13th Sat. Evening Leopard Drive

The other guests disappeared off on shopping trips and to visit a lake with crocodiles so we decided to go on one last drive to search out leopards.   There were just the two of us and our driver/spotter although he roped in a couple of lads who I believe do 'ad hoc' spotting for Bera Reserve and they accompanied us on their motorbike

We were rewarded with the sighting of two brothers - they are clearly different ages as the smallest/youngest is still much darker in colour.     They didn't venture out of their cave until the sun had set and we then tracked them for a while with the powerful spotlights .... amazing creatures!

A couple of photos taken en route to the caves.  Bullock carts are  commonplace here but I still love to see/photograph them

and peacocks are an everyday sight .. so much so we barely take any notice of them any more.   Heading home to roost before the sun sets.

us in our jeep in the dusk.  I wish it was possible to show just how high up on the boulders we are - I know they have 4-wheel drive but these guys tackle terrain I'd wouldn't have considered driveable ... lots of white knuckle moments

and the main attraction ...

and this is what the leopard looks like at night when captured by the spotlight ... real 'cats eyes'

OK .... we're about to have our final breakfast at Bera before setting off for Jodhpur so the next post/s will be from that lovely city assuming we have internet access at our accommodation.

13TH Sat. Bera Safari Lodge. Village Tour/Shepherds and Evening Leopard Drive

We cried off the 4.30am drive today. I'm really not feeling up to being so cold and bumped around at the moment – especially as the first few hours will be in the dark/gloom. Having been lucky enough to spot leopards on the last two drives we're happy to call it a day ( David certainly didn't relish a 4.30am start)

So after breakfast at the very reasonable hour of  8am we were taken to a nearby village to see the shepherds taking their flocks to the fields/hills for the day. Actually what we saw was the tail end of the operation – the geriatric shepherds and the weakest of the livestock but that didn't bother us as we managed to take dozens of photos. I transpired that in order to see the major event we'd have needed to be at the village before 7am but weren't offered that option.

The Shepherds are Rabari tribesmen, semi nomadic herdsmen whose traditional dress of red turban and white tunic (sorry don't know the proper term) make them look very distinguished.   Because internet time is limited (I have to write this blog sitting next to the breakfast room as we have no wifi in our lodge) and we're due to leave for Jodhpur shortly.   So this is a random selection of Rabari tribesmen

The ladies of the village, shepherdesses, wear lots of chunky bangles on their arms.   The bangles used to be made of bone but these days are normally plastic.   These ladies are collecting cattle dung which is dried and used as fuel.

Apparently the reason we saw more older folk and women doing manual work in the village is that most boys leave school in their early teens to take up jobs in towns, usually carpentry or metalwork or manual labour.    They are betrothed at age 3 - 5 years old so once they've been away for 10 or 20 years they return to the village to get married - they know exactly who their wife will be and which house they'll live in.   They then settle to village life

a few more scenes and characters we saw in the village

and who could resist this lovely bullock calf who really wanted to make friends ....