Sariska National Park Safari - What To Expect, When To Go & Wildlife Encounters

The itch to travel was growing day by day, mostly because of two reasons. Firstly, no trip in last eight months and secondly, my just one month old car was yet to be tested which was sitting idle in the garage with just 212 Kilometers on the odometer. Even these 212 Kilometers were covered in city itself running daily errands, taking my son to his Karate classes, taking my wife for never-ending shopping wherever there were heavy discounts. The urge to test the performance of the new vehicle on the expressway was growing each passing day.

Work was keeping my wife too busy, we thought to cover some nearby place. We started looking for places around Delhi for a weekend getaway. My wife and son had never been to any Jungle Safari, so I finalized on taking them for an adventure. We had a choice of three National Parks - Jim Corbett National Park, Ranthambore National Park and Sariska Tiger Reserve. Jim Corbett is located in Uttrakhand while Ranthambore (Sawai Madhopur) and Sariska are in Rajashthan. Sariska being closest within 200 Kilometers range from Delhi, and availability of Jungle Safari on the weekend made it an obvious choice. If you're planning to visit any Tiger reserve or national park, make sure to do your research on availability of the best routes where chances are higher to spot the best wild life, flora and fauna, else you might be disappointed unless you're extremely lucky. Usually, best safari routes get booked weeks in advance. We were lucky to get the booking for Safari for our upcoming trip Sariska National Park, that too on a short notice.

If you're planning, the best time to visit Sariska is during the winters, from October to February as you will not feel discomfort of extreme heat of Rajasthan during summer. Avoid monsoon season from July to September as many Safari routes are closed for tourists during this period.

Entry Gate of Sariska Tiger Reserve

Finally the day arrived when we had to leave for Sariska - Alexa woke us all up at 5 AM in the morning and we got ready, made quick breakfast to have on the go and left home by 6:15 AM. Since it was November end, morning was cold and it was still dark outside. While my wife had plan to go back to sleep, my son was in no mood and made sure of that my wife also doesn't get any sleep. A quick stop for fuel and air check and we were good to go then. Soon, we hit highway and my new car was in Top Gear shining all the way. I put it on Cruise and turned up the volume and enjoyed the highway ride. A quick pit stop after a while around 9 AM for breakfast on the side of the highway and we were back on the road. I enjoyed the ride and comfort of the new car and by 10:30 am, we reached our resort in Sariska.

We got early check-in and first thing we did after that is went to sleep. We woke up at 1 PM, ordered lunch and left for our Jungle Safari which was scheduled for 2 PM. The Sariska tiger reserve for just 10 minutes drive from our resort, but due to bad roads, it took us 30 minutes, but we were still on time. After parking our car, we did all the formalities and were assigned the Jeep for Safari along with a guide. Our time slot for jungle safari was from 2 PM to 5 PM. There are morning slots also available that start from 7 AM to 10 AM depending on season, timings may vary for winters and summers.

 

I took my camera out to capture wildlife along with flora and fauna of this beautiful jungle. We did manage to spot Wild boar, Sambar, Deer, Nilgai (which literally means 'blue cow'), crocodiles, a baby crocodile which was almost of length of a squirrel. The entire aura of the jungle was so calm and peaceful. We spotted few forest rangers who were walking inside the jungle and they were not at all scared, in fact they mentioned that even when they come face to face with tiger, tiger walks past by them. There is a unspoken relationship between the wild and the forest rangers and in fact the villagers nearby who often come face to face with tigers. If you think about it, it seems like a beautiful relation with the man and the wild where each one of them respect each other and the space.

While we all were enjoying the the wild life, my wife also cribbed of all the dust that we were being covered with while on Safari. Although, me and my son were absolutely fine with it. Well, what else can you expect in jungle?

We didn't spot any leopards, in fact I haven't seen any leopard till date during any of my Safaris throughout and I was really hoping to spot one, but we weren't that lucky. While we waited at several spots where one can often spot leopards and tigers as well, but it wasn't our day I guess. It was already 4:30 pm and our guide who was already trying his best got a call on his walkie-talkie - A tiger has been spotted. By just hearing this, my son got super excited and we rushed towards the spot. We were still not sure if by the time we'll reach, tiger going to be there or not. Driver drove the jeep at full speed and we were covered with more dust now. When we reached the spot, we got stuck in traffic jam, yes you read it right!! It wasn't just us, there were 20 more jeeps lined to spot the tiger. Each one of the drivers were trying their best to show a glimpse of the tiger to the visitors. After the struggle for 15 minutes, we were able to get a glimpse but camera could not do justice to what we saw with our eyes. It was getting dark and tiger was way too far to be clicked. OK, OK I admit. I messed up. I got so excited that I forgot that my camera was on manual setting and in that excitement I completely messed up. Below is the shot from my camera, see the tiger 😖

At least it brought smile on our faces, but deep down I didn't like the whole experience. Everyone just wanted to spot the tiger rather than enjoying the wild life. By lining up in the jam, the whole point of being within the jungle, enjoying the nature was sabotaged. People trying hard to spot tiger, fighting with other jeep drivers and asking them to move ahead and making noises really disturbed the whole atmosphere. 

Well, finally we managed to get out of the jungle rush and headed towards our resort. Before getting into the car, we cleaned ourselves of all the dust to ensure car seats are not spoilt 😅

We reached hotel, had shower and relaxed in the lawns of our resort for the rest of the evening. It was a tiring day, so we had dinner and went to sleep. Next day, we woke up pretty late, got ready and had breakfast to head back to our home.