testmeat photoblog

so following on from my previous post, after a lot of travelling, talking and stress we finally found ourselves driving inside bandipur tiger reserve. as the name implies tigers can be found within, but we were well aware of how unlikely a sighting would actually be, the park is around 900km² and houses less than 200 tigers. of course there were other animals inside the reserve, and after seeing monkeys when we first got inside, the next animal i was hoping to see the was the indian elephant. so i was delighted when we drove up to a lake to find a small family of elephants inside. we followed them as they made their way from the water to the shore and watched them eat as a herd of beautiful spotted deer followed suit in the foreground.

we continued to drive around looking for more signs of movement, and every time our tracker received a call from one of the other jeeps inside the park we crossed our fingers for tiger news. but as time ticked on those wafer thin hopes faded until they were pretty much invisible. when our tracker jumped out of the jeep and waved us goodbye we knew that was that, and despite seeing some really cool animals, we couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed. rationally we understood that this feeling was unwarranted, it was our first ever visit to a tiger reserve after all. it would be like playing golf for the first time and getting annoyed at not hitting a hole in one - and as i mentioned in my last post, we were lucky to even be allowed entry to the golf course. regardless we still felt a bit despondent as we rejoined the main road and drove back towards the ticket office and our waiting taxi driver. but then... our driver received a phone call... he replied with a few monosyllabic grunts, hung up and immediately swerved off the tarmac. he floored the accelerator and we hurtled back into the forest at full speed as he shouted back to us one word... one short, beautiful, fantastical word... tiger!

i think i should include some different photos for the final part of this story, so those will come in my next post, until then here's a shot of the aforementioned elephant family walking out of the lake