I was soon pulled out of my reverie by Car India’s ace shutterbug, Saurabh, who wanted me to fire up the Seltos’ engine so that the DRLs would glow in his photograph. Now usually that would mean a trudge back to the vehicle and back out of the frame again, wasting precious minutes in the bargain. The Seltos, however, is cleverer than the ordinary car. You can just pull up the Uvo app on your phone and start the engine remotely, which is exactly what I proceeded to do. Picture taken, we set off again.
The 370-km journey for the day came to an end when I arrived in Sawai Madhopur, the town at the edge of the reserve, and settled in for the night. Thankfully, winter safaris start relatively late, by 7.30 am, so we could have a bit of a lie-in before heading out to into the wild. We actually did two back to back safaris, one in the morning and another in the evening.
Ranthambore is easily one of the most beautiful forest regions in the country. Dense woods, wide open expanses filled with swaying grass, massive shimmering lakes, and even old crumbling monuments — the place has it all. We chose to ride on a 20-seater canter rather than the smaller jeep since the former would take us into the core zone and that decision was vindicated. Not only did we see the usual deer and sambar, but we also saw the mighty Bengal tiger. This specimen that we spotted was a year-old cub, the latest progeny of T-84 Arrowhead who is one of the most famous striped residents of Ranthambore and a bit of a celebrity in animal watching circles. Watching it haughtily stroll through the woods was riveting.
