Delhi - Ranthambore National Park - Delhi ( Route Map)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Route 1 can be divided into following sections.
1. Getting out of Delhi. Delhi – Gurgaon
2. Gurgaon – Jaipur
3. Jaipur – Dausa
4. Dausa – Lalsot
5. Lalsot – Ranthambore
1. Getting out of Delhi. Delhi – Gurgaon
Distance – Depends on your starting point in Delhi.
Time – Depends on above.
Quality of tar – Excellent
Toll – Rs 17
Nothing great to write home about. Depends on where you are. Ask for ‘Dhaula Kuan’ and get on to jazzy new-age Delhi-Gurgaon expressway. Be very careful since this high-speed drive is very new to this country. More so if its early morning or late evening. Its just impossible to spot jay-walkers. Very unfortunate that this highway has seen too many accidents in the limited time of its operation. Pay toll as they ask and keep going.
2. Gurgaon – Jaipur
Distance – 220 KMs odd
Time – 3.3 hours (Avg of 65+ with no breaks)
Quality of Tar – Excellent
Toll – Rs 21 + Rs 55 + Rs 35 = Rs 111
You are on NH8. Super quality high speed roads which only gets slowed because of numerous toll booths and small cities. So watch out for petty traffic while you cross Dharuhera, Behror, Kotputli, Shahpura. After Shahpura, enjoy Amer fort on your right followed by Jal-Mahal. Go all the way till transport nagarand then take the left which goes to Agra.
3. Jaipur – Dausa
Distance – 50 KMs
Time – 1.2 hours
Quality of Tar – Excellent to good
You are now on NH 11 which connect Jaipur to Agra. The most interesting thing on this route is that as you take a left, you feel like as if you are entering a grand castle or a palace. On both sides of the narrow road, Government of Rajashthan seems to be doing some kind of renovation project for all the old Havelis, fort-castle kinda architecture building. You are actually flanked by these structures till you reach ‘Sisodia Rani Ka Bagh’.
This is an old mini-palace which is now more famous for hosting parties and acting as a venue for marriages. We did stop since we knew that it has large lush lawns and we could probably use it as a lunch-pad but the guards at the gate didn’t allow us to take our food inside, though we could see a large shamiana which was being dismantled with the debris pointing to the lavish and wild party of previous night. We still decided to pay for the entrance but came out even more dejected. The loos were stinking and the palace was locked. On being challenged, the guards did offer us to show the palace but we moved on
From now till Dausa outskirts, a new high-speed highway is being laid. So at most of the places only one side of carriage-way was open but since there was hardly any traffic, we could clock well. Dausa is famous for Rajesh Pilot.
It also seemed that we were not really driving through the hinterland, it was pretty close to NH8 experience.
4. Dausa – Lalsot
Distance – 25-30 KMs
Time – .8 to 1 hour
Quality of Tar – Poor
As you enter Dausa, you need to now leave NH 11 and get inside the city. After maneuvering city traffic which never ends, you now find yourself in true countryside. The average speed takes a hit but we didn’t mind that. Somehow those long boring dry highways cease to give you any high beyond few KMs. We passed through as what looked like the ruins of old cities.
At times passing through narrow lanes, paved ways, looking at village life from too close, hen sheds, wells, occasional school and what not.
5. Lalsot – Ranthambore
Distance – 90 KMs
Time – 1.5 hour
Quality of Tar – Excellent
Toll – Rs 30
By now, you would have lost all hope of finding a good road only to be surprised pleasantly to find a road which seemed like freshly baked. It was part of ‘Mega Highway Yojna’ and road-signs were fairly ambitious. We were pretty far and away from Bhopal and we could find signages for Bhopal, Jabalpur and Ambala (on the other side).
We went on and reached ‘Sawai Madhopur’ by 1.00 PM. Post Sawai, you find yourself in a maze of high-life hotels thinly spread over the large landscape. We had started from Ghaziabad at 6 in the morning. We reached our hotel, Pugmarks, by 1.30 ish making 460 KMs in 8 odd hours. So far so good.
Whatever goes up, comes down
If you have read so-far than I would save you more effort by making this section shorter,without driving too fast. We returned through an alternate route.
Route 2 can be divided into following sections.
1 Ranthambore – Lalsot – Dausa
2 Dausa – Sikandra
3 Sikandra – Rajgarh – Alwar
4 Alwar – Kishangarh – Bhiwari – Daruhera
5 Dharuhera – Gurgaon – Delhi
1 Ranthambore – Lalsot – Dausa
Similar experience as in ‘To’ journey.
2 Dausa – Sikandra
Distance – 30 odd KM
Time – 20 minutes
Quality of Tar – Excellent (out of the world)
Toll – Rs 40
From Dausa, ask for the road which goes to Agra. As you get out of the city, you would have to blink many times to believe what you landed on to. Super shiny surface, tolled road. But this road is yours only for next 25-30 KMs which you can cover in 15-20 minutes. Turn left from Sikandara towards Alwar.
3 Sikandra – Rajgarh – Alwar
Distance – 75 odd KM
Time – 75 minutes
Quality of Tar – Excellent
Toll – Rs 35
While Dausa-Sikandara was out of the world, this one is no laggard as well. After driving for a while we read the boards and found that this is again the part of same ‘Mega Highway Yojna’. This is a single road so you have to more careful but we could hardly find any traffic on a Monday afternoon. Its a tolled road and there is not much action beyond the road. You get past royal Rajgarh, and since we were heading towards Delhi, there were enough signs to guide us. Post Alwar, you have to take few turns so as to avoid the main city.
4 Alwar – Kishangarh – Bhiwari – Daruhera
Distance – 90 odd KM
Time – 100 minutes
Quality of Tar – Good
Now you are out of the maze of highways and its good old solid black tar with its own share of jhilmil Dhabas, tractors, small towns. The road is pretty good and its almost a one straight single road till the industrial and house-booming town of Bhiwadi. Post Bhiwadi, turn right and latch on to busy NH8.
5 Dharuhera – Gurgaon – Delhi
Distance – 60 odd KM
Time – 60 minutes
Quality of Tar – Very good
Nothing great to home write about. Usual good roads with a the routine highway rush. As we entered the city, we felt like the part of melee doing our chores. And after surviving BRT and falling back on DND, we reached our place by 7.30 PM. We started at about 11.30 AM. This route is shorter by 1.5 hours and by about 50 KMs.
by http://www.ghumakkar.com
by http://www.ghumakkar.com
Encounter with Tiger
Thursday, August 25, 2011
we decided to take a break from everything and spend some time with our natural heritage. I made the arrangements with Ranthambore Jeep Safari.com and got us a 2 day break in Ranthambhore national park. This park is very famous for it’s tiger sighting.
Ranthambhore National Park is about 4 hours drive away from Jaipur. there, we started from Jaipur. The plan was to start as early in the morning as possible. The route was scenic with mustard fields on both sides of the roads. Road conditions were not too bad and we reached our resort by 12:45pm. Our next safari was due in another 90 minutes. All formalities were hurried up and we had a almost quick lunch. Almost quick I say, as I had underestimated the power of great food.
Vehicles enter into the park at fixed times during the morning and evening , they have to follow a fixed route and there are 5 routes , the vehicles have to leave the park by the end of the appointed time. Traffic into the park is highly regulated , at a given time not more than 5 jeeps can travel on a particular route and more than 16 vehicles are not allowed into the zone at the same time.We had 2 gypsies booked for our party so we had enough freedom and it was great for photography. There was no need to jostle with 20 strangers in canter to get a good view of anything. On my first drive, I was assigned Zone 3. Zone 3 is the most picturesque zone that I saw. With lakes and fort on the hill and great birdlife, We took our first stop at Padam Lake. Our Guide pointed our attention towards a croc sleeping on a rock. Honestly I would have missed it completely had it not been shown to me. Just a few meters away from us was a Golden duck basking in the sun. The deer grazing 100 yards away at the lake's edge were clearly the more compelling sight.To our disappointment we did sight the tiger We had heard that the park traffic is too much and really damages your chances of catching a sighting of a tiger. The amount of jeeps and canter was sad as the noise and commotion was too much to hope to see anything elusive like a tiger or leopard .We came back to the resort all covered in dust and tired. Spent the first night with good food, folk music, bonfire. As the next safari was scheduled at 6:30 am, we all dragged ourselves to the rooms by 11:30 pm.
We got our wakeup call by 5:30 am. I was already up and ready by then. I wonder why I can not do the same when I have to go to the office. Matters not. Came down and saw that hot tea and rusks are waiting right next to a heap of blankets. I got me a cuppa and got into our jeep. Note to potential visitors: Do not mix morning tea and morning safaris on a cold day. Ranthambhore does not have scheduled pit stops and you never know what may be lurking on the other side of the bush you are "Marking your territory".We finished fast with the entry formalities to the park and our Guide quickly started his routine explnations about the Ranthambore Sanctury Wildlife, Birds & Fauna.We were assigned zone number 4. The season being the right time, we were able to considerable see many wild animals. That is the beauty of a National Park. We can see the animals freely roaming around. A few minutes down the road we came across a couple of Sambar deers. Well so much for the nature’s way. As we drove down on that cold misty morning, we came across three male Chinkaras playing in the grass. We saw a guard circling the pugmarks. A male tiger was supposed to have been around earlier that morning. So we decided to wait and listen for alarm calls. But it seem the cat is playing around and hence we came back to our hotel. Seems like there were some guests who had seen our tiger. Our tiger... but there was no worry. All of us were satisfied with seeing what was there to see.
This was our third and last safari. Luckily we got Zone 3. I was bracing myself for another bumpy ride. With the lovely deciduous forests around, our jeep safari went through the imli, mango, babul, banyan trees that covered the entire area completely. The tree known as the flame of the forest or the Chila, the Dhok, Khajur and Khair were other common trees that Champak pointed out to us. He said that Dhok formed most of the trees.
As we started, Abbas said "Sir, today we will see nothing but tiger and will not stop for anything else".we came across a little opening where some Sambars were enjoying their evening Snack. Salim asked the driver to stop again. As we stopped, he folded his arms and sat back in his seat. I asked him what was it. He said something is not right. One Sambar was alert and was looking into far away grass. We decided to sit back as well and give a rest to our backs. One by one jeeps from previous sightings started coming back. Everyone asked what we were doing, all we said was waiting. No other guide or tourist insisted to wait with us. They had already seen tigers or parts of them and they wanted to move on. After a while we were almost all alone there. Only one official jeep kept faith in us and joined up. Suddenly there was an alarm call. We all moved to a road where we will have a better vantage point. We sat there and waited. Then it happened. She emerged from the tall grass and walked towards us. She was coming right at us. Confidently strolling she made her way. By the time she came out of the thicket she was too close for me to get a photograph of her on my 100-400. I checked and AF won’t work, she was closer than 1.8M, the minimum focusing distance. She paid no attention to us, marked her territory before walking up in the grass a few meters further. We saw her spellbound till she disappeared completely in the distance. Thrilled, we dashed back towards exit. It was close to gate timings. As we exited from the park, we were all smilling funny.
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