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Wednesday, January 15th – Sariska
Frank and I would like to bicycle through the Tiger Reserve in the hopes of seeing the scenery and some of the wildlife here, which includes spotted leopards, jungle cats, striped hyenas, golden jackals, sambhars, spotted deer, antelopes, wild boars, several interesting birds as well as the Bengal tigers. After hearing Tigerman Edelman’s story last night of being charged by a tiger I am not sure this is a good idea, but we have seen locals riding on the narrow paved road through the park we assume it can’t be that dangerous. We are told at the hotel that we would need the permission of the park ranger, who is based in a ranger station half a kilometre from here. Once we have had our breakfast in the restaurant, Frank and I walk to the station.
The head ranger is a middle-aged man who could have stepped out of an Indian movie, the way he holds himself with an air of professionalism and importance. If anything, position is more important in India than it is in Britain. At least in Britain, one can change classes, albeit with great difficulty, but the caste system in India is more rigid and controlled completely by one’s birth. Still, being born into a caste cannot be taken for granted, I suppose, so one’s image must reflex his caste. The ranger is likely a Brahman, though I am not certain.
I thought it would be easy to convince him that since we have seen locals riding through the park we should be allowed to do so too, but he will not have it. The risk of having international visitors attacked by a tiger or something else to not worth it to him and he will not budge on denying us permission.
We walk around the vicinity of the lodge and the ranger station and catch a spotted deer crossing the road. My guide book speaks of “hideouts” where one might see a tiger drinking at a waterhole, so we ask Joel about them when we see him at lunch. He tells us the official “hides” have been removed but he knows a place where we can wait to see one. He has seen them come to drink from this place. He says they are most likely to come to drink near dusk and suggests we wait until about 5 pm if we want to see them.
We relax at the palace hotel for the afternoon, talking with a German couple who have been driving around Rajasthan. They are mostly interested in the standard tourist attractions and not in Indian life itself so we don’t learn much from them. They are astounded that Frank and I are traveling around India on our bicycles. They think it is too unsafe, even though they must have seen thousands of native cyclists commuting that way. We entertain them with stories of our adventures, together and apart, in a pointless effort to have them consider other options than car travel.
Tigerman Joel meets us on the patio of the hotel at 4:30 and leads us on a 20 minute walk to a local stream in the jungle. This is the tiger watch he mentioned. I do my best to walk quietly, not stepping on twigs or dry leaves, but it is pointless to try to walk through the jungle silently. Peacocks are the alarm system of the Indian jungles. They sit in the trees 15 m above our heads and scream hysterically once we are immediately below them. They fly a few metres ahead to get away from us and scream again as we catch up to them. Their screams could be heard by anyone a couple kilometres away, so I suppose tigers and leopards can probably hear them from much further away.
We sit on the hillside amongst the ferns, waiting and occasionally whispering. An hour passes without incident. Then we hear the screams of peacocks across the valley, gradually getting closer. Even the big cats with their silent padded paws are at the mercy of the peacocks’ warnings. The screams die away and we see nothing. Frank tires of waiting as the light fades. He leaves Joel and I and makes his way back to the hotel on his own.
Another half hour passes and the light is getting quite low. Joel says we should leave while we can still see our way back to the road, so we set off. We have waited until the last moment. It is completely dark by the time we reach the road but we are guided by the glow of the lights at the front of the hotel a kilometre away.
When we are only 300 m from the building Joel leads me through a shortcut through the scrub bushes to the side of the hotel. Only the lights of the hotel are visible. Everything else is a silhouette. Suddenly, about 10 m in front of us, something very large clears its throat. We freeze. My heart is in my throat. Tigerman reaches over and puts a finger to my lips. We stand there for what seems like an eternity, the lights and safety of the palace only 150 m away but not able to move.
Finally, Tigerman tugs my arm to follow him and we move, ever so gently, around the closest patch of scrub brush and towards the palace. We reach the side of the hotel and follow it around to the bright lights at the front before either of us speak.
“Was that a tiger?” I ask, barely able to contain myself. “Of course,” he replies. “He could see us. His cough was a warning not to come any closer.” He explained further that if a tiger stands facing you and staring you in the eye, he is not afraid or uncomfortable, but if he starts to turn this way and that he is uncomfortable and likely going to charge. Without seeing him Tigerman could not tell how the tiger was reacting. “Of course, if he had decided to attack it was already too late. We were way too close, just a leap and a half away by Tigerman’s estimate.
It was probably a jackal, is all that Frank says, when I get back to our room. If it was a tiger you’d already be dead. I am not sure, I say. It had an awfully big throat to make a cough that deep. He still dismisses it and doesn’t want to talk about it further, perhaps because he is jealous, but I can’t stop thinking about it. Perhaps the tiger was just coming around to view humans. Anyway, he saw me, but I didn’t see him. Adventure is highly over-rated. I don’t want to try again.
PHOTO 1: Sariska Tiger Reserve road
PHOTO 2: this deer has been spotted
PHOTO 3: me and Tigerman Edelson waiting and watching
PHOTO 4: Sariska Palace Hotel at night
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