Jaipur to Ranthambore

Location: Ranthambore, Rajasthan, India

Summary: Travelling from Jaipur to Ranthambore while still recovering, settling into the Abhyaran Hotel after a chaotic arrival, and taking the first game drive through Ranthambore National Park, spotting deer, monkeys, birds, crocodiles, and a distant leopard before returning to the hotel for a quiet evening.

We travelled by coach to Ranthambore today. I still felt a little unwell as we left the hotel in Jaipur, but I felt much better than I had yesterday.

As we drove through Ranthambore, I took a few painkillers that the ladies on the coach had given me, and I think I must have slept for a while. I became slightly concerned about where we would be staying when I saw some of the hotels along the road we travelled, but I needn’t have worried. Our hotel, the Abhyaran Hotel and Spa, was off the main road down a dirt track. The coach struggled to get up it, but when we arrived, the hotel looked great.

We got off the coach and waited in the lobby for our room keys. I spotted a comfortable‑looking chair and went to sit on it while I waited. Unfortunately, it was on my blind side, and I misjudged the distance. As I sat down on the edge of the cushion, I somehow missed it entirely and crashed to the floor, taking out a welcome sign in the foyer at the same time. Many of my companions rushed to help me up and settled me into the chair, where I sat with nothing more than a bruised ego until our guide, Digamber, handed me my room key.

We were given details about the hotel and told that this afternoon we would go on our first game drive through Ranthambore National Park. I went to my room and was pleased with how quiet, comfortable, and pleasant it was. I rested until it was time to rejoin the coach, and then we set off for the National Park.

Ranthambore National Park

Our large coach took us to one of the park entrances, where we transferred to a pair of large jeeps for our first look around. The trip lasted only a few hours, and we saw plenty of deer, monkeys, birds, and some crocodiles, but no tigers. As we were on our way out of the park, we stopped suddenly, and the guide in our jeep pointed out a leopard on a small hill by the roadside. I saw it from a distance, but the zoom on my phone wasn’t sharp enough to capture it clearly. Fortunately, Kirsty and Maurice both had good cameras and took lovely photos.

After leaving the park, we returned to the hotel for the evening. After eating at the buffet restaurant, I went back to my room for an early night.