Bengal Tigers!

India Day 8

Today was Bengal Tiger viewing day.  There were two scheduled safaris into the National Park, one very early in the morning and one in the later afternoon.  I only went on the morning run, which turned out to be fantastic as we actually saw the tigers!  There are only 17 tigers in the preserve here and tiger sightings don't happen all the time.  We were quite prepared to view a lot of other animals but not the tigers, and to our complete amazement, within minutes of getting into the park our guide called out "Tigers!"  When we left at 7:00 it was still dark and very, very foggy and cold.  It was ethereal to be riding through the park seeing only silhouettes of trees and feeling the cold, damp of the fog on our skin.  We were bundled up as if we were going to the North Pole, but I can assure you it felt quite cold because of the dampness.  Our guide spotted three 10 month old Tiger cubs and our jeep moved close to where they were and we waited a long time to see if they would emerge again.  Then we heard a high pitched call which our guide said was a deer's warning call and he had the truck move closer to where the call came from. Lo and behold, we found the tigers again!  We stayed there a long, long time watching them.  Their mother was not with them as she was off somewhere else in the park hunting food for them.  Then we drove around the lake and saw all manner of birds, crocodiles, monkeys, and deer.  On our way out of the park, we found the tigers again.  At that point, the sun had come up and it was clearer and easier to see them.  So we stayed again watching them at the end of the run.  The national park only allows safari trucks in for a few hours in the early morning and a few hours in the late afternoon so as to allow the animals and birds significant amounts of time when they are not being disturbed by human gawkers! 

After that we returned to our hotel.  I'm not feeling very well today, with the progression of the cold I've been dealing with for several days now and then "Delhi belly" hit midday, so I did a few chores in my room and then crawled into bed and slept most of the afternoon!  Its a gorgeous, sunny day, so it annoys me to be out of commission, but if one is going to be convalescing, this hotel is the place to do it, luxurious and comfortable as it is.  Tomorrow we leave here to head out to a local village for our "day in the life" experience where we will visit a school and a women's cooperative and the homes of rural villagers.  We'll spend the night in a camp.  So tomorrow there will be no posting, as there is no internet at the camp!  The pics today are shots of the tigers that the guide took with my camera!  I'm so glad he was willing to do it because I could never have gotten those shots!  They are beautiful creatures.  I've also included a picture of our hotel on the horizon as you come in from the main road and a couple of shots to give you the sense of the misty, early morning ambiance.  It was magical.  There are huge banyan trees in the park and between them and the monkeys cavorting all around we felt like we were in a scene from the Wizard of Oz!