We spend the night in the cold bundled up, however that is not a problem. We would have slept like a baby as we were tired but we had first a loud party next door and then till 4 AM a village ceremony that consisted of women chanting the same mantra over and over. So after at most two hours of sleep we are in the middle of the craziness that is the start of a safari in Ranthambore. You had to reserve online but that is not enough, the day prior you had to go to a special location to get the name of the driver and license plate that we have to look for in the middle of a hundred other people looking for the same. Quite disorganized but after we find our canter we can finally leave, of course it was already full and we can barely find a seat.
The route to the gate to Ranthambore Zone 3 takes us back to the fort and then finally we are in the exclusive zone looking over the lake to a scenic island. No tigers here but at least a few birds on the shore that we examine before the canter moves on.
There are a couple of lakes here and we stop along the way at multiple viewpoints watching for birds and waiting for the sunrise. That is both because it will be beautiful over the lake but also so it gets a little warmer, it is cold driving at speed in an open top canter.
What we like most are the River Terns dancing over the water, flying and then stopping in midflight before stooping or continuing on.
The most common deer here are Spotted Deer and they are quite beautiful, looking like fawns even though they are adults.
And then, sunrise….It is beautiful with the mist rising of the lake and peacocks enjoying the first rays of the sun. Quite a postcard perfect moment.
With the sun we start to see interesting birds. Openbill is quite an interesting and special bird with the name being quite descriptive. But the Little Ringed Plover is also quite beautiful with unusual large eyes.
We go on a circuitous route passing through the forest and then through the grasslands looking for tigers all around. Unfortunately there are none visible, it seems that they all decided to hide away just to spite us.
There are peacocks galore though and beautiful plum headed parakeets which here seem to be the dominant species.
There are quite a few canters exploring the zone and whenever we encounter them we have to somehow pass by them which takes time. Unfortunately none of them has seen tigers but at least we see a few sambars which are quite huge and seem placid, a perfect dinner for tigers probably.
The whole National Park was a hunting preserve for the local king which means there are ruins all around, including an abandoned stepwell.
There are water palaces on the lakes that are quite scenic and Great Thick Knees, some very unusual birds, along the shore. Unfortunately the driver does not turn the car around so everyone gets a look and we in the back can barely see because of all the people standing and taking photos in front of us.
We then continue on the loop with some nice views of the fort over the lake as it seems we are moving towards the entrance gate even though it is quite early to return to our starting point.
There is a standoff between a mugger crocodile and a spotted deer near the lake, luckily for the deer the crocodile is not interested in a meal, otherwise it would have been likely be gone in a flash.
We do return to the entrance to Zone 3 but only for a few minutes for a toilet break before starting again on another loop looking for the tigers that are likely laughing at us from the vegetation.
We pass for the, third, fourth, fifth time. who remembers, by the lake with the great view but still no tigers and then we continue on passing by a few langur sentries.
The sentries are for a langur tree further up the road which is shortly followed by a flying fox tree. Both are cool to see and we stop for a while to take a look at them before moving on.
Besides the many spotted deer we also find a few Boars which are always cool to see, more or less we see the full gamut of common large mammals with the exception of tigers. Booo!
Finally our guide tells us there is a tiger at a kill but it is in a different zone so we cannot go there even though it is just a few hundred meters away on a summarily closed track. So we wait there…maybe, maybe the tiger will move this way who knows?
We spend half an hour waiting but nothing is moving except a beautiful small minivet that no one else besides us seem to notice. And now it is time to return back towards the parking lot and our car passing by langurs and deers.
We still stop at the lakes for a few more looks at crocodiles and mammals. That is for the rest of the group we personally care more about the birds, we see a Bonelli’s Eagle above us and a Oriental Darter on the cliffs’ edge, quite interesting both of them.
We then exit the exclusive zone and continue past the fort to the parking lot where our driver awaits us to take us to the hotel. In fact he tries to convince us to go to a shop collective and museum as soon as possible but we push back, we need some downtime after our bad night.
But first we have to eat breakfast, it is quite nice that the hotel is serving us breakfast which is free at 11AM instead of lunch which would cost us money. The food is good and then we do a little birding and relax in the garden. That is before the girl group that kept us awake till 11PM comes over and asks us to dance with them for a few videos. It is quite fun and we enjoy it before it is time to leave for the museum.
