated us to some fresh guavas before picking up the others in our group. This time we had a few more people in the vehicle. One couple was a lot of fun, but the other younger couple were annoyingly high maintenance. Apparently they thought travelling with two other tourists in the first class carriage of an Indian train was a bit more culture shock than they had bargained for. They plan on spending the rest of their journey in a chauffeured car and five star hotels, safely insulated from the culture of the country they chose to visit. Coated in dust, we returned to our hotel and made the most of our hot water supply, doing a load of laundry in the tub. It was amazing how much dust we collected over the course of the day!