Crossing the river on the way to our campsite.

   The tent!!

  Phil in his element, this what India should be like..

   Steve cought the only fish of the day, you should have seen the one that got away!

  Our transportation through the jungle, Lucky the elephant.

  Lovely early morning view, it doesn’t get much better than this,  walking through the elephant grass.

  This tree is where we got so close to taking a photo of a large male Leopard coming down from the tree, he stopped & stared at us all before we could arm any of the camara’s then shot off into the undergrowth. We were really lucky as Leopard sightings are very rare.

  Tiger pug mark in the sand, this is as close as we came to seeing one, we did hear one roar in the distance while on Lucky the elephant.

  Watch you don’t drop it Lucy!

  Justice at last, after paying R750 entry fee we at least got to use the toilet for free..

  These lady’s thought Lucy was a film star, even queing up to have there photo’s taken, after asking Steve to step aside! 

    We met up With Ram from Shine Cargo for a fantastic lunch, thanks Ram..realy good to meet you.

 Now on route back to Delhi we stopped for one night in Jaipur, this hotelJai Mahal Palace was a typical old colonial building in fantastic grounds.

 Hi Josh thankyou for your lovely picture steve

  This is the Sariska Palace Hotel in Sariska National park. What a difference being up in the hills away from the traffic & caotic places that we  were used to. 

  The hotel was once a Palace that was proud of its Tiger hunting, pictures like this & stuffed examples could be seen in most of the hotel common rooms.

  We went out on a three hour safari around the park with the promise of Tiger sightings, this croc was the only thing we needed to be wary off, lots of Monkeys, Deer, Antelope , Wild Boar & Peacocks but no Tigers  

  One of the many Monkeys around the park, sure he would not be sat there chilling if a Tiger was around

  We  left Lucknow & headed towards Agra stopping for a night at the Landmark Hotel in Kanpur, when leaving the hotel the following morning a local radio representative ( BIG 92.7 FM) who invited us to do a live interview on air, Leon was volenteered! 

  The entrance to our Dawali retreat!!

  Christmas dinner Indian style!!

  Reception / bar area in the hotel, everytime we looked at the big light decoration it reminded us of the Fools & Horses classic “are you ready Dell”

  Thirsty work for everone !, this is what you call sharing with nature. This is the hotel swimming pool.

 Our last day in Agra was also Steve’s birthday, this is his collection of cards  & pressies from home.

  After leaving Faizabad we started heading back towards Agra, this night we spent in Lucknow at the Comfort Hotel, these pictures are of the hotel staff that made our stay a pleasure after a long day on the road.

  This day started leaving Kanpur still heading East, this route highlighted that we were heading into a part of India that had signs of povity we had to this point not seen, finding places to stay or camp were few & far between & the road conditions at times dangerous. We eventually found a hotel with the help of a local motorcyclist. This was our introduction to “Kingfisher Strong” beer which we all consumed at great speed, nobody was quite as chirpy the following morning ( much to Phil’s amusement, pay back time for the brandy night in Hungary) & the day started at a slow pace