Saturday 26th April 2025

And so to the last two days of safaris. This means two a day now, one early in the morning and the second late in the afternoon.

The hope is, in the morning it will be cool enough for tigers to be active, and in the afternoons they will wake up thirsty or hungry.

Either way, increases our chances.

That's the theory.

It was dark and cool just after five this morning, we piled on the jeeps, and we drove the 35 minutes to the furthest gate, though today's driver did it in twenty five.

Along the main road to town, then rattling through the backstreets, before turning out across the countryside.

Not much traffic about, and not many places open for a drink, but one old fella had an open fire on his porch and was warming up a huge kettle of chai.

Chai is tea, with sugar and evaporated milk, and maybe some herbs, all boiled together.

Not my cup of tea.

Ahem.

But just about better than no tea at all.

We had to move fast if we were going to see a tiger before eight, as after that it would be too hot.

Down tracks, across dried up river beds, and over rocky outcrops, but no tigers were seen by us.

One had been seen trotting along a track before diving in the undergrowth, but after that no sign.

So, today was a birding day. By accident. Several small jobbies landed beside us, and we saw a Long-tailed shrike, Pied bush chat (pictured) Blue-tailed bee-eaters (again), buzzard, vultures.

No elephants either, though lots of elephant poo on the tracks.

Come half nine, it was too damn hot, so we began the hour long return journey back to the gate, then through the backstreets and back to the hotel.

Lunch of buffet curries, of course, and then all be ready for wheels at half two, for another 35 minute run to one of the newer and lesser known areas.

Back along the main road, back through the backstreets and out into the countryside, and we arrive at the gate. Flash the passports and we are in.

This area had been cleared of villages in the last 20 years, and several watering holes created. We saw elephants t one when we came to this are on Wednesday.

But on a hot and humid Saturday, we drove round and round, with only some frolicking monkeys to entertain us. The two species tolerate each other in the country, but fight in towns and cities.

Then the shout goes up, tiger spotted!

Tigers have stripes.

So we join the stake out. We knew a mother and cub where in some dense undergrowth, just a matter of where and when they emerged to the watering hole.

Most drivers were OK, but a couple were dicks, revving engines, and once the pair had crossed the roads, raced along the track to bagsy the best views, with no thought of the animals.

We decided to leave them to it, as we had shots of our 83rd and 84th tigers.

Not much to report, so we headed back at six, and all was going well until a tree fell onto the power lines beside the road, bringing them down and blocking the road.

It took 20 minutes for a guy with a chainsaw to clear the tree enough for us to get by, the power had been switched off.

This meant getting to the town for dusk and then the main road in the dark, which was kerayzee this time I don't know how we made it back, but we did.