Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We were woken as usual this morning at 6.30am with a cup of hot tea delivered to our door by Ayub, but now accompanied by W as well. When I peeked out of the tent door I could see a growing number of children gathering in the field we are camping in with quite a few with marigold garlands over their arms. Later during breakfast W presents us all with a garland as a welcome to this part of India. Our morning cycle is through a number of small villages where people are busy going about their daily lives, bathing, getting ready for school, grooming the cows, opening their shops - and all with an excited smile and greeting for us. The children are just delightful and when they see us coming from a distance they come sprinting to the roadside just to call out to us and wave. School children on bikes ride beside us for awhile and adults on motorbikes slow down beside us to try to have a chat. We stop at a small dam wall and spot turtles and catfish below. On the other side there is a man washing his clothes (and himself once our inquisitive eyes leave) some guys here are throwing food over the side to feed the catfish and as Bob leans over to do the same he drops his prescription sunglasses over the edge (about 4mt) into murky water and catfish. We think well that's the end of them but W and another fellow make their way down and over, talk to the bathing gentleman and the three of them wade over (the water is only about knee deep - to our surprise). A hand plunges into the murky water and comes up with Bob's glasses first go - unbelievable!! We ride about 54kms this morning before arriving at our second camp in the grounds of the Sariska Tiger Camp hotel. Here we have the use of one room to shower and use the toilet (always good to have a hot shower after only a bowl of wash water). The grounds are beautifully kept and after lunch we relax in the shade of the central cabana until it's time to drive to the Tiger Park for an open back jeep drive through the park to try to spot tigers. We have no luck with the tigers but see plenty of deer and antelope. There was a group of teenagers on another bigger open top bus who pulled up beside us at one stage and they all pulled out their phone cameras and staring taking photos of us. I think they were more excited at getting a photo of us strange looking foreigners than if they had spotted a tiger! Back to camp for another delicious Jeet meal before retiring to our little orange tents for the night.
- comments