My friend who was accompanying us, was quite enthused with all this "tiger talk" and by consensus the Kota trip was scratched and the car turned around - new heading Ranthambhore National Park
Having wizened up after our previous visit there, we immediately started making phone calls to ensure that we'd have a place to spend the night and have a Gypsy booked for the Safari the next morning. After a few phone calls, we'd managed to secure a suite at Jhoomar Bawri and 3 spots on an open top mini-bus for the morning safari. We tried really hard to secure one of the 3 "official pool" gypsy's that the local administration keeps on stand by for visiting 'dignitaries', but it being peak season there were real 'dignitaries' in queue and we didn't stand a chance! 
Jhoomar Bawri - Used to be the hunting lodge of Jaipur royalty but is now run by the RTDC and in true govt. style they've managed to ruin a lovely property!
Still, this is the only hotel there situated within the forest and the views are spectacular!We reached around 6:30-7:00pm and having checked in, inquired about what time we'd be picked up in the morning. Since none of us was particularly interested in sitting around watching cable tv, we headed out looking for a nice watering hole... the place we ended up at was the Sawai Madhopur Lodge, a lovely property currently leased out and run by the Taj group. As we sipped our drinks, someone spotted some movement in the darkened lawn behind me... what could this be...??!! Turned out it was just a common Indian hare, nibbling away at the juicy green grass
Sitting out in the veranda of Sawai Madhopur Lodge - they have some lovely old hunting trophies inside.
Next morning found us up at 05:30am, sipping tea and munching on buttered toast (the only thing the RTDC fellows would serve that early in the morning)... All excited, we were ready well before our designated pick-up time (06:30am) and whiled away the minutes chatting in the garden. As the sky lightened, we could make out the shapes of an entire troop of sleeping Langur monkeys in the trees surrounding the hotel. Our ride arrived, just as the monkeys were slowly awakening. After picking us up, the mini-bus skipped from hotel to hotel, picking up other passengers... with our driver making good time on the paved roads, the wind chill began to have it's effect and everyone quickly stuck their hands into their pockets and either pulled their hats as low as they could go, or those who had taken the trouble to wear something with a warm hood rapidly pulled it over their heads. On the bus we (as is so common in India) had a good smattering of people with 'monkey caps', and while their headgear was quite practical in terms of keeping them warm - it also served another (more important) end - that of offering us an easy object on which to crack cheap jokes... providing merriment to the onlooker and comfort to the owner...
Rose ringed parakeets - common all over India and the first 'wildlife' we spotted
Ranthambhore fort - as viewed from the entry to 'Zone 3', which was our designated circuit for the morning safari.
Cheetal (spotted deer) - saw our first ones soon after entering the park. These seemed to be quite plentiful and we stopped taking their pictures after a while.
A banyan tree forming a pretty neat looking arched gateway over the jeep track
A pair of spotted owls
A pair of juvenile male Nilgai - their coat will darken to a bluish-grey as they mature.
A dry riverbed, along which we spotted a huge (for it's species) mongoose feasting on the remains of a dead striped hyena. He scooted as soon as he saw us, and my friend (who was the one taking pictures) while trying to click the mongoose, completely skipped taking a picture of the hyena! Would have made an excellent (albeit macabre) 'what's this?' post...
A vulture - they used to be plentiful even 20 years back, but hardly get to see these in India any more...
A pair of bluebulls - female (standing & checking us out) and male (chilling out in the shade)
Indian tree pie - this is the only bird our designated guide could identify properly and so he never missed an opportunity to point one out!
All this while, we were getting quite irritated with some of our companions who'd brought their ill-behaved brats along... one was wailing to kingdom come, at some imagined slight (by her sibling) and another pair insisted on shouting the minute an animal was spotted! All requests by our guide to "please keep the shout down" and "please quite"
seemed to be falling on deaf ears! As the trip wore on, we could see our chances of spotting a tiger slipping away... and then we had a busload of kids on a school trip pass us... and we silently thanked our stars for our "quite" companions A Sambhar stag crosses the road
Sambhar deer at one of the many small streams that dot the park
A stag checks us out
So this was what he was getting all protective about!
A crocodile basking in the morning sun - we saw this chap on the way out...
The park has many such check dams all over the place - some clearly ancient (like this one at the entry) and some recently constructed ones.
Needless to say, we never saw a tiger on this morning safari!
More on the evening safari and what we saw when I get back from dinner Cheers!
Abhijeet
