It was up early for a quick breakfast and then off to zone 4. It was perishing cold in the open top vehicle and we were glad of the rugs from the hotel. No hot water bottles on Indian safaris.

We stopped quite close to the entrance as there was a samba deer alarm call and this family in another vehicle reckoned they saw a tiger. No one else saw anything except some bushes moving.

It was much more hilly than yesterday and very bouncy and dusty in the truck. The scenery was amazing. It doesn’t seem like there are many animals but when you look closely you can see deer, antelope, wild boar and monkeys everywhere. No tigers though. We saw tiger food (Samba deer),

tiger paw prints and tiger poo

but no actual tigers. Given the huge areas and relatively small tiger population it was not surprising I guess.

We saw 2 good sized crocodiles which was something.

After our return we had some free time which was spent outside in the sunshine. Mike and Craig played table tennis on the terrace, Jen read, others played cards and I caught up with my blog. No one ventured into the very nice swimming pool.

There were no spaces on afternoon safaris so we opted to go on a tour of this ancient fort that. Is now a world heritage site. It’s at the end of the road through the buffer zone and adjoins zone 3 of the national park. We went in one of the safari trucks but there were just 10 of us plus Bhagi.

The road up there was completely blocked as the traffic exiting intersected with the crowds arriving. It was chaos but people largely just waited patiently in their cars knowing it would clear eventually, and it did. It is a pilgrimage site with an operational temple at one part and many of the people were in their full ceremonial clothes and were very colourful.

Many people wanted photos with Jen and Craig and Jen always made sure she got a photo for herself also.

The place is fantastic. There is quite a climb up this stone path and stairs and the place is overrun with monkeys. Bhagi warned us not to make eye contact with them as it can promote aggressive behaviour. Hard not to as they were so fascinating.

The fort is a series of palaces and temples dating back to the 9th century with subsequent additions and covers an area of 7 square kilometres but much of it is overrun with vegetation. You can climb up onto the roof of some of the buildings and get wonderful views.

Riki went to climb up one staircase and our driver said it was not safe there but I don’t know how you are supposed to know without a guide as there is very little signage and no guard rails or fences.

Quite often groups of people would cluster around when Bhagi was telling us stuff and he was happy for them to hear as they were all Indian tourists. He hadn’t been over as much of the site as we walked yesterday and was getting information from our local driver.

In one part we came to a temple with an actual service happening in the space downstairs and it looked out over this manicured lawn in front of was had been the queens’ palace (where all the queens, children and concubines lived). It gave you a feel for what the whole place must have been like.

When we got back to the hotel (the Shergarh Resort) it was all lit up like fairyland.

We had time for a quick shower and then dinner followed by the cultural show outside around a fire. Cultural show is code for “some Indian music and dance followed by the tourists reluctantly making fools of themselves. Again Gamini was the best dancer but Prasha and Ian also gave it plenty of gusto. Must be something about engineers.

It was to bed early as we leave early after breakfast at 6am and have a 7-8 hour trip to Agra for New Year’s Eve.