“Eye of the Tiger”

After finally leaving Rishkesh (our departure was slightly delayed by a very flat battery, thanks Archie), we headed off on a full day’s driving to Corbett National Park. The crazy Indian roads continued (well, the roads are fine, it is just the drivers who are nuts) and we headed across the plains as quickly as possible (ie, not very quickly!) and eventually arrived into the town just outside the National Park where we found that the hotel we were to stay in was not going to honour the prices they had previously agreed. So we continued on in search of an alternative. After several unsuccessful attempts (including rejecting one hotel where there were two double beds in each room and mirrors on the walls and ceiling…) we arrived at Tiger Camp which proved to be a misnomer as it involved neither tigers nor camping! It was a beautiful hotel and the most luxurious we have stayed at on the trip thus far (and I think I can probably safely say, the best we will stay in the whole trip!) The monsoon does have its advantages, and huge discounts on hotel rooms is one of them! We enjoyed air-conditioning, huge beds, luxury bathrooms (with hot water!), and a fabulous buffet dinner. Not a tent in sight. Elaine, Simon, Maura & Crofty on safari (well, in the carpark waiting for the permits...):

The next morning we were up at silly o’clock to head into the park in jeeps in search of the elusive tiger (unfortunately the elephants get the monsoon season off, so we weren’t on an elephant-back safari). We drove around the park, the oldest national park in India, and our helpful guides in the front pointed out the wildlife as we drove along. It wasn’t a particularly taxing job for them as we managed to drive through the park which has about 15 species of deer alone not to mention over 130 tigers and herds of elephant, and all we discovered was that the peacock is very much not endangered as there were heaps of them! We saw the head of a monitor lizard poking out of a tree, a couple of hornbills flying past and a dove. Oh, and the highlight was seeing a tiger print (although suspiciously there was only one, so either there is a one-legged tiger around, or the more popular theory is that it was put there for our benefit!) As with all animal-based endeavours, it is the luck of the draw, but unsurprisingly our guide said the immortal words “I can’t believe we haven’t seen anything, that is very unusual. Until this trip I had a 100% strike rate of seeing a tiger in the park”. Good for him.

A tiger print: