As we woke up early that morning, stretched our legs and grabbed our bags, ready to go, the excitement in the stilts was practically tangible. The first ever overnight stay since the wonderful trip to Amritsar last year! Everyone was buzzing as we clambered onto the bus and sat in our seats, on our way to Navi Mumbai. It was an eventful bus ride. Everyone was abuzz with excitement and we played games, sang songs and talked. After about an hour, we pulled up to the Navi Mumbai airport. Everyone oohed and aahed at the spectacular display of lights on the airport wall. We grabbed some snacks and before we reached the gate, we stopped for some shopping. That was probably not the best idea. Everyone blew their money on some random things, and we hadn’t even reached Ranthambore yet! So laden with bags, more than a few regrets and considerably lighter wallets, we boarded the flight.
Before we knew it, we were flying into Jaipur! We landed and after grabbing our bags, once again boarded the bus. This time, we were even more full of excitement. We blasted music, screamed and talked. We were having the time of our lives, and the safaris hadn’t even started yet! We stopped for a delicious Rajasthani lunch. Soon, choruses of “Are we there yet?” filled the air as the light faded from the sky. The ride, although super fun, was taking a lot longer than expected. We reached the resort, grabbed our room keys and went to sleep.
Unfortunately, sometimes within these 2 days, one of our chaperones had to go home for a family emergency, and another one flew in.
The next day was super fun and eventful. We woke up, ate breakfast and did our activities. Afterwards, in the afternoon we jumped onboard for our first safari! Every single canter was lucky enough to see a tiger, some even saw 2! My canter, canter 2 was lucky enough to get a super close sighting with Shub, the young male. He strolled along our canter for a good 10 minutes! Downtime was a huge part of our trip- hanging out on each other’s porches, playing Uno! It was the highlight of our days (apart from safaris and activities.) We had a seminar about different species of tigers and then took a much needed rest.
The day after that, we interacted and did activities that we had planned for months with locals at the school and they went super well. We found that a lot of the local kids loved the same things as us- Manchester City (I’m biased), Katseye, Taylor Swift. It was wonderful to get to see how similar, yet how different they were from us. We made a lot of new friends, and all in all it was a great experience. Later we completed some more activities and had a lot of downtime.
The next day, we boarded in for the morning safaris. At around 5:00 AM, we went out for hot chocolate.
The warm liquids thawed us, and soon everyone was chattering about what we might see. We got on the canters and set out for the forest. It. Was. Freezing. We shivered and huddled up together, wishing we had the forethought to bring blankets. Soon, everything was worth it. The forest was gorgeous, with lush greenery and trees everywhere. Langurs, wild boars, you name it!
We had super fun interactions with the Tiger bird, or the Rufous Treepies and the Jungle Babblers. Around 12 of them sat on our jeep, and even on people’s heads! The birds were very friendly and became a huge part of the trip. We had some amazing photographers in our canter, with state of the art cameras that wowed us all. Every canter saw tigers. Canter 2 saw 3 tigers in the span of 10 minutes! So far, we were having amazing sightings.
It was almost the last day! We were super disappointed, the trip was ending already?! After the safari, we did some art workshops, where local artisans showed us how to draw realistic tiger sketches using charcoal. It was a huge hit- everyone came out with ultrarealistic artwork!
After that, we did some block printing, which was quite fun, but very difficult. After some downtime, we left for local shopping. We were wowed by the beautiful arrays of crafts at the stores, and after bargaining and haggering, we returned home weighted with the heavy bags of gifts/purchases. We began packing up, sad to see the trip go.
Finally, it was time to go home. The flight got delayed, and at 10:30 PM, we reached the baggage claim and ran into the grade 8s! We collected our baggage, and after a scare with some of the students getting separated from the group, we returned to the gate, weary, but happy. We exited the airport and were greeted by throngs of screaming parents with posters. We hugged our families in tearful reunions and headed home, grateful for the warmth of our own beds. All in all Ranthambore was a wonderful experience full of fun, laughter and wonderful sightings that I’m sure we will never forget.
