It was sad to leave Bikaner however, as I reflected on my time there, yet again I had to admit that in Rajasthan I had luckily stumbled on a lovely welcoming and friendly family.


Sitting in the 3AC Sleeper compartment for my overnight trip to Bharatpur, I contemplated this luck, especially as everyone I was travelling with was pretty unfriendly . It was a sleepless night. Several times I was awoken by people getting on the train, and turning on the lights. At 4.05am, when we arrived, I returned the favour, especially when I found all the external doors locked when we had arrived at the station. Bharatpur was dark and surprisingly chilly, but I found a tuk tuk and made my way to the guesthouse and checked in.


They allowed me up to my room, and I promptly fell asleep, waking up at 9.30am. I then met Devendra Singh, the manager. A nice man in his early thirties, he is a wildlife photographer and examples of his work adorned the restaurant walls. The guest house catered to wildlife photographers visiting the Keoladeo National Park (which was why I was here) and I was quickly introduced to Pavendra Singh from Delhi and his friend Toto, both here for a photographic weekend from Delhi.


As for me I was exhausted after a sleepless night on a train again and all those exertions in Bikaner, and I decided to visit the national park on the following day . The Keoladeo National Park is the most famous bird national park in Rajasthan and one of the best in the whole of India. Unfortunately I was a little early in the season for the migratory birds, but nevertheless I was still expecting a large amount of native birds. The Iora Guesthouse again turned out to be great find and Devendra (another friend of Seva Ram in Khichan) turned out to be another super helpful knowledgable manager, who could not do enough to keep his guests happy. The rooms were quiet and comfortable and the guesthouse itself was in a residential area not far from the park’s entrance.


For my first day he asked Pavendra and Toto, if I could accompany them so they could show me the best places inside the Park. The first morning was great fun and rewarding. We met in the restaurant at 5.30am before heading to the park gates for the 6.30 start. Toto drove us in his car into the centre of the park where we walked south along the main pathway past all the lagoons down to where the Red Neck Storks nest . On the way the golden rays of morning light illuminated brilliantly the wading birds, herons, cormorants and egrets. Kingfishers were there aplenty as were several raptors, monitor lizards, Macquac monkeys, squirrels, peacocks, antelope and various other birds.


Most people either cycled or rode in a rickshaw up and down the lanes, but with a camera, by foot was the best. At about 11.00 we returned to the guesthouse for lunch and compared notes with Devendra, before a quick rest and then back out at 2.00pm to be ready in the park for the dusk activity. Unfortunately Pavendra and Toto had to return to Delhi in the afternoon, so it was just me on foot.


Over the next two days it was the same schedule, up at 5.30am and back at 11.00am for lunch before returning at 2.00pm and coming back for dinner after sunset at 7.00pm It was all pretty full on, but greatly rewarding on the last afternoon I took a rickshaw, with a driver called “Maniac” . He was a knowledgeable birder and on Devendra’s advice he would point out any secrets I had thus far missed. Sure enough, Owls.


I was quite tired when I eventually got to the last night telling Devendra that I was going to Agra before heading to Madhya Pradesh for a tiger safari. When he heard that I had not booked a safari he told me that, I would not get on one, and after a quick look on the Madhya Pradesh website, I realised he was right. However within twenty minutes he had spoken with friends in Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan and organised good value accommodation and safaris there for me. I had considered going to Ranthambhore before but decided against it due to the time of year and my understanding that the park had a distinct lack of Tigers. But Devendra said that was old information and whilst the time of the year was not great, there were now over 50 tigers at Ranthambhore, so chances for October were not too bad. The next morning I was off.


The train trip was painless and comfortable. I caught the Kota Express, which is a once daily special train laid on at the Kota town’s peoples request when they a found it increasingly difficult to get seats on trains bound for Delhi on the Mumbai-Delhi Express route. “I cannot imagine the railways of Britain granting the citizens of any British town that request,” I told the man sitting next to me when he told me that story. The man next to me was called Shivraj. He lived in Basle but was back in India travelling home to Kota to show his parents his new son. We had a great natter all the way to Ranthambhore.


At the station I was met by Gul, the Manager of the Safari Lodge and he took me directly to the hotel. The Safari Lodge was a very basic hotel in the centre of the tourist area of Ranthambhore. Actually it had a definite feel of a few rooms above a shop on the main road. It was however cheap, very clean and Gul seemed an excellent bloke. Later that night I met Mr Duggu, the owner and friend of Devendra, who also seemed a nice guy. It transpired that Mr Duggu’s late brother was a famous naturalist at Ranthambhore, who had good connections with the photographic business and the national parks both here and at Bharatpur.


Gul used his contacts for Safaris and the next morning I was up at 5.00am again for the first one. Getting up at this time seemed to be habit forming. I was driven to the National Park in a Canter, a 20 seater truck, built for this purpose with no roof and rails. It was somewhat reminiscent of an army amphibious vehicle and probably as comfortable. I was joined by an Indian family and 15 raucous Americans of advanced years from Texas. They were definitely not quiet and whilst not rowdy inside the park it was enough to cause a disturbance. They also liked to stop for a long time to see the most ordinary wildlife which greatly irritated the Indian family who wanted to see a tiger. After a short 90 mins the safari was ended and we were driven back.


My hopes for a better afternoon visit were totally destroyed by five young men arriving totally drunk for the afternoon Canter. Myself and the 8 Danish tourists from Odense and the two Australians did not notice at the beginning, but once inside the park these five idiots were falling all over the vehicle, urinating over the side, throwing rubbish into the park and making so much noise we had to abandon the safari after 70 mins.


Back at the Lodge I complained bitterly to Mr Duggu and Gul (even though I knew it was not their fault) but as the National Park Office refused to see me what else could I do. I resolved to try one last safari and see how that went before deciding on whether to leave or not. The next morning at 5.00am, a Gypsy Jeep turned up with the most senior guide, Mena. With just five more people in the Gypsy everything was much better. The English couple on this trip had seen a tiger the day before, and seemed appalled by my story of the drunk bus. However in the Gypsy, everything was different. We were in the park before 7.00am, and we spent nearly three hours there. We avoided the noisy Canters when they arrived and Mena was a guide supreme. Within twenty minutes we had spotted fresh footprints and then a little distance further on we heard our first roar. We tracked the tiger for 60 mins, up down our track (for we are not allowed to leave it). We had several false alarms, but nothing. I was disappointed but reenergized and now ready for more in the afternoon.


It was another Jeep in the afternoon with the same English couple, but alas no tigers. We saw plenty of other things, some very interesting, like owls, crocodiles, jackals, antelope, deer and several interesting birds, but no tigers. I decided to stay on and booked another trip with Gul, explicitly stating I wanted a Gypsy.


At 5.30am the next morning I was angered by the arrival of a Canter, which again was full of rowdy tourists. The safari was only 80 mins, and managed to see very little due to our late arrival in the park. I did though meet a nice couple from Gloucester, who also felt the same way as me about Canters.


Back at the hotel Gul said he had tried for a Gypsy but all were booked, however he did promise that he could get me on a gypsy in the afternoon, but that it would be visiting the new part of the park where the chances of tiger spotting were remote. Together with the couple from Gloucester, the three of us decided to go this route. I also felt albeit sorry for Gul as he constantly got it in the neck when he no way of influencing the park and their decision making process.


In the afternoon we were joined by an Indian couple and their 11 year old son who had an impressive encyclopedic knowledge on the animal and birds of the region. It turned out to be one of the best trip so far, finding us herds of deer and antelopes, plus many gazelles, ducks, Indian Rollers, Drongos, Wild Pigs etc. There were animals everywhere, except a tiger. However the highlight for me was getting so close to a white breasted kingfisher and photographing it, digest a prey and then regurgitate the bones in a neat little sack. A Highlight!


That night I went for drinks with the Gloucester couple and decided I would go again for one last day the morning of course would be my best chance. Unfortunately the Gloucester couple had to leave.


The next morning, I was up at 5.00 am again, only to find that whilst I was going in a gypsy, it was to same place as the previous evening in the new stretch of park. Needless to say it was quiet and we saw nothing, and I returned despondent. Seven failures. Meanwhile I knew that other safaris in other parts of the park were having success, but this just dampened the mood. Gul disappeared when I got back, and I told his subordinate that I would go one last time rather than just sit in the lodge as my train left only in the morning.


At 2.00, a gypsy arrived (surprisingly, as I was expecting a Canter) with Gul in the back. He said he had organised this one specially, as it was my last trip with the best driver to the oldest part of the national park (where I had yet to go) - this was the area of the park with the best chance.


The driver was kind,saying when he heard how many times I had been on safari from Gul, he had volunteered. Off we went with three girls from Aukland and a couple from Mumbai. Immediately it became apparent this was a more professional safari than most of the others and we started looking almost immediately on entry into the park.


Th next chain of events happened all too quickly. As we were searching at the top of a crest, several vehicles past us, but abruptly stopped some 50m away. Suddenly it was obvious they had spotted a tiger and we drove up to join them. As we arrived facing small river and a little clearing with tall grass the huge male crept out from the forest trees. A huge mass of orange, he was startlingly large. Everyone stood on their seats trying to get a view - the atmosphere was electric. I tried to take some photos, but the Kiwis were in the way. Suddenly there was a jolt on the jeep and we all got thrown forward. A private car behind had hit us or visa versa. Little mattered as the tiger moved towards the river out of the clearing and away from my line of sight, I managed to get off a few photos, whilst mayhem ensued. When the tiger disappeared down the bank but our jeep did not follow the others in front and we continued to block the road. The vehicles in front moved on a further 50m and their passengers kept shrieking and photographing. “Why cant we move?” I yelled. “Because the man in the car behind has taken our driver’s jeep keys and locked himself in his car!” said one of the Kiwis.


Extraordinarily, at the moment of tiger spotting we were subject to an example of Indian road rage inside a national park. Both our driver and guide were banging on this man’s car roof, whilst this Indian (aggrieved at having a knock on his car), blocked the whole road together with our jeep, preventing all the visitors on two others jeeps and three cantors from seeing the tiger. It was a scene out of a comic book and it was only when a ranger with a big stick intervened that he gave the keys back. By which time the tiger had gone.


I had just a fleeting glimpse plus four photos, three were fine. But I was happy. I had seen the poor animal some 20m away, not for as long as I would have liked due the behaviour of a complete idiot. However compared to the visitors behind our two vehicles, I was much better off and as we continued on up to the second gate, everyone was elated (in our jeep). The idiot behind kept up a running slanging match with our guide and driver, for the next three kms. He was off to visit a Temple in the national park, so had little interest in anything other than himself. The unfortunate people behind would though I am sure liked to have put another dent in his car.


The rest of the trip mattered little and we saw little. Back at the hotel Gul was pleased. It was later that I found out that he had personally intervened with the park management to get me on that jeep.


Leaving Ranthambhore the following morning was sad yet again. I exited Rajasthan a few hours later enroute for Agra, wondering if my good luck would end there.