Last Chance for Tigers (Ranthambore National Park)

Don't expect to see any tigers...

Tegan - We made this little pit-stop just south of Jaipur with the hope that maybe, just maybe, this would be the place where we would finally have the pleasure of seeing some tigers. It didn’t work out as planned, and instead of setting our eyes on some unbelievable creatures we had the pleasure of a rough ride through the national park (zone 7).

Leading up to the tiger no-show, things were actually pretty exciting . We had spent most of the early afternoon fighting to get spots in one of the gypsys (jeeps) instead of the huge rooftop buses that take safaris out. When I mean '’fight’, I actually mean more of a scrum. And by ‘we’ I mean, Mike haha! This was hilarious. A simple line-up just doesn’t seem to make sense in front of the ticket counter. Instead a scrum of men, young and OLD, are trying to squeeze passed each other. Myself and a couple of other women had the pleasure of sitting back and enjoying the show!

After the show, we had come out successful! Mike had gotten us seats on a gypsy and our departure was less than an hour away! After speaking to so many people who had been out earlier that day or the day before, things were looking great for us. Almost everyone had seen a tiger or two!

I think it was the zone we got sent out to, but we had no luck. The most exciting thing that happened on our safari was that we came across another gypsy coming towards us, while we were on this tiny path on the side of a huge hillside. Eventually things were figured out and the gypsy full of women and children, us, had to get out of the jeep while the it drove up the hillside a bit so the other jeep (full of men in leather coats) could get past lol. At the time this didn’t even phase me, all I was thinking was: “Maybe this is our lucky chance!!”

Mike – We saw some animals that we had yet to cross paths with – antelopes and gazelles, mostly – and we ran into many people who had the privilege of spotting tigers, but, in the end, “no dice”. We repel tigers. They must smell that there are true carnivores amongst them.

The highlight of this stop, if you can call it that, was when I went to buy our “safari” tickets. For the first time, we decided to forgo the price gougers at the hotels, and book our safari directly from the source – the park wardens. I thought the cost savings would entirely compensate the additional effort of procuring our own passes. Boy, was I mistaken.

Those hotel price-gougers I spoke of, yeah, the ones who charged huge commissions to get tourists their passes, well, now, I’m in line with all of them at once. We are jostling, fighting, (at times coming to blows), for a chance to get to the front of the line to get those damn passes. I’m using my height in order to stop people from reaching over me into the ticket counter, while simultaneously trying to wriggle my arm through the throng of screaming Indians, so I can acquire just enough room to perform the transaction. This went on from noon until 2pm, at which point, I finally cleared enough space to buy the tickets. Even after I’d got to the front, I was having to prop one leg up on the wall, for strength, in order to keep the sprawling mass of sweaty, commission-hungry, Indians from toppling over me while I’m in the process of presenting our passports and paying the park.

And, finally, it was done. I grab the passes and turn to leave, only to see Teg revelling in the situation from the background; laughing, snapping pictures, just having a grand ol’ time. I felt the urge to run a victory lap myself. Needless to say, that was the only safari we did at Ranthambore.