His place is being taken by Laurette, the wife of Robert, his co-driver.It was an uneventful drive through some wonderful Indian countryside. Remote villages and busy small towns have become the norm for the tour. As is usual when driving in India you see numerous examples of overloaded vehicles, this one a tuk-tuk with people hanging on to every available place.
Then, out of the blue, we came across another example of the contrasts you see in India. One moment we were passing a bullock cart and the next a massive hydro-electric scheme!
The weather continues to be absolutely perfect. The temperature is in the high twenties, and occasionally, just over thirty degrees. We have had virtually no clouds since we left the Himalayas, with non-stop sunshine from morning to night.We arrived at our hotel, The Jungle Lodge, before 2 pm and within an hour we were all loading up into jeeps for our game drive through the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. The two all-American crews in one of the jeeps.
According to the naturalist on our jeep there are approximately 30 tigers in the tourist area of the park, which accounts for about one third of the total area. We headed into the park on dirt tracks and I was quickly taken by the magnificent countryside. Quite dense bamboo and tropical vegetation, with mighty Sal trees, and then open meadows with deep grass. In the background were wonderful mountains.
Very soon we came across tiger tracks in the sand and we stopped to listen for 'alarm' calls from deer and monkeys.
After about ten minutes we moved on. The rest of the drive sadly did not produce a sighting of a tiger. We are having an early morning game drive tomorrow, which hopefully will be more successful.When we returned to the Jungle Lodge, the hotel laid on a 'starlight' barbecue. It was a great way to end the day
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