Day 7

Back to being woken in the dark by an alarm call today as we had to meet our jeep at 5.30 to get to Corbett National Park for its opening at around 6am. The best times to see the park are dawn and dusk, both because that avoids the heat of the day and it is also supposed to be the best time for spotting animals. But driving in an open jeep in the dark is flipping freezing, so we finally understood why we were advised to bring hats and gloves!

We actually had 2 jeep rides today - one at either end of the day and though we unfortunately didn't see any large animals, they were still really fun. We saw loads of monkeys and deer (which might have been more interesting if we didn't live next door to Richmond Park) and some domestic elephants and lots of birds; wild peacocks, owlets, kingfishers and woodpeckers and, our favourites, spoonbills and hoopoos. The scenery in the park was amazing and if you don't think of it as a safari then it was great. Ellie got in some more practice for her 'Wildlife photographer of the year award' and Mia's favourite part was when the rhesus macaque monkeys invaded our jeep trying to look for biscuits. We have a couple more chances to see bigger animals later on, but Flora and I are secretly almost hoping that we don't because that will give us the perfect excuse to go on another trip to a 'proper' big game reserve in Africa!!!

The drive to the park was also interesting - the area is different again from others we have seen - just as noisy and bustling, but there seems to be just a bit more money round here. Houses are bigger and smarter with a bit more land around and the main street of the town has lots of variety in the shops and businesses. There is still a fair bit of subsistence farming and manual labour (which was pretty much all there was in the last area) but more besides that, and it is a small country town, so doesn't have some of the more obvious overcrowding and homelessness problems in the cities.

Back at the hotel we watched a traditional folk dance show and even had to join in - which Ellie and Mia did brilliantly - all those dance lessons have maybe paid off?

Time to pack up and move on again now - the holy city of Haridwar on the Ganges for us next.

P.S. We will be without internet for a few days so there will be no more updates till the end of the week.