Horseback Riding Vacation in India (Day 19)
Day – 19 That morning at 5:00 I was a bit bleary eyed and almost wondered if it was really worth it to struggle into my clothes and climb into the jeep. Chances of seeing a tiger seemed rather bleak, but soon I was back in the spirit of things and enjoying watching the other animals and birds. Then Sanjiv, who was in our jeep, got a radio message that a tiger had been sighted in the bush and that we could mount an elephant and go in search of it. With alacrity we headed for a rendezvous with an elephant and four of us climbed aboard behind the mahout with the help of a wooden ladder. Then we plunged off into the bush in search of the tiger which had been spotted while courting a tigress. To our amazement, within 15 minutes our mahout had brought us within 100 ft. of the tiger who was resting on the ground. The mahout obligingly convinced the elephant to remove a small tree with his trunk which had been partially obscuring our view. The tiger remained rather unconcerned until two other elephants with other members of our group arrived on the scene. After that he got up and went down a bank into a nearby stream where he proceeded to take a bath. We were able to watch him, fascinated, for some time. That night at dinner we had plenty to talk about.