More on the Jungle Safaris

25 jeeps were lined up at the park hqtrs at 3:15. The gate was lifted and off the drivers raced jockeying for position. A male and female tiger had been sighted there earlier in the day and all the drivers were trying to get their people set up with the vest view. 2 big cats were there but huddled down in the brush and so barely visible except when they swatted away flies or rolled over. Tiny glimpses were accompanied by excited oohs and ahs. Finally, as it cooled, the female got up and moved off with excellent views for us. However, as she moved, the jeeps had to back up and jockey for position again. Sometimes one vehicle would block the other's view. There were roll b ars on the open jeep and the driver helped me to stand up on the bars to see better. It was quite a balancing act. All of a sudden the male was up and moving around so we were off again to keep him in sight. The driver forgot to warn us. R was standing up filming and looking the other way & he practically went flying out. All in all, it was quite a scene, capped off with one of the tigers crossing the track directly in front of us.
There are also 3 type of deer in the park. We only saw one of the shy barking deer, and since no predators were about, we didn't hear his bark. We saw plenty of the large sambar (looks like Am. elk) & hundreds of spotted deer. They are beautiful creatures that look like our normal size deer except with the spotted coats of our fawns and good sized horns. In addition, there were wild boar, 2 kinds of monkeys and lots of birds. The most striking for us were the various eagles, wooly necked stork and the malabar hornbills. We watched a maribou stork find a snake and struggle to get it down its gullet.
For the morning safaris it was very chilly. We were awakened at 5:45 with a thermos of hot chai and biscuits and into the jeep at 6:l5. They provided blankets which we wrapped ourselves in for the first l l/2 hrs. The forest seemed somewhat like a dry southern Or. oak forest, although the trees weren't oak and many of them were very twisted & had unusual bark. There were also lots of stands of bamboo & rock outcroppings.
Tiger Den Lodge was very solicitous, but we are back on our own again and had to do something the book told us never to do--get on the train without a reservation (couldn't get a reservation). It was bedlam, but fun bedlam. In a seat for four, a family had 8 people sitting and scooted over to make room for me while R stood between the cars near the latrine (he was so pleased about that) while a student talked his ear off. Luckily it was only a four hour journey but it tested our threshold a bit. Even though it was completely packed, at every stop, vendors with large cartons of food items would squeeze on and go up and down the aisles yelling. Then there was the blind guy with the toothpick legs who came down the aisle singing with his hand out, the guy with no legs who slid himself along the floor begging, and to top it off, a couple of cross dressers ( eunuchs I guess) who came by and did special blessings for money. I asked the guy next to me who they were and in his limited English he said--not men, not women.
We hear it's cold there and more snow--can't believe it. Love to all.