February 5-6 - two riding days into Jodhpur

Tuesday February 5 - longest riding day so far at 127 km with rough roads and a headwind. The normal routine... up at 0600, bags out to the support vehicle by 0640, breakfast at 0700, and on the road at 0730. Sunrise is just before 0730.

early morning sun and haze

women and kids coming out of a pretty dry looking area with their ox-cart.

While I was taking the previous photo, this white-breasted kingfisher landed on this thorny branch, evidently without impaling itself - those thorns are long and sharp - I know that from a chance scrape on one that was encroaching at the side of the road at the same time as an oncoming car made the thorny encounter seem like the better option.

Another bird that we see frequently but is hard to photograph because it won't sit still...

Variable Wheatear

It was a rough road so it was inevitable that someone would get a puncture - not us this time. Ursula had a flat a few days ago that cost us a bit of time but no significant difficulty. 

We began to notice that some of the properties had very attractive gates, some of these in the middle of nowhere on a terrible dirt road.

 

Today's destination Khejarla, another fort for the overnight accommodation, and once again beautiful room and beautiful property.

Dave, a friend from Squamish, Chris from San Francisco, Eve with whom we've done a couple of previous trips, Ursula, and a bit of evidence of the 2/3 litre bottles of beer here

Wednesday February 6th...

the Fort at 0645, a bit before sunrise

on the road with the early morning sun behind us

Along the road today...

a Blackbuck, an endangered antelope indigenous to India

a Nilgai, the largest of the antelope species found in Asia

Greater Coucal

Just a few kilometers short of the hotel on the outskirts of Jodhpur we came across a procession apparently to celebrate the birthday of the mayor of the town. Lots of music and noise. There were six or so of us riding together at the time and we were invited to be part of the parade - might have been fun but it was slow moving (like maybe 50 feet in the five minute we were there) so we pressed on.

Ursula and Maggie with people they'd spoken with...

...and the Indian women are inevitably clad in beautiful colourful dress.

It's time for a rest day to explore Jodhpur.