Day 5

Welcome back I'm writing this in the car right now on the way to Ranthambhore, a safari camp.

We woke up this morning at three and after making sure we had everything went off to the airport. We arrived there with what seemed like sufficient time, although our guide didn't think, little did we know how right he was. A day in the life of a Wolverton is nothing if not unexpected. There was a huge line up for economy check in but we managed to weasel ourselves into the business class line so we got to skip it. Here in India they are very meticulous about there baggage checking clearly not taking any chances. If a bag is checked and deemed safe it is stamped.

....We are waiting at a train crossing right now and god is it taking forever.... Anyway were was I?

Oh yes so we got our bags and ran to our gate which was closing soon. We got there right at the final call and as you have probably guessed mum didn't have her boarding pass. So they told us to step to the side while they sent someone to go look for it. We sat there for fifteen minutes not knowing if they would find it or not till a man slightly out of breath arrived and told us he found it by the bag check area. Hooray! We were about to go through to board the plane when someone asked us to show the stamps on our bags. Mums camera bag wasn't stamped, so again we waited, and waited till someone eventually showed up and checked it again and deemed it safe. So we boarded the flight and took off. Twenty minutes later we landed in Jaipur where we were greeted by our drivers who had had to drive five hours from Delhi the night before to meet us. We drove four hours passing through small villages and by fields along the way. We saw a whole lot of goats and cows as well as some dogs, chickens, camels... you get the idea there are a lot of animals in India.

We arrived at the Hotel where we received a traditional Indian greeting, a dot on the forehead, a moist towelette and a glass of orange juice. The rooms where giant tents with full bathrooms and electricity and beautiful. We had a little lunch and then went on our first safari. The safaris were in the Ranthambhore National Park home to a variety of animals including the endangered Bengal Tiger. While our guide filled out some paperwork we waited at the entrance of the park where met non other then Kenzie and her family (for those of you who don't know mackenzie is my friend from school) I quote Walt Disney's song that's so catchy it's annoying in saying: it's a small, small world.

So after a little time to catch up with our old chums we set off into the park. The park was made up of plains and forest area that in total covered 400 square km and was split up into different zones. Each group was assigned a different guide and zone at random everyday so sometimes you might get a better zone then others. We saw some different antelope (spotted deer and such...), birds, a monkey and well not much else. The park was situated on an area once ruled by Moguls in 900 A.D. so there were a lot of ruins, roads and even a few bridges that kept you from feeling too in touch with nature. Though overall the park was very pretty with it's small lakes and rivers. At the end of the day we returned the hotel without seeing the elusive tiger but the people who greeted us and later on their "colleagues," as they like to call themselves, all seemed very optimistic about us seeing one.

There was a Christmas celebration going on by the pool which we were all invited to but Simon and I were too tired so we went to bed, mum and dad on the other hand went and enjoyed Christmas carols and dancing.

-Chloe :)