Ranthambore National park…part 2.

Our second safari tour was early on monday morning…we started at 7.30……best chance to see nocturnal animals….more precise the tiger…

when you see flowers like this at 8 in the morning it makes you smile….

this tour was zone 8 …yesterday we where in zone 6….

a female nilgai early in the morning..beautiful animals..

one of the first thing we heard was the sound of horns clicking together…two spotted deer males fighting..kind of cool to hear and see...

to bad they where hiding behind the bushes…then the hunt for tigers started…we talked to a man who came on a motorbike who told us to go another route…so we did and we found these...

so they had passed here right before….a mother with cubs….the prints are huge….to bad we couldn't put something on the ground to compare….a little up a head we saw some more prints …then the climb

 up a steeeeeeep hill began…all in search of the tigers...

we think we drove about a hundred meters…what felt like straight up into the mountains…what a view…..incredible scenery…

and suddenly we saw all these plum headed parakeets…gorgeous and colourful...

a male and a female…

you really need to keep your eyes open and pay attention because sometimes the animals just merge with nature….like this male gazelle….he just lay there all still still…I didn't see him move…

I know I know….I need to work with my camera a little bit more…I have a new one and I'm not really buddy with it yet….

on the top we stopped and got out of the jeep….in tiger territory !!! because no tigers so far...

but the view,,,,amazing….but cold up here…

went down a bit and found out that the sloth bears like this fruit….can't remember the name !?

a black shouldered kite flew by and settled in a tree close by…beautiful bird…

then we saw this little guy….hmmm,my memory is playing tricks with me here….

we saw lots of partridges…so cute when they run on the ground….it's like a little ball with feet...

 this familiar profile was sitting in the tree...

yes, it was a king vulture….reminded me of the jungle book…then it took off….

the wing span on this bird is impressive...

he was pretty far away though…

yes we did see lots of birds ….

Mr peacock with family….

crossed the road….

no tigers this time but we really enjoyed the trip anyhow…we did get to see leopard…and to see the paw prints from the tiger right after she walked there….hmm….cleaner air than in Delhi….beautiful scenery and just being out in nature…we will go back for sure….if you want to see more from Rajasthan….be sure to check in on my next post….

to all of you…

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Ranthambore National park part 1

Long time no hear and it's not because I forgot about you dear reader….I've been travelling and I decided not to bring my computer….I wouldn't have had the time to do any blogging even if I had….you see we've been to Ranthambore National park….we travelled by train from Nizamuddin train station in Delhi…just to go by train in India is for us a very different experience….

it took us 5 hours to get to Sawai Madhopur district in Rajasthan…at the station we where picked up by an open jeep that we would use for our safari trips…..I can tell you that we where so excited about what we would see….Ranthambore National park is a world famous tiger reserve and spread over 1334 sq kilometres….but we knew before coming that the chance to see tigers is rare even though there are 40 tigers at the moment….someone said that about every 4th trip into the park is when you spot tigers….and of course it also depends on what time of the year you visit the park…

we saw so many animals …..I'm sitting here having trouble deciding on how to show you the pictures…I might have to split it into 2 parts because I have so many…..so if you're up for a ride ? hang tight….like we did in our open jeep going up and down the bumpy roads….first trip we had a rally driver….I think he was doing 40 miles/hour inside the park at one point…and it was bumpy…but we had fun…

the thing is that you can't laugh out loud when you're tracking animals…the driver was trying to track some leopards at one point and also tigers because we heard some birds that warned the others….

chitals or spotted deers in the afternoon sun….saw many of these and you will also…

these are summer deers….small ones....see the little bird that seemed to follow them close by or on them….

cleaning birds !

a young male, summer deer eating…..he was big even though young…see the bird again…

he knew we where there…..watching us…

a beautiful spotted deer male with BIG horns…..

 he was enjoying his spot in the sun….

they are such beautiful animals…and it's so amazing to sit so close and just watch them…

the scenery was amazing…and with that blue sky….it was just a perfect late afternoon in the park….

a blue cow walked right by us…a male nilgai that is….Indias biggest antelope...

the waterbed…..no water though…just rocks…but I guess the animals finds water anyhow…

all of a sudden the excitement was on top….we got to see sloth bears….very rare to spot….a mother with two cubs was right in front of us…so much grass and trees and stuff in between though but you can see her nose in between the branches…a sloth bear is what Baloo in the jungle book is...

now we where really close….like 15 meters but so much vegetation in between…but this is one of the cubs looking straight at us…a rare moment and oh so great….

more of the spotted deers because they are such beautiful animals…and it was beautiful moments...

she found the spot right in the sun…

many close encounters…then it was time to head back home again…no tigers today….

all of a sudden we stopped and looked up and guess what we saw….

can you spot him ?

he was really far away but we saw his head and it was so cool….yes, it's a leopard….and he was looking at us…

unbelievable….hope we get to see him closer next time…

we had a great first safari into the park even though at times it was almost like a roller coaster on the bumpy  rocky roads….we tracked an looked and laughed and wished….amazing…

it was all smiling faces that headed for dinner !

if you want to see what we saw on the next trip you have got to look at part two…did we get to see tigers ?

it's coming up during the day…if not, hope you enjoyed part one !