Episode 18

Once we finally arrived at Corbett National Park, we were tired and disoriented, but still managed to make our way to the tourist office to catch the afternoon jeep safari. The safari was great fun and we loved being out in the middle of the wilderness, and began our search for one India’s last 1000 or so tigers. Fresh scratch marks on a nearby tree signaled that we had entered a tiger’s territorial zone, and we scanned the brush for anything that slightly resembled the rare feline. We then found fresh tiger tracks and passed by something that was stirring in the dense jungle. Yet after a few hours, we had yet to see a real tiger… Although we were a bit disappointed that we did not get to see a tiger, we did get to see numerous monkeys, spotted deer, elk, and birds. The beautiful jungle and open air jeep was refreshing, and we relished in the warm Indian sun as we drove through the park. We decided to try our luck a second time in another section of the park, however this time at an ungodly hour of the morning. We couldn’t even get the security guard of our hotel to wake up to open the gate, so we had to climb through the barbed wire fence to reach our jeep. Although we didn’t get to see wild tigers, we did see a beautiful wild elephant walking through the jungle just as the sun began to rise. I was now satisfied…

We spent the rest of the day lounging around the hotel and hiking around the park. We then sluggishly made our way to take yet another Indian sleeper train. Oh goody… I don’t know if it’s because the train wasn’t as crowded or just because we were so exhausted from the previous days of extensive travel, but either way, we slept quite well and awoke to the sounds of the bustling Dehra Dun train station.