Plan
for Ranthambore Tiger safari:
Rajasthan is the only place in India which has one of the great
deserts in the world. Summers are very dry with heat waves. Mercury goes around
44 C during summers during the day. So, in April and May there are maximum
chances of spotting a tiger as they flock around water bodies.
Journey
from Jaipur to Sawai Madhopur:
We were 6 guys, all infoscions. We hired a car to visit national
park and left Jaipur at 08:00 AM. Highway between Jaipur and Sawai Madhopur
city was pretty good and our car cruised towards our destination in the
salubrious weather without any hurdles.
Going
for jeep safari:
Ranthambore is one of the largest national parks of India with 392 square kilometres of area. We
had already booked the tickets and hired a national park jeep to begin jungle
safari at 02:00 PM.
Biggest
twist:
There were 8 different routes for the safari and we chose route
#4, as there was a water body in the route (Thus increasing our chances of
spotting a tiger!). Approximately after 30 minutes of drive in the middle of
the jungle, the driver tried to pass a small hilly area. As the driver was
accelerating up the slope, the jeep stopped moving any further and rocked back
50 meters down the slope. We were absolutely terrified by this event that
occurred within a fraction of a second. The jeep stopped only after few seconds
when, a stone came in between the tyres.
Waiting
for help:
We were approx. 6-7 km inside the jungle and tried to call 911
but it didn't work as there was no mobile network in the area. To add more to
our misery, the driver and the guide didn't have a walkie talkie as well !
After 10 minutes another jeep came, their driver tried to start our jeep but to no avail. Another 20 minutes went by. Then one jeep with two foreigners appeared and we requested them to inform the park officials that one of the jeeps have issue and bring replacement asap.
After 10 minutes another jeep came, their driver tried to start our jeep but to no avail. Another 20 minutes went by. Then one jeep with two foreigners appeared and we requested them to inform the park officials that one of the jeeps have issue and bring replacement asap.
New jeep came:
After 1 hour of waiting at last a new jeep came as replacement.
We lost our hope to see a tiger and all the energy went down. The new driver crossed
that hilly area and behind that there was a water body. There we saw a slight
view of the tiger(much to our chagrin) which was at a very far end.
The place where we stopped was highly inclined, so we couldn't
afford to stay there. Hence, we pulled our jeep backwards and began waiting for
the tiger at the other side of the lake.
Finally Tiger came:
After 20 minutes of anticipation, we saw several boars running
at a distance and we felt something different in the environment. At
last luck showered on us and a tiger appeared !
All of us were very excited. The tiger started coming towards our jeep and for a moment we felt it will meet us in 15 seconds :P .Then it stopped and we were lucky enough to capture the king of the jungle in our cameras. I clicked a lot of pictures from my camera. Suddenly I turned right and saw approx 10 to 12 jeeps were loitering around ( 2 minutes earlier only 1 jeep was there !) and all eyes were on the big cat.
Achievement at Ranthambore
All of us were very excited. The tiger started coming towards our jeep and for a moment we felt it will meet us in 15 seconds :P .Then it stopped and we were lucky enough to capture the king of the jungle in our cameras. I clicked a lot of pictures from my camera. Suddenly I turned right and saw approx 10 to 12 jeeps were loitering around ( 2 minutes earlier only 1 jeep was there !) and all eyes were on the big cat.
Achievement at Ranthambore
Lake view in Ranthambore
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