Thursday after leaving Agra, we first stopped at Fatehpur Sikri a city built by a 16th century Mughal Emporer but which was only occupied for 14 years as the water supply was not suitable and has been abandoned ever since and us now known as the Ghost City before moving on to Chand Baori an 8th-9th century built stepwell which extends approximately 30m into the ground.
We are staying at a dedicated safari resort very close to the National Park and everyone staying here will be going on a safari adventure in the hope of seeing a Bengal Tiger.
Friday - Up at 5am and down to the foyer for a cup of coffee before meeting Ashok at 6 to travel a relatively short distance to the meeting place.
Our jeep arrived and we boarded to complete the 6 person jeep safari together with a guide and a driver.
The sun hadn’t risen when we moved off and no sooner had we started, the jeep stopped because someone suggest there was a tiger in the bush beside the track – while others commented that they saw the back of him neither Sherry or I saw anything
Moving further into the reserve the wind created by the moving jeep was quite chilly and the bumpy uneven track made for an unpleasant ride.
Soon we were seeing a lot of birdlife, peacocks, peahens, woodpecker, egret, even a magpie, as well as some deer but no tiger.
The guide said that the chances of seeing one was 30% so hopes weren’t too high but as the sun started to warm things up there was a raised level of excitement as the guide sensed that a tiger was near by and numerous jeeps and open deck trucks each carrying a load of paying guests congregated near the edge of a lake and soon one of these magnificent cats ambled into view.
The convoy followed it around the banks of the lake and at one point it was no more than 3-4 metres from our jeep.
We must have spent 15-20 minutes watching him before he went from view.
As we moved out of the reserve we saw numerous crocodiles sun bathing in the rocks on an island in the lake and one was on the shore.
Then it was the turn of the monkeys to be stared at by us, however by now the allocated time for the safari had ended and so we left the Reserve and returned to our hotel for a late breakfast.
Standing around the breakfast buffet I spoke with an English gent and asked whether he had seen the tiger but he said that he hadn’t.
I thought he was kidding until he said they were in sector 4 whereas we were in sector 3 so it really is the luck of the draw whether on any safari you get rewarded in the way that we were.
Again very poor internet so will post photos hopefully at next stop tomorrow, Jaipur.
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