Today was an early day. A 530 start. But that is a good thing. Animals get up with the sun. So to see them before their morning siestas, we do too.
Here is a shot of the trucks we ride around in.
The main entrance gate is quite a walled splendor. The back of the truck in the shot below is a Canter. About 20 people. They don’t see much I’m sure. The ones we’ve seen are always the furthest away from the action and leave first. Kris chose the Jeeps wisely!
The park is broken into zones. Yesterday we were in zone 6, this morning zone 4 and this afternoon zone 3.
Within 20 minutes of entering the park this morning we got to see a tiger AND leopard together. Apparently tigers will eat a leopard given the chance. The leopards know it. This one was up a tree and watching the tiger doze. She was not happy. We think the leopard had caught a peacock and breakfast was interupted. She came down the tree and bounded over to another one. Then proceeded to growl and make that cat noise, sort of a growl and purr combined. The tiger could have cared less. The tiger was a dominant male of the area. Apparently he’s lazy.
He finally got up to move sleeping spots. Like I said, lazy like a cat!
The trees are also full of Orange Ringed Parakeets.
After the tiger went to sleep, we headed off to Padam Talao. It’s is the largest lake in the park.
We saw some crocodiles, on the edge sunning, floating as they do, and swimming around. They only grow to about 10′ long. Decent size but not huge.
We were done our morning safari at 930. Time for our breakfast and a rest till 3 for the afternoon ride. The afternoon ride was hot, probably over 40C. With the same guide as this morning. We got to see some soft shell turtles, stork, heron and an owl. No tigers this afternoon. Given we’ve talked to quite a few people who haven’t even seen one at all, I think we are doing well. The friendly watier in the restaurant mentioned that he hadn’t heard of anyone seeing a tiger this afternoon.
Soft shell turtle. They must be about 100 pounds and 3 feet in diameter.
Painted Storks with a heron.
Part of the Summer Palace.
Magpies are all over the place.
The owl out on a branch.
We have one more safari tomorrow morning before we head off to Agra. Hopefully we’ll see some good stuff tomorrow morning.