Ranthambore National Park - 1st trip in (North India - Day 2)

We were really looking forward to our first trip into the Ranthambore park, offering us the very best chance of seeing a wild Tiger on this holiday. In the event we watched as the various other guests were collected and we waited, and waited and waited for the forest department cantor (20-seater, think army truck without the roof) to arrive, which it eventually did some 80 minutes late... a side note - the cantor system is chaotic, we saw three separate vehicles stopping in succession at the same hotel picking up a couple here or there... no wonder they all run late. Anyway, our party was running so late that we basically drove into the park at speed, stopped to see a few deer, Samba deer in this case:

Added Spotted Owlets:

Raced to the end of our allocated track and then turned round and raced back out of the park. All in all a really frustrating and frankly pointless experience. We called up our bird guide that evening to complain, we didn't fancy a repeat on the following morning, our last scheduled trip into the National Park. Kalypso came through, authorising a Gypsy (six seater, think army Jeep) which was booked for the following morning replete with naturalist, driver, and friend of the bird guide (you need six on the gypsy to enter the park, apparently). We enjoyed dinner and retired, hoping for better things in the morning...