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Ranthambore national park is the home of approximately 60 wild tigers. Not a lot on paper but loads when you think of the dwindling numbers everywhere else in the world. I have read this is one of the best sites to see the big cat and to be honest there's not much to visit there otherwise. The neighbouring town, Sawai Madhopur, is a bit of a dive and really doesn't have much to see. We opted for another budget hotel Aditya Hotel, a very basic little place along Ranthambore road, where most of the hotels make profit from the national park nearby. In this case, for the first night at least, we were the only 2 people in the hotel. The rooms were clean but bed bugs were suspected on more than one occasion, something I wasn't too bothered with, especially when I was likely to burn every scrap of clothing I had brought with me anyway. The place was perfect as we wanted a bit of peace and quiet, but also because the poor chef, a shy fellow who spoke minimal English, had to cook everything from scratch as we ordered it (and he never said no to anything we ordered). We booked up Ranthambore Safari tickets for the next day and picked the 3pm slot, knowing full well weren't getting up at 5:30am for the early morning session.
The cantor picked us up at precisely 3pm. A cantor is large clunky vehicle somewhere between a jeep and a bus. When being told it was like a bus by the owner, I went into typical British stereotype mode and pictured a large red double decker affair. But rest assured, it wasn't like this at all. The cantor had 20 seats and so we had to spend a good 30mins picking everyone else up and then another 30mins waiting to sort out the paperwork to enter the park. When we finally got the green light I was half dozing off and half concerned I was going to burn to death under the intense sun. I soon woke up though as we branched off from the other groups and hit the rockiest, narrowest dirt track I had ever seen. And this bus doesn't have suspension. The tracks were ridiculously steep and often the back wheel was teetering on the edge of the shear drop on the other side. I spent mostly of the time either praying or looking for tigers, a situation I never thought I'd be in. The ride was both exhausting and exhilarating. It's funny to think that in the uk we would charge twice as much for roller coaster rides that were only half as scary. My main advice is, don't do this trip if you have back problems. If you didn't before then you certainly did after.
The park itself was beautiful and serene, minus the roar from our bus trying to climb over an especially large boulder. The rocky landscape stretched on and on, covered in hundreds of tress that looked as though they could do with a good drink. Occasionally you would find a lucky patch of lush green where water was near the surface. No matter where you were though, there was wildlife, from deer to monkeys and even a huge crocodile by the beautiful lake that supplied the life source for these creatures. Riding a full hour without seeing a tiger and reaching our checkpoint, I was certain it wasn't going to happen. On the way back though, an Indian tourist with an impeccable eye, spotted a tiger drinking from one of the watering holes. Despite the distance between us, the cat was obviously huge and powerfully built. It took a drink, say in the cooling mud for a while before heading off into the bushes. On the way back I thought to myself that this tiny glimpse probably wasn't worth the money we paid. But with further reflection, we have just seen one of the rarest animals in the world in the wild, an animal that is likely to become extinct in our lifetime, and I couldn't put a price on that.
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