After 4 fruitless days in Bandhavgarh Tiger reserve a few years ago my family vowed to try once again to go on the hunt for a wild tiger. After 2 days in Ranthambore, with the most experienced guide in the park, I was starting to think we were cursed. We had seen and heard all of the usual warning signs - footprints, alarm calls and other peoples tiger photos but we just couldn't seem to get any luck.. Until the morning of our third day on safari, when somehow my brother caught a glimpse of a cub, lying still in the forest about 80 metres from our Jeep. There was a young 1 year old male called Sultan and he was the most amazing animal we had ever seen. He curiously wandered over to us, crossing the road and looping around the truck. In the distance we heard the calls of his mother Noor (T39) and other trucks approaching from the track behind us. Sultan wandered off into the forest in search of his mother and we continued making our way through the jungle.
Noor (T39)
Noor (T39)
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| A Red-Wattled Lapwing, one of the many birds we photographed in the absence of tigers | | | |
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| Sultan of Ranthambore, patiently waiting for his Mum. |
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| Showing off his teeth! |
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| Sultan backlit by the early morning sun |
A brief sighting but fantastic nonetheless, I don't think I will ever forgot my first tiger!
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A local woman in a green saari taken on the way home,
on the only road in and out of the National Park |
nicely captured . Well done !
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