Set off in Sawai Madhopur before dawn for a Tiger hunt with our cameras. We went out in 20 seat open safari trucks to a National Reserve. General consensus of PoW staff was that we would be luck to see any tigers. However, we got lucky had two or three close encounters with the 3 cubs, nevertheless 300 pounds of 10 foot kitty, some cub eh! and then the whole group and then the female on her own. We very fairly close 20 feet or so and the tigers didn't seem disturbed by us at all. All in a days work for film stars, I guess! The whole park was very nice lots of deer, antelope and birdlife. After a couple of hours, back to the train for brekkie and off to Chittorgarh.
Chittorgarh seemed to be a very poor area, we under siege by beggars and hawkers from the very start, the kids were trying to sell their own scraps of self made drawings and were insistent that my flip flops needed a good brush and polish up. Interesting fort, again up big hill and some lakes surrounding the walls. Saw local lads impressing their girls by leaping off the walls of the fort. They had a victory tower doing a Pisa job. The town was fought over by the invading Moghuls from the east. The Maharja's army fought them off until they got besieged in the fort and with rashions running out went for a last ditch battle. All the women committed suicide (johar is it called - I blur at the moment) and the boys went out to get slaughtered. Tried their tea marsala - not my cup-of-tea. Back to the PoW. It was a long old day and trouble was brewing - more in the next episode.
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