Tiger Tiger

Left Jaipur mid evening last night and ended up in Sawai Madaphurs answer to Fawltey Towers. We we're picked up at 6 by our guide Vijay for a drive in an open topped jeep through Ranthambhore national park. After three hours of driving about we saw little of the tigers except some paw prints and a deer with it's arse chewed off; plenty of other cool animals though. Resigned to not seeing one we we're leaving the park when this bad boy was spotted. He eventually left the bush about 20 feet away from where I was sitting in the aforementioned open topped jeep. There are some things in life that really make a mark on you, seeing a wild tiger that close up is one of them (up there just behind wedding, births of my weans, and just in front of the 1988 Scottish Cup Final).

A very hyper party then went back to do battle with the hotel and our fixers before moving to a new hotel. All this happened before 10:00.

Vijay advised us that there was little chance of seeing tigers in the evening but he'd send the jeep round so we could see the temples and palaces on the Ranthambhore crag. We scored another tiger on the drive in!! Back at the new hotel the wee guy announced chef had to go to a funeral so he would cook our dinner, not looking promising but the wee guy produced one of the finest meals I've had in a long time. We couldn't stop throwing double sixes that day......