Ranthombore national park. Absolutely speech less. No word to explain the unique experience

Watching Royal Bengal Tiger in its natural habitat is a unique experience which can’t be explain in words, I along with my family and little kid had the same in ranthombore national park.

Tiger sighting is not a good experience for me so far, I fail in shariska, pench and Corbett national park, so ranthombore is now a challenge for me, therefore we decided to come in peak summer when sighting chance is maximum.

 zone 4

Safari booking is a troublesome experience, it can be booked through rajasthanwildlife.rajasthan.gov.in, this is only official sight, you need to log in this sight and link with aadhar number, and safari booking starts 90 days in advance, at 12am, and within 2-3 mints all safari passes (gypsy) will be closed, but don’t get panic try next day morning you will find some seats available there (may be due to cancellation). Safari cost is 934 per person including everything. I was able to book two safari in zone 2 and zone 4. Ranthombore is divided in ten zones, 1-5 is core zone, entry gate through swaimadhopur, 6 to 10 is buffer zone has a separate entry. Current record shows 2 & 6 is the best zone of tiger sighting followed by zone 3,4, 5 &1, rest zones (7,8,9& 10) are not advisable to book.

Hotel booking was done in Tiger regency resort online, which is 5 km away from safari gate, and 4km from railway station, the hotel manager Mr syed ali is extreamly helpful, he arrange boarding pass for us, a token amount of Rs 60 was charged per seat, don’t forget the ID proof which was mention on safari ticket.

sambar in water hole

The Royal look of a future queen

 

2years old female cub of noor

 

Tiger in action

Crocodile at waterhole

We did two safari in two days, our 1^st day safari is in zone2, gypsy collect us at 2.45pm from hotel, in the afternoon of end May we feel unbearable heat, we keep our self all covered, hat, sunglasses, musk still feel burning sense on skin. Our guide and driver is extremely knowledgeable a lots of birds was shown, like pigmy woodpecker, Asian paradise flycatcher, bush quail, painted francolin, collared scops owl but 1 hour passed we had seen two water holes full of sambar, wild boar, crocodile, spotted deer and peacock and slowly loosing hope to see the royal look of majestic Bengal tiger, suddenly our guide whisper, “A Tiger”, we could not believe our eyes one fully grown female cub of tigress noor was resting in water hole, it was playing and give us nice view of some unforgettable moments, then it jump out from the water hole come in front of our gypsy, and then slowly disappear in forest, this is not the end, we found one fully grown male cub of tigress sarmili in another water hole, lots of gypsy waiting there suddenly we heard alarm call of sambar, another tiger is coming, this is the brother of 1^st one and both was now in same water hole, we was not believing  our faith and just lost our mind to find such a royal animal in front of us.

 2 years three month old male cub of tigress sharmili

Two brother sharing waterhole 

collared scoup owl

 bush quail

Asian paradise flycatcher (male)

Our guide says let’s try now for another tiger we agreed immediately, our safari time is running out it’s around 6pm we are lucky enough to find another fully grown female cub of tigress noor, it give some nice shot and continue clicking until safari time is over, thus our zone 2 safari ends with a great success.

 2nd female cub of tigress noor

wild bore zone2

Zone 2 future queen

Next day morning safari is in zone 4, gypsy arrive at 5.45am, wonderful cool morning weather and our co-tourist with 1200mm big lance, so feeling thrilled to have a safari with some well knowledgeable experienced person, one foreigner lady also accompany with us, came to know she is a regular visitor of ranthombore. But our hope does not last longer our driver run gypsy as if we are on national highway, zone 4 is rocky bumpy and hilly area so difficult of control ourself in the vehicle, I was afraid my little daughter may get injured, asked many times to run gently but he run by his mind and least bother on our request.

spotted deer

 

leopard (female) zone4

 unidentified female cub in zone4

Green zone

 

In the way we find few gypsy focusing on collared scop owl, my co travellers lough on it,as if this is not a subject of photography, find one oriental honey buzzard, one crocodile, but they does not care to stop. Our 1^st stop is on an empty water hole, one spotted deer moving alone. Again highway driving started and suddenly found a female leopard is approaching on a heel, this is quite far and bushes all around, and I did manage only one good shot. Few minutes back we spotted a female tiger cub in a waterhole, it again under dance bushes, so difficult for photography.  

 tree pie, photography by my 8 yrs old daughter

white belied drongo 

 golden oriole

Deer in waterhole

 great stone curlew

spotted sand grouse

There was a resting place, (toilet facilities available there) where we get down from gypsy and took some photo ourselves to make the place memorable, my little kid did some bird photography too, lots of rufous tree pie around which take biscuit from our hand, enjoyed the place a lot.

 sambar poses for photography 

tigress arion resting

 collared scoup owl

Started return back, find one black tailed mongoose, but gypsy does not give a stoppage as usual, I found two collared scoop owl in a tree, forced to stop for photography,

At the last moment our luck clicked once again, female tigress arion fond slipping in a distance, take some nice shots, we were dropped at hotel at 9:30am, thus our journey end with a total six tigers and one leopard some unforgettable experience.