Friday 18th April 2025

We are coming to the end of the main part of our trip: the tiger safaris.

Just two more days, four safaris then we head back to Delhi where over half the tour will leave for Blighty.

There is one big tick left that we want to see, and that are tiger cubs. Tiddly little few-month old tiger cubs.

With my ten tigers seen yesterday, we were going onto the area where the known recent litter could be found.

So, to your chariots!

It was a clear cool morning, just dawn. We went to the offices to register and pick up our guide, then to one of the three gates to have it all rechecked.

The run to the gate on the main road is terrifying, as no one gives way on the narrow strip of tarmac, so its a series of games of chicken.

We arrived safe, and waited in line until the park opened at quarter to six, then we were cleared to go in.

And within ten minutes we were sitting watching a mother tiger and her four tiny cubs in the long grass. She was serene and keeping guard, while the cubs played.

It was just before sunrise, so my shots of this first part were not so good.

But with Mum about to go hunting, the cubs took themselves to their safe place, rolling and tumbling as they went, until they reached the treeline, where are a few more minutes of mock fighting, they melted away.

Mother went hunting deer. The deer were near us, so we might have got grandstand views, but there was warnings, and the deer moved off sharpish before the trap could be sprung.

We moved off too.

The other big tick is a wild elephant. You would think its hard to hide elephants, but its a big park. There were about a dozen jeeps, all going round and round, looking.

One more tiger was seen, though not by us, but no elephants either.

After breakfast at the centrepoint, we went back to see the mother tiger again.

She was basking in a fresh stream, drinking deeply. But then she heard deer to her right, so she climbed out of the stream and began to stalk. Her stripes made for great camouflage, though there was no fooling the deer, and half ran off.

The tigress charged, but was too far away and the deers with too much of a head start. She went for a lay down in the shade and we made to leave the park, with it being half ten and already bloody hot.

The tracks which we use for the safari are a mix of the good, the bad and the rough. With the heat and being bounced about, I decided not to go out in the afternoon, but to stay in the air conditioned luxury of the room.

Jools did go out.

And she saw two more tigers, one so very close to the car that it growled at her. Then they had a puncture, in the reserve, and several drivers helped put the spare on.

I listened to a pod cast, read a Judge Dredd graphic novel, and generally lazed the afternoon and early evening away until they all returned from the 15th safari.

Dinner was the usual, but good, as were the ice cold beers which washed the curries down.