The day starts at 5.00am with a wake up call, tea and biscuits brought to your door. By 5.30 we are aboard the gypsies and wrapped up in blankets ready for the short drive to the park. You wait at gate 1, the buffer zone, for about 10 minutes and then the bar is raised and everyone rushes through to be first at the inner gate into the core of the park. Only about 25% is open to the public but it still gives a large area to search. As the sun rises the bar goes up, you collect your park ranger and it's off!! Our driver, Ganesh and our nature guide, Sudir are both avid tiger seekers, being really keen to show their clients a tiger. We drive around the different areas watching out for tracks in the dust and questioning any other gypsies or a mahout on his elephant that we meet. A tiger has been spotted and it's off to see if we can be lucky. At about 9.30 all the gypsies converge on the Centre Point for packed breakfast and an exchange of news.
The first morning we didn't manage to find a tiger in the open so we were offered a tiger show, which is an elephant ride into the bush to where a tiger is resting.
We did some bird watching while we waited our turn and then we climbed a ladder onto the 
elephant's back, a few paddles of the mahout's feet and the elephant was moving into the jungle to where a beautiful tiger was lying. As we approached, the elephant in front spooked the tiger and we nearly missed it. Luckily it lay down again and we were able to approach it to within about 5 feet. It then decided to move off and we had an exciting few minutes as the mahout urged the elephant to follow at top elephant speed. We were well satisfied and so returned to the road to be picked up by our gypsy and taken back to the lodge for lunch.
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