Safaris demand early starts if you hope to see wildlife in action - so by 5.30am I was in the jeep with three other folks. The sky was pale gray with mist rising above the deciduous forest.
The landscape was stunning - reminiscent of Scotland, the air cool and mountainous and without tropical vegetation. Our driver was a star too, his eyes spotting far away wildlife while piloting the vehicle that us with our eyes and attention free would have missed. Over the course of the day we stopped to see bison, giant squirrels and monkeys jumping from branch to branch. We came across no tigers unfortunately, or elephants. But tigers especially are a real rarity (one guy I met only saw a tiger after 14 attempts) and wild elephants are a mixed blessing as if come upon individually can become very dangerous.

It was expensive - around 2000 rupees for the 12 hour day - but we were fed well at breakfast and lunch, and went hiking and boating through the park. It was so quiet there, so utterly in opposed to the honking and hubbub of the most of the India I have experienced. I loved it.

All the guides and workers in the park are from local villages and proud of their environment. The national parks are about the only place you don't see piles of plastic and other detritus strewn beside the highways and in bushes.
I got a lot of good photos, the best of which are here. Apparently in Rajasthan I will have a better chance of seeing the bigger wildlife. Ron, one of the people in the jeep, showed me some pictures of a couple of tigers he saw playing the other side of the river. I was very jealous.