Happy new year!

Currently in Konkan, the coastal region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Had an interesting time of late. Just before Christmas I started getting bad pains in my left knee, which meant I had to stay put and let it heal for a bit. In the end I adjusted my saddle height (I believe it had slipped downwards) and that seems to have ended the matter. All this palaver though has meant that I haven't quite hit the coast for New Years Eve, which is a shame. Still, no hurry, there's always next year!



The last few days of cycling have been fantastic even though the distances on my map have been consistently and annoyingly wrong. Dropping down the Western Ghats, above, then along insanely beautiful river valleys. Hope this keeps up!

Ajanta and Ellora

In my journey southwards I detoured slightly to go to two places, Ajanta and Ellora in order to visit some cave temples, both of them being UNESCO world heritage sights.

Ajanta has a collection of Buddhist cave temples dating from the 2nd Century BC to the 6th Century AD. Put in 60km to get there then checked into a hotel, left the bike there and went round the caves. Very much worth it, some wonderful carvings and paintings even though it was overrun with school children.


And the location... alll set in a river bend, they were rediscovered in 1819 by a British hunting party. Without a wide angle lens this is the best I can do.



Next day it was on the bike again and off to Aurangabad, a base for visiting the next set of caves at Ellora. Bit of a push making it uphill and by the end of the day my legs were aching more than usual, possibly also due to the amount of walking up and down steps all day at Ajanta after cycling in the morning.

Ellora is shut on a Tuesday so I had a rest day in Aurangabad. Nice enough for a single day. Next day I headed off on bicycle to cycle the 30km to Ajanta and then discovered I had a problem when I hit some hills. My left knee was get increasingly painful and I've a nasty feeling I've either sprained some muscle or, worse, torn it. Still, if Ajanta was worth the trip then Ellora even more so! A collection of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples from the 4th century AD to the 11th century. This picture is off one of the Buddhist temples.



The highlight was the Kailash, a massive rock hewn temple, shown from above, below (if that makes any sense). Apparently they removed some 200,000 tons of rock during it construction, carving it down from the top in one piece. Wow. My pcitures, as ever, just do not do it justice. One thing I learned here is that bat urine smells remarkably like bovril. Make of that what you will.



Currently still in Aurangabad and contemplating my next move. I had been planning to be on the bike today but I really don't want to push my knee, so I'll decide what I'm doing tomorrow, Christmas day, after resting today. If it's still bad then on the 26th I'll put the bike on a bus and head down to the coast in order to recuperate there.

Seasons greetings to one and all!

Agar to Omkareshaw

Heading ever southwards from the little town of Agar, the city of Ujjain was my next stop. This entailed a half days cycling followed by a half days temple seeing there.

I must say, as I meandered about the Hindu temple there I had something of a religious revelation. I really am a complete atheist... (seriously, this came to me as I went round the temple). From Ujjain it was south to Indore and beyond. First I had to get to and through Indore. Set off nice and early but I was soon fuming at the traffic, having been forced off the road a couple of times. I'd just come to conclusion that Indian drivers would be at home behind the wheel of a BMW in the UK when I saw a body rolling down the road! Oh no, some sort of accident, time to put the first aid skills to use! Ah... on closer inspection the chap was actually a rolling sadhu, with the truck drivers stopping to give money to his support wagon. The things you see from a bicycle!



After that my bad attitude to the traffic cleared although I needed the help of these gentlemen to navigate my way through Indore itself. After getting me a chai and some ciggies they then commandeered the chap on the left to guide me behind his motorbike through the traffic and onto the road to Omkareshaw. If you want to know the way ask a policeman!

Bundi southwards: back on the bike again!

After getting back to Bundi I was about ready to get on the road again, although not without a few reservations... the traffic here is the worst I've seen in the world so far. Still, time, tide and buttered eggs wait for no man and off it had to be. Still not wanting to camp out in India it looked like I might have to make a few long hops but that's OK, my legs are pretty strong by now.

First destination was a place by the name of Jalewhr where I stopped for a day to go and see a marvellous fort in the middle of nowhere and some 10th and 12th century temples. This was off both the National Highway and the tourist track. And it was great! The road, a State Highway, was quiet but well enough maintained, the village s I went through clean and peaceful and the people I met were above all friendly. Ended up spending my day of sight seeing wearing a garland of flowers some chap gave me for good luck. As ever, it was time to get my photo taken with the local kids.



After that it time to carry on down the road southwards. Looking at the map it seemed I'd have to make it to Ujjain to find the next hotel, some 175 km. OK, so up at 6:40 and on the road by 7:30 it was. About 110 miles, hard work but not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, given a good road and fair wind. The road turned into a pot holed nightmare for the first 10 km, making me think that maybe I'd be using the tent for the first time in India. Luckily it smoothed out after that and led through some wonderful fields redolent with the smell of mustard flowers and coriander. Easy to smell them as well as a raging headwind blew up. Damn. Stopped for a sugary drink and had a chat with the people at the dahba... they told me there was a hotel in the town of Agar, meaning I only had to do some 120km that day. Deep joy, as you can probably tell from this shot of my 3 pound hotel room. Ah well, it was a bed and a flickery TV screen for the night!

Birthday in Diu

Took a break from the cycling to head down to the ex-Portuguese colony of Diu in Gujarat. This meant a full days travel to get there but it let me use the much vaunted Indian rail system for the first time, sampling the food and laughing in a condescending fashion at foreign names that sound faintly rude in English. Great fun.



Diu is a nice enough little place and has, or so I've been told, the cheapest beer in India which made it ideal for a birthday. Even found a half decent bottle of Indian red wine and some processed cheese slices. My cup overflowthed, but that's what having your first drink in a while leads to. Having said all that, my second attack of travellers diarrhea in a month put paid to any boozing immediately after my birthday. Shouldn't have done any on the day itself but I persevered with the power of Imodium, and a handy course of of antibiotics to start on the day after. Sigh.

Spent the rest of the time there chilling and reading, lying on beaches and taking poor qulaity photos before bussing and training back to Bundi top collect the bike again.