Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]We arrived in Ranthambhore too late for the afternoon safari so we had dinner and went to bed early with high expectations about the morning. The knock on the door at 5:30 came awfully fast. Tea or coffee plus cookies were served in the lodge foyer and by 6:00 everyone was in their jeeps, wrapped in blankets against the cold and provided with towels to shield the cameras from the dust. The gate to the Reserve opened at 6:30 and all the jeeps and canters (trucks that take about thirty passengers each) rush into the park to get to places where the tigers are still roaming. They drive fast over the rough tracks and raise a lot of dust - thus the need to protect the equipment with towels. By 9:30 or so the tigers have all settled against the heat of the day and everyone leaves the Reserve. We head back to the lodge and have breakfast and download pictures and, and rest up for lunch. Lunch is at 1:30 and by 2:30 we are back in the jeeps, this time in shirt sleeves and hats because it has warned up to plus 30 degrees C, and with a fresh towel to protect the equipment. The drive into the reserve is more leisurely in the afternoon because the tigers usually don't stir until later and everyone has time to get to where they think the tigers may stir. The driver and guide stop the jeep every so often and turn off the motor to listen for warning calls from the deer and the monkeys that a tiger is on the move. Then we move in the direction of the calls. By 6:30 it is dusk and you come home to the lodge, have a drink (Kingfisher beer) and a shower and a late dinner and fall into bed about 9:30 - exhausted and waiting for the morning wake up call so you can do it all over again. I did this for three straight days and did not see a single cat. I did get lots of pictures of other wild life - see below - but no Tigers. I was beginning to think that Jayanand and the entire Indian subcontinent was fooling with me as everyone around me at lunch and dinner talked about "tiger this and tiger that". But not me - I was coming up dry. :-( Here are some pictures from my no tiger days: The langur monkey - there were many of them and they were helpful in warning where the tigers were - even if not for me. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/Langur+Smile.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/ybtusg8 Two more langurs and a baby - it was the birthing season and there were a lot of monkey babies around: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/2mnkbabeW.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yc7bkdr There were lots of birds that I didn't know. Here's the Treepie - which is very bold and will fly at you and eat cookies from your hand http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/TreepieW.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/ylj6ub3 The Treepie is bold with the deer as well as you can see from this picture: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/TreePDeerHW.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yhqdfc7 There are lots of water birds around the water holes too, Here is a white egret on take off - this is an uncropped full frame picture taken with Jayanand's 200 - 400 zoom. I don't think I could have taken the picture with the Telyt or the Nikkor 300 unless I was very very lucky. I think this may be my best non tiger picture of the lot: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/CraneFlyW.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yetbwzz And here is a low flying crane - closely cropped - taken with the 400 Telyt: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/TIGER/CraneFly1W.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/ydksed2 Jayanand took pity on me by day four and invited me to ride in his jeep. My luck then changed and tigers started to appear in front of my lenses. My first tiger pictures are in the next posting. C & C always welcome Cheers Howard.