We were on the first drive of our last trip to the Ranthambore National Park. On this trip we had made up our mind that we will begin our drives when there is adequate sunlight to photograph. So no more struggling to spot fauna in the dark hours before dawn. We also decided to keep away from the crowds and these steps paid us rich dividends. The first Tiger we sighted during this drive is the current Queen of Ranthambore, popularly known as Arrowhead. There she was right in front of us, scent marking the tracks. As we were the only jeep, we had this exclusive sighting for a couple of minutes before the other jeeps got wind that she was spotted and came rushing. Arrowhead quitely disappeared into the Ranthambore wilderness as quickly as she appeared and it was as though she came out of hiding only to welcome us to Ranthambore. Here are a few pictures from this brief meeting with the Queen.
Once Arrowhead disappeared into the tall grass, we paused to take in the sights around us and we noticed this tree full of roosting Fruit Bats and took a couple of pictures. We heard Chital alarm calls again nearby and we knew it was Arrowhead showing herself again. What we did not know is that it was going to be a memorable sighting for us. Please come back next week to get more about that in our next post.
