Tiger Moon Resort Ranthambore is a lovely place that shares a boundary wall with the national park - so roaring tigers / leopards at night too. We saw plenty of birds about 50 different types (the Collins handbook was a super reference), langurs, 1 Tigress, crocs, mongoose, sand boa, water snake, cheetal, sambar, chinkara and neelgai. Fresh air, bright blue skies... bliss. Even tried our hand at pottery! You don't want to see what we made :)
Ranthambore is a must do - please go. August Kranti Express to Sawai Madhopur and then Jaipur Express back.
Safari is early morning and late afternoon - so between that mid morning is good for a swim and post noon for a nap in an ac room. Go to www.indianadventures.com/TigerMoon.htm for accommodation details. They have their office at the start of SV road in Bandra, opposite the Parsi Colony. We did the jungle package which included accommodation, meals, 2 safaris, trip to the fort, nature walk with naturalist and a barbeque dinner and access to their wildlife movies and library. March was a good time to go as the international tourists are just about heading out and the Indian tourists are still busy with exams so we got gypsys for 2 of the safaris which other wise are booked 90 days in advance. I think February would also be a god time but then it would be too cold for the pool.
And now for the fleshed out version complete with bird list:
A wildlife national park has been on our agenda for a while and we decided on Ranthambore in March this time by train. It would be the baby’s first experience of a train and for us unique to be travelling with him in a mode of transport that was the norm for trips until his arrival anyway!
Almost the entire journey was spent reading Winnie the Poo out loud and we started drawing lots for every 2 hour period of reading / babysitting. The cooped up space did get the little guy saying ‘I wanna go out’ very often but books to the rescue.
The others in our compartment were entertained by our little chatterbox though I must admit I was worried about safety after reading about so many stories of theft even on the more popular trains on important routes. So naturally when the devout looking elderly couple offered us Prasad, my city built antennas went up and I did not know whether to accept. Ever trusting Hashim, did accept and we all had a little bit and were fine and safe as it turned out.
Tarun sleeps with a comfort toy named Amu and as Amu was packed away we did bother pulling him out. So suddenly at 11 pm from the topmost berth a tiny voice loudly started saying ‘Oh where’s my Amu – he’s lost – find Amu’ only to be placated when Amu was found and retrieved from the bag.
We arrived at Sawai Madhavpur station to be greeted by monkeys, red mud, dawn colours, superb weather – slightly chill and a jeep and driver (who had just seen a leopard on his way to fetch us!)
Tiger Moon Resort our home for the 3 days is beautiful. It is situated at the edge of the reserve itself and is one of the few resorts that actually has old large trees and so plenty of birds within the property.
The safaris started the very first day. The canter safari was not very exciting as we went down a dusty route and had a few very noisy passengers on board who may have frightened off all the animals anyway. And we thought people may groan on seeing a baby - expecting the child to be noisy! Tarun was a gem. He understood that we were looking for animals and needed to speak softly. We did see many Sambars (in big groups which is rare) and birds and fowl but no tiger.
We decided to venture into the jungle only in a gypsy hence forth and did just that. On our next safari, we came face to face with Tigress T17. A cub but beautiful anyway, though, the collar around her neck and her nonchalance at seeing us made her seem almost like a pet than a fearsome wild beast. For true passionate fury visit the lion at the
The rest of the trip was spent relaxing by the pool, being taught pottery by a local expert, bird watching within the property, going on nature walks with the naturalist and a trip to the Ranthambore fort and Ganesh temple. The afternoons were too hot to venture out as this was early March but the mornings and early evenings were perfect weather.
All in all a great trip and very different from our usual ones as there was no faithful car to fall back on whenever we wanted.
Here’s a list of the birds and animals we saw:
White Backed Vulture
Common Quail
Red Spur Fowl
Painted Quail
Brown Headed Stork-billed Kingfisher
White Ibis
Grey Heron
Egret
Open Bill Stork
Black Winged Kite
Crested Serpent Eagle
Shikra
Peafowl
Moorhen
Red Wattled Lapwing
Little Brown Dove
Blossom Headed Parakeet
Rose Ringed And Alexandrine Parakeets
Coucal
White Breasted Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Common / Jewel Kingfisher
Little Green Beeater
Golden Backed Woodpecker
Mahratta Woodpecker
Fantail
Bulbuls
Indian And Magpie Robins
Black Redstart
Hill Myna
Tree Pie
Black Drongo
Purple Sunbird
Thicknee
Jungle Myna
Babler Of Many Types
Indian Roller
Ring Plover
Avocate
Common Teal
Stilt Black Winged
Gowet
Woolly Neck Stork
Brahmini Duck
Barheaded Goose
Flycatcher
Bay Backed Shrike
Common Shrike
Partridge
White Browed Fantail Flycatcher
Painted Sandgrouse
Indian Busk Lark
Ashy Brown Sparrow Lark / Black Belly Finch Lark
Soleska Bush Chat
Chestnut Shouldered Petonia / Yellow Throat Sparrow
Stone Chat.
Animals:
Langurs
Tiger
Crocs
Mongoose
Sand boa
Water snake
Chinkara
Spotted deer,
Sambar
Neelgai
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