10.28.18 On the Road to Ranthambore...


Excitement builds as we begin our 5-hour journey to Ranthambore National Park (with the rest of the Indian and tourist population) for a much-anticipated safari.  Along the way we have many opportunities for some rural countryside photography...

It was amazing to see these pickup trucks loaded with inflated bags containing feed from their fields that were so large, you needed to attach a ladder to access the top.  They also appeared to make driving difficult and quite restrictive - inching toward the windows of the cab.

The women worked alongside the men in the fields. 

 I couldn't get over how beautifully they were dressed 

while toiling away.

Our hotel destination - Nahargarh Hotel - was, by far, the most impressive, incredible-looking hotel I have ever had the pleasure of staying in.  It reminded me of our own Taj Mahal.

There is no way I could possibly photograph it in its entirety, so here is a photo from their website:

https://www.nahargarh.com/


And here are the best photos I managed to capture:

This handsome young man is the son of the man below. 

I could watch him dance all night long.

Dad played some beautiful, soothing Indian music.

Our room key.

As our festival mojo continues, we discover there is a Bollywood movie being filmed at our hotel. We will be approaching them later tomorrow to see if they might be in need of extras for the crowd shots. Think we will fit right in???

Factoids about Ranthambore National Park...

• located near the town of Sawai Madhopur
• one of 11 sites chosen for Project Tiger, India's national tiger conservation program
• more than 100 square miles of deciduous forest & several large lakes
• a hunting preserve of the Maharajas until 1970

Well, less than 5 minutes into our extremely rocky afternoon safari ride, we came upon several monkeys - mostly female - nursing their babies. They were so used to the jeeps they just ignored us and continued on with their afternoon routine. 

These photos are dimensionally longer because these monkeys had extremely long tails - something I had never seen before on my previous safaris in Africa.

Then came the sambar deer and the spotted deer...

Baby crocodile

But our naturalist was getting impatient and chomping at the bit to find a tiger for us - apparently, like the African leopard not an easy feat.  He suggested we continue forward in our quest and try to get the more common animal photos on our return leg.

It wasn't too long after we began that hunt in earnest when we heard a monkey warning coming from the canopy of one of the tallest trees alongside a river...

RUN!!!

And, just to our right - lounging in the river in all his youthful glory - was a young male tiger...

...totally oblivious to the pushy, aggressive human beings

 jockeying for the best photo.

 

I call these types the "National Geographic" photographers.  

I wonder how they had these cameras and managed to stay under the airport weight limitations.

And, to top of the day - another fantastic sunset.