DAY NINETEEN
Up at 5.30am we are returning for more of the tiger “commodity”. Dressed in absolutely every garment we possess, including flight socks, for warmth, we have a quick chai and are herded into the cantor. It’s a lengthy process getting everyone loaded and dawn has well broken before our massive cantor lurches off toward Zone 3, which we have been assured is good for tiger spotting.
We literally race through the sanctuary at breakneck speed, hardly stopping to admire the beautiful shy chital (spotted deer) or tiny barking deer. Our guide & driver’s heart set on a tiger viewing, the guide listens, directs the cantor driver, listens again and so forth. He hears the alarm call of deer and we are propelled in one direction, then its turn around and back again, just the way we have come.
Tiger is what we are here for, and tiger is what we must see, or so the guide believes. We proceed in this manner for several hours, lurching and jolting through bamboo forest at speed, lengthy waiting and staring, at what??? where???
Meanwhile the Indian party seated behind us are on jolly. They laugh, chatter, crunch on biscuits and peanuts. This is all fun for them. None of the quiet and patient silence that might actually allow a tiger to reveal itself.
Thankfully, the charade ends three hours later and we are taken to a “safe area” for breakfast. This turned out to be a hasty affair due to a tiger sighting! We were rapidly herded back into the cantor, still swilling down our chai, and we lurched off again at even greater speed.
This time we did really see a tiger, lying, not far off in the grass, trying to get a nap. She looked up at us and then realising the utter futility of trying for a morning nap with so many jeeps full of people “oohing” and “aahing” at her, that she stood up, yawned and with the greatest dignity an animal can muster, stood and strode towards us, crossed the road and disappeared into the peaceful haven of the bamboo thickets.
