Birding ! Driving ! Soul-searching !: Drive from Lucknow to Ranthambore

Lucknow – Ranthambore (Chambal) – Lucknow

Total Distance: 604 + 606 = 1210 km

Total time: 8 hr 15 min onward and 8 hr 16 min return

Average Fuel Economy: 15.5 kmpl

Car: Audi A4 Petrol

Passengers: 3 adults

Luggage: Full boot

My last trip to Ranthambore in October 2015 wasn’t very encouraging. But there was a difference, that time I did not stay in Taj. This time however, I booked my stay in Taj Ranthambore. Since I booked my safari just 1 week in advance, and I wanted an exclusive jeep safari, I had to pay 80k for 2 safaris. But to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed at all. We managed to get some very good wildlife sighting, even some nice bird sightings too. I must say, Taj team really helped us out by booking our 2 safaris in 2 different zones. They were very helpful in confirming the safari bookings with just 1 week advance notice. All I had to do was to transfer the booking amount, rest everything else they managed on their own.

The drive to Ranthambore from Lucknow wasn’t bad at all. The last leg on the journey (say about 100 km odd) was without road dividers, however for the most part of the journey, the roads were too good. We started off on the Lucknow Agra expressway, all the way till Agra, had to cross the entire Agra city traffic, which was a little painful. After that it was mostly good. We even had a small stretch of run on the newly built Delhi Mumbai expressway which had a speed limit of 120 kmph. Lko-Agra had a limit of 100 kmph.

We left Lucknow early morning 5-30 AM and reached Taj Ranthambore at exactly 2 PM. On the way we crossed Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and it felt a good to go past that road after about 8 years. We booked a 3 nights stay at Taj with 2 jeep safaris and 1 boat safari for the Chambal river. Chambal river is about 1 hour drive and 40 km from Ranthambore. Boat safaris are available aplenty, we didn’t have to worry about the booking. Taj managed everything for us.

Safari in Ranthambore is quite different from all the safaris in MP Taj facilities. I remember in Bandhavgarh, we used to be the last jeep to come out from the gate at about 11-30 AM and our Taj naturalist used to carry our breakfast along. Here in Ranthambore, each safari is only for 3 hours max and the breakfast has to be done after we come back from the safari.

Enjoy the pics below.

Bird Sightings in Ranthambore: