4/9/22 was a two safari day and the afternoon had us on route #2 starting at 3pm. Lunch today was cream of mushroom soup and a middle eastern mezze because I was thinking of Chris. I was to regret the cream soup as the day heated up to 41 degrees (106).
Route #2 was straight on from the check-in shack.
Before I go on about the safari, I realize I haven’t said anything about the national park or its fort (Again from Wikipedia):
The Ranthambore Fort lies within the Ranthambore National Park, near the city of Sawai Madhopur, the park being the former hunting grounds of the Maharajahs of Jaipur until the time of India's Independence. It is a formidable fort having been a focal point of the historical developments of Rajasthan. The fort is believed to be constructed by the Chahamanas (Chauhans). In the 13th century the Delhi Sultanate captured it for a brief time.
The oldest settlement in the area near Sawai Madhopur was around the Ranthambhore fort. The exact origin of the Ranthambore fort is still disputed but it is generally accepted that there was a settlement at the site of the Fort, as far back as the 8th century A.D. It is widely believed that the construction of the Ranthambhore Fort was started during the reign of the Chauhan rajput King Sapaldaksha in 944 AD. Another theory stipulates that King Jayant, also a Chauhan rajput, built the Ranthambore Fort during 1110 AD. It is most likely that the construction of the fort commenced during the mid 10th Century A.D. and continued for a few centuries after that.[
There are mosques along the safari routes which were built hundreds of years ago when the fort was besieged. Even at that time women were able to go out and come in via their entrance at the back of the fort. It is an amazing structure that towers above the safari route #2. Now its only residents are monkeys and peacocks which you can see walking along the top of the walls,
This route was much bumpier (if possible) than the others experienced to date, but the scenery was very different and very interesting. The road took you along the base of the fort and through banyan trees which were hundreds of years old with roots that came so low you could touch them as you drove along.
The driver today was a bit of an old maid - I think the road felt rougher because he was going so slowly. This route is known to have 4 tigers and the guide was relatively sure we would see at least one. Along the road the jeep had to go through a river with water and no bridge, but the water level was low enough not to cause any issues.
The jeep this afternoon was generally not as comfortable as the other two. This one at least had a working speedometer and I was able to see we were going about 50-60 kmh on the main road and about 10 kmh in the park. No wonder it felt so fast getting to/from the park!
As with the last safari, it’s a bit of a bummer when you see the main attraction within 30 minutes of starting the drive. We saw the tiger called Arrowhead (stupid name) very quickly and pulled over with about 4 other jeeps to watch her sleep in the afternoon heat. Unfortunately, the guide didn’t listen to me to stop a bit earlier - he was trying to get me closer - and the only way I could see the tiger was to stand up. Within about 15 minutes I was starting to feel the heat and found some relief sitting on the roll bar. After about 30 minutes of watching the tiger sleep and feeling the sun I said either I had to sit or we had to move. The guide spoke with some other guides and no one had seen any other tigers further down the route, so chances were slim we would see any other tigers. He was sure that we would see Arrowhead do something other than sleep, but I insisted that I would like to see a bit more of the route and other animals. Luckily, I avoided heat stroke by taking the towel I brought to protect my neck from the sun and dowsing it (and me) with cold water. As soon as we moved I felt better due to the wet clothing.
Other fauna: we saw Woolly neck and painted storks drying their wings and a mongoose, in addition to Sambar and spotted deer - the difference here is that they had a lot of fauns. We saw a pair of kingfishers and flocks of parakeets on the way back from the drive.
We didn’t see any other big animals and ended up coming back to the original tiger who was still asleep, but now there were even more jeeps watching. We were at the end of the line of jeeps. I couldn’t actually see the tiger and told my guide it didn’t matter because the tiger wasn’t doing anything and if it moved it would either come our way and I would be able to see it, or it would go the other way and we would follow the other jeeps to see it. While waiting to see if it would do something, I noticed the remains of sambar deer on the rock - the guide said that was from last month.
Well, the tiger did finally get up and walked our way where it sat down again and started to wash the mud off itself. I could see it’s tongue turn black from the stuff. Then it got up and went behind a rock. The funniest thing was seeing a peacock walk over towards that rock and not see the lion until it was practically on top of it, when it freaked out and ran away.
At 6pm we started back towards the hotel with one turnoff to see the main entry to the fort which was not nearly as impressive as the fort from the safari track.
I noticed as we left the park there was a wonderful water overflow spout in the shape of a water buffalo’s head-with the overflow coming out its mouth. This was part of the area that was built hundreds of years ago.
I had a wonderful massage booked that evening before going to dinner. Unfortunately, the dinner menu changed (I wanted that soy dish I had the night before), so instead had small(er) portions of Dahl Tadka (yellow) and black dahl. Normally I love tadka dahl, but here I much preferred the black dahl made with butter and cream (no calories) with fresh naan.
When I got back to the room after dinner, the turn down service had drawn me a bath filled with red rose petals - a shame I couldn’t take the bath because I wanted to keep the massage oil on during the night.
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