Day 58 - Tigers!

Our plan seemed rather ambitious given Emma's state last night, but after a good night she was a changed woman, so we set off early to cycle the 90km to Sariska Tiger Reserve in the morning with the goal of an afternoon safari.

Neither of us was feeling particularly special, but we arrived with a little time to spare, in which to check into a hotel and dump the bikes. The first place was an active building site and as we watched the minutes tick by no owner appeared as promised, so we decided to go to a much more expensive place nearer the gate so as not to miss the safari after all of the effort.

We were warned on Day 1 in India that "India is great but late" and a fustrating place when you're in a hurry. I rushed into the hotel while Emma went to sort the safari. No matter how I tried to explain we were in a hurry, or where can we put the bikes and come sort this out later, or where is the room, or do we even have a room, the receptionist calmly did his thing with no apparent concern, or progress, or answers. Meanwhile Emma had come back saying the safari was ready to go and I'd had two conversations with onlookers about our trip. One family just plain didn't believe we'd cycled from England which was quite funny, and the other had surprising awareness of the distance for non-cyclists.

Eventually we ascertained where we could leave the bikes, locked them quickly and jumped on the worryingly open and very much not-tiger-proof truck! We didn't actually see any tigers sadly, but did get to see lots of other cool wildlife and marvelled at the locals casually walking past the recent tiger prints! I think mostly we both just enjoyed sitting there for the most relaxing time we've spent in India so far outside of the hotel room!

[I'm afraid you'll just have to imagine the videos of the two stags fighting and monkeys playing because the Internet is too slow to upload them!]

We very much appreciated only having a 20m walk to the hotel, finally getting an actual room (but not before we'd been ushered to the restaurant and re-explained 😅) and then a proper big dinner and clean!

Food spend today: 18.99 euros

Tea consumption: 3