Leaving the guns behind in New Zealand, I planned on doing a lot of shooting with the camera on my travels, and take any other opportunities as best I could. First up, after a gruelling 25 hour flight, was the magical India. Photography is just as much a passion of mine, as hunting, so arriving at Ranthambore National Park, I made sure the memory card was empty, as I had no idea what I was going to see - if anything, but I wanted to be prepared just in case!
We knew their were tigers at the park, but every person we spoke to said the same old story - I've been to Ranthambore, but never seen any tigers - some people had been two or three separate occasions and missed out. At times, I felt like we would have had a better chance seeing a Sasquatch!
We crossed our fingers and toes, hit the hay as early as we could in the 35 degree heat, and set our alarm for day break, wondering what the sun would bring.
We met our guide at the front of our hotel, and piled into the jeep. There were 6 of us along for the morning, and we were hitting zone 3. The first thing I noticed - there were no fences, and no guns. After hearing from our guide and a local, that someone had been mauled to death by a tiger just the week before here, I would have been a lot more comfortable with the .308, than the Pentax!
The park was amazing. The locals were as colourful as ever, and I had some great opportunities to photograph Chital Deer, and I saw a mob of Sambar, along with some Hogs over a watering hole. We saw crocodiles, Peaocks, Monkeys and plenty of other bird species...but no Tigers. We then started to head around to the other side of our zone, to see what we would find there.
Approaching a large lake, we started seeing dust clouds converging on it from all directions. Our Jeep picked up speed, and it wasn't long before we knew what all the fuss was about...Tigers. We had found them! Two cubs, that we got to watch play fight and relax without a care in the world. National Geographic was also there - clearly identifiable by having the longest camera lens I've ever seen. It was a real highlight watching them attempt to stalk to a mob of Chital Deer. They made no use of cover, and were all togrther, hopeless! We were told that at this point in their lives, their mother still killed for them - lucky for them! The next day brought more of the same, but the Tigers were elusive. With just a few minutes before the park closed its gates, we found the cubs, and this time they were with their mother. We were the last jeep out that night, and the look our guide got from the guard said we wouldn't have wanted to have been any later! Ranthambore was quite the experience, and we saw Tigers on both trips...who said you never see Tigers at Ranthambore?!
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