Ranthambhore revisited May/June 2019 : HOT but very rewarding

[Filip A]

After this really incredible morning, we decided to go to zone 2. It's a nice place to have lunch and to take some (well deserved) rest in the shade.

 

We were only just unpacking our lunchboxes when our guides heard a noise coming out of the vegetation. A few seconds later T105 Noori popped up, only a few meters away from our jeep.

 

T105 Noori

 

 

Himmat started the jeep and we drove a little but further away from this tigress. He parked our vehicle just right at the bottom of a little hill.

 

T105 Noori

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Filip A]

She disappeared in the forest but our guides had an idea where she might go.

It was hot, very hot, so why not take a bath ?

 

T105 Noori

 

 

 

 

 

[Filip A]

We spent pretty much the whole afternoon with Noori. At 18h00 it was time to leave.

 

A few minutes later, while driving to the gate, we bumped into Arrowhead and her cubs again. Apparently she had made a kill after our morning sighting, and now she was bringing the cubs to the kill.

It was already late and Arrowhead had put down the prey far away from the road, so the pictures are a bit blurry .

 

 

 

[Filip A]

On our last half day safari we concentrated on zone 1 and zone 6.

 

In zone 1 we had a brief sighting of T107 Sultana, sister of T105 Noori. When the two sisters separated from their mother T39 Noor, Sultana gained her territory in zone 1.

 

T107 Sultana

 

 

 

 

[Earthian]

What wonderful sightings. Great photographs too. And you saw a leopard and a sloth bear. And Arrowhead with her cubs!  I am so jealous! 

 

Yes, Ranthambhor gives you quality sightings. Especially during May/June. We went in June and we saw 10 different tigers. 

 

Thank you for sharing.

[Filip A]

In zone 6 we hoped to see T39 Noor and/or T34 Kumbha. A few days before we were there, they had been seen mating.

 

No glimpse of T39 … but we did found T34.

 

T34 Kumbha

 

 

 

 

Also taking a bath …

 

 

 

 

 

… and he moved on …

 

 

 

[Zubbie15]

And you've continued really well, great sightings and well captured. As before, I wish we could handle the heat, but March was warm enough for us! 

[Filip A]

T34 Kumbha was our last tiger sighting of the trip.

 

The remaining time of our last safari we spent searching for other wildlife and enjoying the beautiful landscapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just one more sloth bear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Filip A]

What an experience !!

 

During our 4.5 days in the park we had the following sightings :

1 leopard

3 sloth bears

24 tiger sightings with 12 different tigers

and lots of other wildlife

 

Although it remains wild nature and it’s very difficult to compare different trips in a different period, I would say this trip was very rewarding. We had some marvelous encounters.

Most of the sightings lasted longer than those we had in October 2018 and once a tiger was on the move, it was easier to follow because the forest and the vegetation wasn’t that lush anymore.

 

If you are able to cope with the heat and dust, I would certainly recommend this period for tiger safaris.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

[Filip A]

34 minutes ago, Earthian said:

What wonderful sightings. Great photographs too. And you saw a leopard and a sloth bear. And Arrowhead with her cubs!  I am so jealous! 

 

Yes, Ranthambhor gives you quality sightings. Especially during May/June. We went in June and we saw 10 different tigers. 

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

@Earthian Thank you very much.

[Filip A]

9 minutes ago, Zubbie15 said:

And you've continued really well, great sightings and well captured. As before, I wish we could handle the heat, but March was warm enough for us! 

 

@Zubbie15 Thank you ! Maybe you must try May, you never know

 

 

[Zubbie15]

2 hours ago, Filip A said:

Maybe you must try May,

My wife got heat stroke in Tadoba when the temperature was no more than 38 C... I can't see us trying anything hotter.  Canadians are better in the cold than the heat. 

[JayRon]

Wow, what a trip and so many great sightings and brilliant photos I really like the tiger shots in post 26, just amazing......  I will someday have to fight the heat (which I normally don´t have any problems with, even if I am from Denmark  ). I been to Kanha and Bandhavgarh and would any time go bakc to Kanha(not so much Bandhavgarh), but now we have to maybe put Ranthambore into the itinerary...

[Filip A]

16 hours ago, JayRon said:

Wow, what a trip and so many great sightings and brilliant photos I really like the tiger shots in post 26, just amazing......  I will someday have to fight the heat (which I normally don´t have any problems with, even if I am from Denmark  ). I been to Kanha and Bandhavgarh and would any time go bakc to Kanha(not so much Bandhavgarh), but now we have to maybe put Ranthambore into the itinerary...

 

@JayRon Thank you very much. Indeed, the heat, for us Belgians it's just the same but we coped with it very well

You should definitely put Ranthambhore on your list !

[xelas]

Excellent sightings, and equally good TR and photography. Speaking of heat, hopefully the rooms were having A/C?!

[Filip A]

2 hours ago, xelas said:

Excellent sightings, and equally good TR and photography. Speaking of heat, hopefully the rooms were having A/C?!

 

@xelas Thank you very much. Yes, there was a perfect functioning A/C in the room

 

 

[Athene]

@Filip A

I can't believe how many tigers you have seen in 4 1/2 days. Brilliant photos, wonderful sightings.

I would also like to visit Ranthambore - I am a bit afraid of the heat. I definitely couldn't stand the heat in May. I have to talk to OH, maybe February.

Thank you for sharing.

[Filip A]

12 hours ago, Athene said:

@Filip A

I can't believe how many tigers you have seen in 4 1/2 days. Brilliant photos, wonderful sightings.

I would also like to visit Ranthambore - I am a bit afraid of the heat. I definitely couldn't stand the heat in May. I have to talk to OH, maybe February.

Thank you for sharing.

 

@Athene Thank you very much. You should definitely visit Ranthambhore, it's a wonderful park. It will get (very) hot from the middle of april.

I was back in Ranthambhore a month ago (from February 2nd until February 6th) and again, I had some wonderful sightings.

Temperatures during the day were fine, but the mornings and evenings were very cold.

 

[AfricIan]

17 hours ago, Filip A said:

I was back in Ranthambhore a month ago (from February 2nd until February 6th) and again, I had some wonderful sightings.

Temperatures during the day were fine, but the mornings and evenings were very cold.

 

That's very encouraging @Filip A, I was wondering if the abundance of sightings was primarily due to the heat keeping the Tigers close to water but February is more the time of year we'd be looking at.

[Filip A]

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2020 at 3:09 PM, AfricIan said:

 

That's very encouraging @Filip A, I was wondering if the abundance of sightings was primarily due to the heat keeping the Tigers close to water but February is more the time of year we'd be looking at.

 

I think, in general, that sightings are "easier" in May/June. Tigers do stay indeed close to the water because of the heat. So when you go to the places where there is still enough water, the changes are higher to spot a tiger. Although we had a few sightings where tigers were just resting in the water, we also had some wonderful encounters when they were on the move.

 

As earlier mentioned, February is much cooler, especially in the morning and in the late afternoon. Based on the experience we had a few weeks ago, we only had one "water" sighting. Tigers were not resting in the water but the two cubs of Arrowhead were playing and running around in one of the lakes of zone 3.

In total we did three full days and one afternoon drive in February, and we saw different tigers on every occasion.

[janzin]

Great report! Wow, 24 tiger sightings of 12 tigers...that's amazing! And 3 sloth bears! Very impressive, but as others have said I don't think (in fact I know!) I could not handle the temperatures of May or June. However, having just returned from Ranthambhore I do think next time I'd like to try a little bit later, maybe end of March. We didn't do nearly as well as you did ("only" 6 tigers this trip, no bears!) and I think in part it was due to the fact that the monsoons were so intense this year, there was lots of water everywhere so the tigers didn't need to come to the waterholes. On our first trip, it was much dryer and hotter and we had many great sightings at or near the water. The details will have to wait for my trip report, though

 

I hope you'll do a follow-up report from your trip this February, which was just a few weeks before ours.

 

 

 

[Filip A]

On ‎3‎/‎5‎/‎2020 at 11:27 PM, janzin said:

Great report! Wow, 24 tiger sightings of 12 tigers...that's amazing! And 3 sloth bears! Very impressive, but as others have said I don't think (in fact I know!) I could not handle the temperatures of May or June. However, having just returned from Ranthambhore I do think next time I'd like to try a little bit later, maybe end of March. We didn't do nearly as well as you did ("only" 6 tigers this trip, no bears!) and I think in part it was due to the fact that the monsoons were so intense this year, there was lots of water everywhere so the tigers didn't need to come to the waterholes. On our first trip, it was much dryer and hotter and we had many great sightings at or near the water. The details will have to wait for my trip report, though

 

I hope you'll do a follow-up report from your trip this February, which was just a few weeks before ours.

 

 

 

 

@janzin Thank you very much. Report from my trip this February is still on my to-do list

 

[elefromoz]

@Filip A, what a great trip you “lads” had, although I am another who could not imagine being out in those kind of temperatures, and I’m Australian and we regularly hit the low 40s in Summer. What a shame the young Male Tiger was killed, seems such a waste at 2+ years. I guess space/territory is at a premium in these Parks. I like the idea of the “half”day drive, gives you that extra couple of hours. You got some great Birds, it’s quite hard in Ranthambore to shift the focus away from Tigers, even for a short while, we missed the Vultures, damn, maybe the heat helped you out there. Thanks for an excellent report and photos

[Filip A]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2020 at 11:18 PM, elefromoz said:

@Filip A, what a great trip you “lads” had, although I am another who could not imagine being out in those kind of temperatures, and I’m Australian and we regularly hit the low 40s in Summer. What a shame the young Male Tiger was killed, seems such a waste at 2+ years. I guess space/territory is at a premium in these Parks. I like the idea of the “half”day drive, gives you that extra couple of hours. You got some great Birds, it’s quite hard in Ranthambore to shift the focus away from Tigers, even for a short while, we missed the Vultures, damn, maybe the heat helped you out there. Thanks for an excellent report and photos

 

@elefromoz Thanks. Just started reading your trip report. I'm very interested to know what your thoughts are of Nagarhole and Evolve Back and the comparison with Ranthambhore.

[Atravelynn]

Tigers are awesome and in such nice scenery.  Youngsters are such a bonus. Braving the heat paid off.  Abihshek with the tiger on his head is a classic.  Have you sent him that shot?  Glad to see Wild World India worked out for you.