Dan's Adventure

I had looked into the possibility of booking a safari at Ranthambore National Park online prior to my arrival there, but I ran into a couple of problems. Firstly the official booking site was not allowing bookings to be made for dates after September 2009 and secondly the only other sites I could find were for hotels who were charging over double the price I had expected to pay. At Ranthambore a limited number of jeeps and trucks (gypsies and canters) are allowed in for each safari. It turns out that the majority of these are booked by hotels in advance and only a handful of jeeps and 2 canters can be booked on the day. This means that you need to be there well before the tickets go on sale for each safari, 5am for the morning safari and 12pm for the afternoon safari. Obtaining the tickets is a test of character. No one seems to understand the concept of a queue so even when its your turn people will be trying to push in front of you, climb over you and shove in at the same time.

Jeeps are sold on a per vehicle basis, meaning that you buy the entire jeep rather than a seat in it. Each can accommodate six, so in order to get it for a reasonable price, you need to fill it. Truck tickets are on a per seat basis, so you just need to arrive in time to get a seat. When I arrived for the morning safari there was an English guy up at the counter looking for one more person to join them so my timing couldn’t have been better. I handed over my 600 rupees (about £8.50) and I was sorted. For the afternoon safari I queued up from 12pm and got the last seat on the second truck for 530 rupees. Going back to my comment on the hotel safari prices, the English guy was asked by the owner of the hotel he was staying at if two others from there could join them in the jeep, he later found out that despite us each only paying 600 rupees, the couple that had booked via the hotel had been charged 1300 rupees. 700 per person into the hotel’s pocket for doing absolutely nothing.

The morning safari was fantastic. We saw an incredible array of wildlife from spotted deer which are apparently tiger chocolate, to giant lizards and kingfishers. Ranthambore National Park itself is stunning. Once the hunting ground of a maharaja, the remains of a fort sit on the hill above the park and a summer palace lies on the edge of a large lake, jungle and long grass cover most of the park making it very difficult to spot the more elusive animals.

The highlight of the safari came five minutes from the end when the guide heard monkeys and deer making alarm calls, the jeep turned around and we raced towards the noise. All of a sudden a tiger appeared on the road in front of us and continued to walk down towards us, passed the jeep and towards the tiger chocolate behind us. Such a beautiful creature and so much bigger than I expected.

After such a good morning safari I suppose its only fitting that the afternoon safari on the truck was the worst that I have ever been on. People talked constantly despite the guide asking them to be quiet, some smoked and others made phone calls. Any chance of us seeing anything at all was ruined by the idiots that joined me on the truck that afternoon. If you are going to Ranthambore, get a jeep!