Ranthambore - Stalking the Tiger

Tigress, posing - Route 2 - afternoon - Safari 1

We reached Ranthambore from Bharatpur by the Golden Temple Mail (No. 2904). The train was running late by 2 hrs. We arrived at Sawoi Madhavpur RS at 3:15pm. We were received by a jeep that drove us straight to the Ranthambore Park Gate for our afternoon safari.


Yawning Tigress - Route 2 - afternoon - Safari 1

On arrival, we were told by our driver, “We heard your train was late, Madam; so we have kept the tigers waiting for you”. A short 10 minute drive into the Park took us to our ‘waiting’ Tigers. The two female tigers, 24 months old, were waiting for their mother. They lounged about, unmindful of the excited tourists and cameras for an hour. They were splendid, majestic and frankly massive, and they posed like seasoned models.



Nature does its best for Ranthambore’s Tigers. The landscape is breathtaking in most places and the vegetation is varied over the many safari routes of the Park.
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Ranthambore has five safari routes, labeled 1-5. Each route is allowed only 4 jeeps, which makes it a total of 20 jeeps in the park at a time. This is a small number, given the number of tourists that flock to the place. This limitation is what makes getting jeep safaris extremely difficult. Each route is also allowed 4 canters. A canter is like a large army truck with an open top and several individual seats (like in a bus). A canter holds nearly 30 people, while a jeep holds a max of 6.

RR Parakeet	Grey Francolin
Black Winged Kite	Rufus Tree Pie

Each forest dept. jeep is accompanied by a Forest department guide. The guides speak in broken English. Unlike in Kanha or Bandhavgarh, there are no private jeeps with guides.
Routes are extremely important in Ranthambore, no jeep is allowed to deviate from its assigned route. The route is picked through a lucky draw; a passenger from each jeep pulls out a number from a bag at the gate. This is routinely rigged; Rs1000 can get you the route of your choice in a jeep.


Caracal - Route 4

Chinkara	Sambar Deer
Caracal	Mongoose

Route 1 is considered the worst, we did not see it to verify. Route 2 was our first safari which yielded 2 tigers and it is also very scenic, as is apparent from the photos. Route 3 is considered the best; it includes all of the lakes of Ranthambore and comes with guaranteed tiger sightings (we saw 3 – Machli and 2 female cubs). It is highly sought after and we were only able to see it in a canter. Route 4 is also very scenic; we took this route twice – yielding 1 leopard, 1 sloth bear and 1 extremely rare caracal. Route 4 also has a tigress with tiny cubs, and the famous tigress ‘Bachhi’. We did not see Route 5.

From our conversation with the guides, we learnt that there are far too many guides available so there is a roster system that determines who is working on which days.
I would recommend route 3 in a jeep, it is well worth the thousand rupees.

Accommodation
We stayed at TigerMoon Resort following our excellent experience with their sister resorts in Kanha(Wild Chalet) and Bandhavgarh(Tiger Trails). We were delighted with their service, simply wonderful. It is quite close to the Park gate, this is significant since the jeeps have to travel from the Park to the resort to pick you up.

They have a wonderful garden and several birds can be seen there (list provided below). Food was excellent as was the accommodation. Running hot water was available all day and night long. Mom had an upset stomach, carried forward from Bharatpur; we really appreciated the care they took of her.


Black Winged Stilt

Bee & Eater

Pied Avocet

Seen at Nature Walk, Tiger Moon resort

What I liked
Rajasthan actively promotes its tourist spots and connectivity between them is excellent.
Sawai Madhavpur Railway Station though small, is well maintained and has ramps and an SBI ATM.
Bharatpur RS has a book stall and sellers of fruit. The first class waiting room has clean toilets.
TigerMoon resort – a wonderful experience all round, well worth the expense.

What I disliked
We booked and paid for TigerMoon online, sadly their Mumbai office is extremely slow and inefficient. Several phone calls and reminders had to be given.

The safaris at Ranthambore are very Tiger centric. Much has been written about tourists hounding after tigers, it must be said that the guides from the Forest Dept also suffer from the same problem. They simply refuse to stop to see birds or other mammals and need to be sternly told at to wait at some points where the landscape is very scenic.
Some guides are frankly completely clueless and will simply roll off what ever species names they know. I once stopped the jeep to photograph a friendly Black Winged Kite that was posing, two Americans in our jeep asked for the name of the bird, Honey Buzzard was the answer they got.

Tigress	Crocodile

Canter Safaris – must be avoided at all cost – too many people and far too much noise. If you must take a canter, take Route no.3 and sit on the left side. (All the lakes will come on the left)
It is an extremely commercialized park, hawkers of jackets and hats will hound you at the Park gate.

Unlike in Kanha and Bandhavgarh, the guides keep a watch on the clock (safaris are very short here - 3 hours long). The jeep drivers are uninterested and simply drive, where as in most parks (south or north) the driver too is a guide, giving us two pairs of keen eyes.



Sightings

Safari 1 – Route 2 (afternoon)
Tigers – 2, Juvenile Females
Small Blue Kingfisher
White Breasted Kingfisher
Blossom Headed parakeet
Rose Ringed Parakeet
Rufus Tree Pie - several
Oriental White Eye – Several
Fan Tail Fly catcher – 2
Indian Silver Bills
Red Vented Bulbuls (several)
Grey Tit – 2
Safari 2 – Route 4 (morning)
Leopard – 1 - glimpse
Sloth bear – 1- glimpse
Indian Roller
Black winged Kite
Chinkara – 1
Sambar Deer
Langoors – troupe
Shikra Hawk – glimpse
At the Resort – post breakfast
Small Green Bee Eaters – 4
Indian Robin (M & F)
White Bellied Drongo
Magpie Robin (M&F)
Oriental White Eyes
Bay backed Shrike – 1
Safari 3 – Route 3 (in Canter)
Tigers – 3 (Two18 month old cubs, Machli II – Lady of the Lakes)
Wooly necked stork – 2
Crocodiles – 5
Brahminy Duck Pair
Sambar deer
Spotted Deer with small fawns
Dancing Peacock
Safari 4 – Route 4 (again)
Caracal - 1
Painted Stork in flight
Wild Boar
Mongoose
Honey Buzzard in flight
Nature Walk
Purple Sun birds
Brown Chat
Indian Robin (M&F)
Pied Avocet – 1
Black Winged Stilts – several
Shovellers
Fork Tailed Swallows
Sand Martins
Egyptian Vulture – In flight
Teals
Red Throated fly catcher Female – 1
Female Red Start

Nitty Gritties
TigerMoon Resort – Rs. 3300 per person per night all inclusive (2 nights, 2 safaris per day)
Pickup and Drop from Station in Jeep Rs.900
Nature Walk at TigerMoon – Rs. 200 per head.

Jaipur

From Ranthambore we went to Jaipur by Train – Ranthambore Exp –No. 2465
Jaipur RS has prepaid autos. We stayed at Anurag Villa, 4 km from the RS. Not recommended for a stay longer than one night.
Shopping
Shops open at 10:30am in Jaipur. We shopped for Saris and shawls at “Purohitji ka Kotla” – at Jauhari Bazaar - it is a wholesale bazaar. The prices are extremely low and variety is mind boggling. Shops are tiny but neatly maintained and the shop keepers are extremely hospitable and enthusiastic.

Auto to Jauhari Bazaar from Anurag Villa – Rs.75
Lunch : (Rs. 45 per thali) at CM Regency a small hotel that serves excellent Rajasthani Thalis (jain) was recommended by our Auto driver.

Note:
Click on the photos to see a larger size.
Many thanks to Dad for lending me his caracal and yawing tigeress.