14th April - Indragarh to Ranthambore

I keep on waking up with the sunrise at the moment. I was glad I did this morning as it was a really pretty one!


I got up early and went for a run around town. I often feel like I really need to strengthen and exercise the other leg muscles that are not used when biking. I don't like running in India as I feel very exposed and stared at. Running for pleasure is such a foreign idea to Indians that don't really exercise unless they are working. Actually here I did not get starred or jeered at quite so much as I was expecting. Maybe cycling is as strange to them as running?


Anyway I had a lovely 1 hour run and stretched my legs and then showered and walked to meet Alan who had gone for a wonder through town. We got the same warm reception as yesterday. We sat for about 1 hour drinking chi and trying to understand the Indians that wanted to talk to us.


I think Alan enjoyed the fame.....


This old lady was fascinated by us.....


This is me doing the pied piper of Rajesthan impression.


Not only did the children follow us, so did the goats....


We popped in for some juice at a cafe and were surrounded by children in the door way. They just giggled and pointed.


The biking today was a bit boring (always made a little more exciting by the camels). It was 45km to get to the town of Sawai Madhopur which is the gate way for Ranthambore National Park. We arrived around 4 and spent the next hour or so organising how we get on a safari tomorrow morning and finding somewhere to stay. There are loads of hotels around the area but we did no want to go high end - unless they had a pool (as a bit of a treat). Unfortunately, the only place in our budget had a pool that was extremely unclean.

We found a small guest house with a veranda and I sat outside and had a lovely couple of hours my blog. We went out for a for a meal at a touristy place. I wanted meat as a treat but it ended up being a really bad meal. Oh well. Fun day. Chilled.