First off, we have internet here. It's not fast and only in the reception area. It's also “highly secure.” The guy at the desk would only type the password in, not tell me. Of course I could see what he typed. Space Ball fans rejoice. Yes, the password is 12345.
Our drive was only 4 hours today. We left Jaipur 830 and were here for 1230. The Tiger Den (our resort??) is quite rustic but very nice in a quaint small town resort kind of way. The outside is quite questionable but once inside the walls, very nice. Nice garden, nice pool and nice duplex villas. Way more India experience than the Marriott.
We haven't had time to use the pool yet because we had a 3pm safari. We were picked up in a stretched Suzuki Samarai (3 rows vs the 2 we'd know them for). 3 seats wide, 2 rows of passengers and driver and guide up front. Great platform to see the park from. I forgot to get a photo, but we have 3 more safaris here so I'll try and remember.
Scenic park shots.
First hour or so we saw Blue Antelope, Summer Deer and Spotted Deer. Our guide joked that the Spotted Deer are so named as you can spot them everywhere. Which we did.
Blue Antelope – so called because they sorta look blue in the right light. Only got a backside shot today.
The Summer Deer are tiger food. Because they are the size of a medium horse. That and they can't see well.
The Spotted Deer kinda look like our White Tailed Deer at home.
We also saw some smal antelope. Reminded me of the Dik Dik from Kenya. They are called Checa Checa or something. Neither of us caught the name well enough to remember. They are Leopard food or Tiger “dessert”.
There are monkeys here. We ran into a troop and got some good shots. Some of Mom and 1 month old baby.
We also saw a ton of Peacock. The State Bird of India.
Owlet's are here too. He was 6 inches tall and yawning when we arrived.
Of course everyone comes here to see Tigers. And we did. There was some rain a month or so back so Tiger sightings have been a bit rare. When it rains there is lots of water for everyone to drink so they don't come out to play.
We saw a 1 year old female cub. She was huge, probably 5 feet long. She was up a hill relaxing so shots were a little hard to get. I'll have to crop them when I get home.
We have 3 more safaris so I hope to get better shots, but at least we got a sighting. The pressure is off now.
On our way back to the resort there was some commotion at the side of the road. Way in the distance a leopard was sleeping on a maintenance buiding frame. Light was fading and I had to shoot hand held but at least I can prove we saw a leopard too. Apparently only about 20% of the tourists get to see. We are lucky our first time out!
Lastly a few town shots as we drove home.
Tomorrow we start at 6am for our second day of safaris. So far so good!