Mandu to Ajanta - three riding days

17 Feb - 107 km from Mandu to Omkehwar

First, here's the missing photos of the Ships Palace at Mandu

First 30 km today was on really rough roads, better after that. Leaving the hotel, a Boabab tree...

...then the route took us past one of the gates to Mandu - we'd seen others on the way in...  

...then past a celebration for a wedding to take place tomorrow, here Ursula with the bridegroom...

several irrigation canals today

Baba, our bike mechanic, enjoying the road (we didn't)

our lunch stop in background

rivers are always hives of activity

 

That night in Omkehwar. Town has religious significance and people come here on pilgrimages, and that's happening around now, we've seen some pilgrims on the road to here. There must be ceremonies at the water - see photos.

Rooms here like the last few days, some nice aspects but some stuff that we wouldn't normally think of as really clean, some peeling plaster although it doesn't look like any mould. Our balcony had a view into the valley and the centre of town. 

Careful though to keep the balcony door closed. Greg and Eve, just two doors down, had opened their balcony door, as had we, for fresh air. Suddenly Even found herself confronted by a big monkey. Completely unfazed by her screams at it, it wandered in, picked up an unopened bag of potato chips, and wandered nonchalantly out. The torn open bag was found later on Wendy and Dave's balcony next door.   

sunrise the next morning over a large dam

 18 Feb - 122 km Omkehwar to Burhanpur

Roads were mainly reasonable surface but there were interspersed rough bits. There was zero paved shoulder and most places had a 20-cm drop-off to an unpredictable surface  - very rough, maybe  ~10-cm size gravel, maybe very narrow - so we had to bail intelligently when there was on-coming traffic and large vehicles, especially busses suddenly pulling out to pass. Trucks and even busses overtaking us were surprisingly patient and would wait behind until they had room to pass. But the traffic was so heavy that you could not relax for even a second - even to take a drink of water it was best to find a place to stop.

Daytime temperatures are getting much hotter so we're consuming more water, especially Rae.

Some random pics from today....

19 February - 103 km Burhanpur to Ajanta and a rest day

Wow… challenging roads - maybe the passage of time has made me forget some of the roads in Africa (11 years ago), and maybe being 11 years older lessens my ability to handle it, but today's roads on the whole were the worse than any of the days we had in China, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, or Madagascar or even the Dempster Highway in the Yukon.

Add to that more unfriendliness than we've seen before from some local people in a couple of the villages. Victims are inevitably our ladies who have now suffered a few stone-throws, stick hits, unwanted touching. The culprits are always males, usually mid-teens to mid-twenties, and today a thirtyish male, maybe appearing a bit feeble-minded but egged on by half a dozen twentyish males, went at all of us who passed by. 

A shame. Our reception has generally been very very friendly, but it shows how the actions of a few undermines the kindness and friendliness of the many and make us wary and mistrustful and tarnish the sense of welcome in the country.

Hotter again today, and for Rae, a lot more water being consumed.

Tonight being full-moon, there are festivals in this area related both to the phase of the moon and to a revered maharajah of the past. We encountered one in a town we were passing through, and it pretty much takes over the town, shuts down the main street to trucks and buses, and makes lots of noise with the parade. There was a big festival tonight in Ajanta too; some of our gang attended and it sounded as if everyone from miles around was packed into the central area. As for us, we ate early enough to get back to the hotel for a display of local dance.

Random pics of the day...

bananas

Big crowd today watching us eat...

...and a local parade...

Ursula stopped at a camp of people who we believe worked on the roadworks. Maybe they move on from project to project. Anyway, her mission was to give the kids soaps and shampoos from pevious hotel rooms.

... then a few cows before getting to Ajanta.

20 Feb - Rest Day and visit to the Ajanta caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site