India Day Six

This morning began with the best thing that I got no photo of at all: a leopard. It wasn't in the park. In fact, it wasn't more than 200 yards or so from Courtyard House. I wouldn't have spotted it at all in the early morning darkness, but Uday and the driver had sharper eyes than I did.

Some of the advice I read before the trip said it was a good idea to stay indoors at night out in the country. That was my practice anyway – typically I was too tired at the end of the evening to even think about wandering around – but now I'm glad I heeded counsel. It never occurred to me that a predator that awesome would be that close to the lodge.

With no photo to show for it (and no inclination to post one of the black rectangles I ended up with when I tried to photograph the elusive, shadowy cat), I've started this entry with a picture of a huge bamboo plant. Apparently their life cycles span dormant periods that last for years and years.

The early start not only got us a view of a leopard but also the second spot in the line to enter the park. Unfortunately there was a delay while the rangers finished the morning tiger count, so I missed the chance for some gorgeous sunrise photos like the one from yesterday.

Once in, we headed for a hilly part of the park. Our path involved a lot of extra bumpy roads in the chilly morning air, so I was extra glad for a restroom break when the opportunity arose. Unfortunately while we were at breakfast the tiger that was in our part of the park put in an appearance and then left again.

During lunch a group of langurs showed up in the trees next to the veranda, two or three even boldly venturing as far as the wall before being chased off by the child of one of the other guests. After lunch they were still hanging out in a nearby field, so I fetched the camera with the telephoto lens and took some pictures of them.

The rare sight of the afternoon was a porcupine. He was holding still between some rocks until something spooked him. He looked really cute when he was running off, but he was moving too quickly amid the trees for me to get a good picture of him.

We spent the bulk of the afternoon waiting in a couple of spots, listening for alarm calls. Though we didn't end up seeing anything, it was still nice to sit out in the open air and have some quiet time.

Teatime conversation was about search engine optimization. Bonfire conversation was largely in Hindi, so I took advantage of the opportunity to do a little stargazing.

As I'd be on the road early the next morning, I packed as completely as I could before going to bed.