What's New, Pussycat?

We are now in Ranthambhore, staying at an Oberoi Hotel. It was "only" a 3 hour drive from Jaipur.

There are only 28 units here, each one a free-standing house, capped by a tent structure. The hotel is on a 20-acre parcel of land contiguous to the Tiger preserve. It is beautiful.

We got up at 4 am to meet the tour "bus" at 5 am for a 30-minute drive into the Preserve. Here's the bus. At 5:30 am, at 30 mph, it is chilly when riding in this set-up. Fortunately, there were blankets available to use as lap robes! But by the time we left the Preserve at 9:30 am, the sun was up and it was hot. Then the breeze was welcomed.

Once inside the Preserve, the tour guide gave us the "expectations-management speech." That is, don't be surprised if we miss seeing a tiger. While there are hundreds of tigers in the Preserve, the Preserve is almost 275 square kilometers (106 square miles). It used to be a royal hunting park. Its topography and geography are varied, from stream bottoms to hill tops and cliffs with a relief of about 900 feet. There is a 10th-century fort in the Preserve.

We did not see a tiger. But there were lots of other species we did see. And the flora was impressive in its variety. There were many times we would stop and only by staring at a grove of trees would you finally see the animal because it moved a leg. Camouflage is important!

Here, at the end of the limb, rests an owl. It was absolutely motionless for the entire time we were there.

Ornithologists could tell you what this bird is. I missed the translation from Hindu. But the telescopic function worked pretty well.

Birds were not the only animals in trees.

On the ground, there were two types of deer (small and large will suffice for this endeavor). There were also ibises and egrets and kingfishers.

There were wild boar rummaging around on the forest floor.

And a pair of crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank.

We did go to a naturalist's talk the night before. He did talk about tigers. This slide might give you paws.

Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

Cheers,

Brio