The Ellora Caves

22 February - rest day in Ellora.

No words from us are likely to educate anybody about the civilizations that built these caves. Suffice it to say that these ones were built by Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religions. We didn't visit the Jain caves as they were further away and it was hot. These caves were cut into a sloping hill surface so the construction technique was to start at the top and build downwards as opposed to working bottom up in the Ajanta caves built into the vertical cliff surface.

Here's a few pics from today.

We wondered if this was a work in progress that was not finished
There's an owl in a hole in the cliff at the bottom left of top triangular shape -
see later photos on owl

 

 This owl was in a hole in the cliff when we first got on site in the morning...

....and he was still there close to noon when we left.

Tomorrow is a long distance for this trip - 137 km. Today is was thirty-three degrees just after 8 a.m. when we headed to the caves and by mid afternoon, we just didn't want to be outside. Hopefully the roads will be good.

Wow, I'm caught up thanks to decent internet here. We're both well just hoping we,ll be ready for the heat tomorrow. Good night.

on to Ellora and an Indian BBQ

21 February - Ajanta to Ellora - 106 km, almost all on roads under construction meaning combinations of absolutely terrible surfaces, sometimes loose gravel the size of railway ballast and very rough paved surfaces with precious little 'normal, smooth' surface. It also meant very narrow roads in places with barely room for opposite direction traffic to pass. It was hard work, and dirty with all the dust. Add to that afternoon heat in the forties. Tough for everybody as it has only got that hot in the last few days. Ursula in particular felt it in the last few miles, but hung in and we finished the day. We were drained. Hope the roads get better; we can't expect it to get cooler.

So some en route photos...

colourful temple

that stuff we're on is better than the road.
bonus is that we don't have to share the road with trucks

road-side cricket match

the only escape route is into the gravel pile

Miracle... the evening we're sure will be the most memorable of the entire trip...

One of the TDA support staff, Nirmika's, home is here. Her parents have a beautiful property maybe 20 km out of town with hotel/camping/restaurant and she arranged with them for an Indian barbecue there. Not only was the setting beautiful - 800 year-old walls and other ruins, a 800-year-old dam that's still functional behind which is a significant lake (more significant in  monsoon season. The food was unbelievably good 

Nirmika, BBQ behind

Nirmika with father, mother, and brother

And we chose tonight, at risk of being two days late, to celebrate twenty-five years since the day we met at my brother's and on the Georgian Peaks ski hills at Collingwood.  

It was a wonderful evening in every respect, one we won't forget.

Ajanta Caves - a UNESCO World Heritage site

20 February... rest day... temperatures hitting near 40 in the afternoon

Ajanta is know for its caves - 29 Buddhist temples carved out of the cliffs in a nearby valley, much like the structures in Petra are carved into the rock. Access to the site is well controlled and the site is clean and the caves are well presented and there is restoration work going on. The caves date from 200 BC to 600 AD and they all had been richly decorated both by carvings and paintings. We had an excellent guide who explained the evolution of art during this time span, noting that what we were seeing was all Buddhist symbolism and art.

Caves at Ellora - just over 100 km away - we ride our bikes there tomorrow and then have a rest day there - were built by three religions, Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain, and so offer a different glimpse of customs and culture of the day. I couldn't absorb all the detail to even start to explain all on it this blog. Suffice it to say that we took lots of pictures and maybe some day after we get home, we'll do some more reading. One can only marvel at the engineering precision that was achieved 2000 years ago without modern tools and automation, the symmetry of the structures and the amazing detail in paintings.

So here's a selection of photos from the Ajanta caves...

the blue colouring is significant thin that it  was not a colour that was available in India;
rather it was made from materials from Persia

There was ab unfinished cave that gave some insight into the construction process ...

the middle column is most complete - note that detail at the top

Tomorrow it's 100+ km on the bikes to Ellora, and apparently the roads are under construction and are not good... character building they say... wow, we must be real characters by now.