Jungle babbler, Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur

A rainy night last night, and drizzles throughout today.  No matter, we pushed through with our plan to visit the Keoladeo National Park, a bird and wildlife sanctuary, literally just around the corner from our lodgings.

To be honest, it wasn't really all that wet.  The rain had already all come down, or at least most of it, but it remained largely grey and unfortunately quite cold.  The prospect of seeing some heretofore unknown (to us) species of birds kept us excited and occasionally even warm.  The birds, though, apparently considered it too cold, too, to come out and shake their tail feathers, at least according to the guide, so we didn't get to see as much as would have been normal to expect.  Nevertheless, those we did get to see were simply exotic and more than made up for the grey.  We were especially appreciative of the purple heron, bright blue kingfishers with red beaks, ibis, parakeets, babblers, and two love-owls who completely ignored all the paparazzi and just continued snuggling on their branch.  All that plus loads of ducks, water hens, squirrels and sambar deer.  Of course, there were some peacocks but, somehow, the dominant grey absorbed the turquoise of their plumage and the resulting charcoal colour is what the cam picked up.

Tomorrow, we leave for Delhi.  Rain has been forecast for the morning only but sunshine in the afternoon remains doubtful.  This doesn't bother me.  The goal of the trip was Khajuraho and Gwalior; the rest is a bonus.

I am not sure I can post tomorrow evening when we reach our lodgings in Delhi, or the day after, which will probably be spent doing last-minute sightseeing in Delhi (sites which we were unable to visit because of our delayed flights at the start), resting in our room and preparing for the flight back.  If I cannot post then, this blog will probably be updated when we reach home.  THANK YOU AGAIN for your patience and I look forward to responding to all your comments and enjoying your blogs the moment we are settled back home.

Namasté!