Two Backpacks One Couple

The only reasonable way to get to our hotel in Sawai Madhopur, the entrance to Ranthambore National Park, was by getting a taxi. There was one train option but it was almost the same price as the taxi and included two night trains and a 5 hour layover in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. Our taxi driver actually fell asleep before coming to get us so he was 1 hour late, but we still arrived ahead of schedule, making our trip 11 hours instead of 12. On the drive we had to swerve around 2 ginormous camels, countless cows, and drove past many peafowl and a lychee tree. Our hotel was such a nice change of pace after the cheap hostels; life is about balance, after all.

At 5:30am our hotel served chai and cookies for everyone who was going on a sunrise safari in the national park. After our chai we got picked up by our jeep, where it would be just Nick, myself, the guide, and the driver for the entire morning. Driving through the park during sunrise and early morning was stunning. The forest was dry due to the summer season starting, and light shone through the branches and onto the old buildings that lay sparsely scattered across the park. Entry to the park is strictly controlled and we had permits for zone 1.

With a blanket wrapped around us we enjoyed watching many black-faced langur monkeys running across the paths, climbing up trees, and watching our jeep. There were many peafowl as well, which were easy to spot with their bright colors against the dry foliage. Large herds of spotted deer, including a few babies and a few males were also a frequent sighting. They were very cute and every one looked like a baby to us due to their spots.

We also saw a few sambar deer, which are the biggest deer species in Asia. They were large and we only saw them in groups of about 3 at a time. Our guide was incredible and spotted a small sleeping owl tucked up in a nook of a hollow tree. We never would have been able to spot that ourselves. In the grass below it was a huge mongoose. It reminded us of ones we had seen on our African safaris.

An amazing experience was getting to watch an endangered sloth bear for several minutes. It walked through the forest in a nice clearing for us near the road. They are so funny looking. At first it was calm, but then it started going crazy. Our guide told us he thought maybe it started getting stung by bees while looking for food. It was grabbing its legs and biting itself, rolling around in summersaults in the process. It did up to 8 summersaults in a row trying to scratch an itch. It then ran and scratched a tree, used a large fallen branch to scratch its belly, and rolled around some more. After putting on quite the show for us it waltzed into the thicker bush. Our guide gave us high fives after that sighting as apparently they are not common to spot.

We felt really happy after getting to watch the sloth bear roll around but were hopeful to see the other 2 major predators of the park, leopards and tigers. Nick did not want me getting my hopes up but I was determined to manifest it into a reality. As the guide was chatting to the driver Nick spotted the first leopard of the morning. It was laying just a few meters from the road taking a rest. It moved quickly away once it realized we could see it as they are pretty shy. Maybe 10 minutes later Nick spotted another one, this time much bigger walking through the forest. It was incredible to see two leopards and a sloth bear!

Our jeep explored the entire zone and stopped at the same watering hole a few times in hopes to spot a tiger, which is what everyone comes to the park to see. Unfortunately it was time to head back (the time slots are strict) so we left the zone and began driving the road out of the park. I jokingly told our guide not to worry, as I knew we would see a tiger on the way home. Turns out my manifesting worked really well that morning because we saw all 3 predators. Maybe 10 minutes before the exit our guide yelled what we had been waiting for, “Tiger!”

Ahead of us crossing the road in the front of the line of jeeps exiting the park was a healthy female tiger. Our driver was an absolute legend and could tell where she was going so he pulled into a small side road and parked. We sat and watched the tigress meander through the thick bush, across the open road in front of us, and back into the forest out of sight. It was nothing short of incredible.

Our morning canter safari started 30 minutes late and ended 40 minutes early, which is apparently a common occurrence. So instead of 3 hours of safari we had only 2. This safari was in zone 6 of the park which was a different landscape than the zone we were in the day before. There were open grasslands with sparse trees, rolling hills in the background, and a sparse forest in the deepest end of it.

The highlight was another sloth bear that was rummaging through termite mounds looking for food. This one was farther away from us than the one we had seen the day before, but it was still neat to see it behaving more typically. Many jeeps started coming to try and see it after it had long since disappeared into the forest. On our way out of the park we saw some tiger paw prints in the sand, and those paws are massive.

That afternoon we got a taxi from the hotel to Agra, which was actually cheaper than the train. It took about 5 hours and we drove past so many cows and people on the streets. It seemed like there might have been a special occasion happening but we could not figure out what it was.