Up at 7 and felt good having had an early night. My knee has been giving me some jip on my bike recently as I have been doing silly distances and not stretching much. My running muscles have also been calling to me demanding that I give them some exercise. Therefore, I decided to spend 20 mins stretching and then go for a jog. I felt a little uncomfortable doing this as Indians will think I am even stranger than they do when I am biking and when running I am going to slow to remove myself from uncomfortable situations like I can when I am biking. I decided not to go into town and instead run along the highway. As most India does not seem to wake up until about 8, the road was reasonably quiet and I did not get bothered as much as I thought I would. In fact I had a really lovely run for about 10kms and felt much better when I returned. My knee did not give me the same problem for the rest of the day biking! It is important to get balance and not just push one group of muscles.
I had a huge breakfast without really meaning to at the restaurant just up the road. They said that the bowls of Upam were small and so I ordered 2 and also another thing which I had not tried before. The three bowls which arrived were huge and so I ate half and took a parcel for lunch. I am trying not to eat so much fried food - which seems to be the norm in India (especially for breakfast). Upam is a filling, healthy dish made of semolina and nuts and spices. It is very tasty. I ate loads and just chilled in the Jungle at Johnies and put on weight. I have been trying to lose it - and should have done so easily considering the calories I have been burning but I have not been losing it quickly. I have not bought a single bar or chocolate, biscuits or sweats and so I have been trying to work out why. It must be a combination of the fresh fruit juices I have been drinking through the day (to keep up my blood sugar) and also the amount of fried foods they have in India. It is difficult to get away from fried foods. I find that I can keep going all day doing long distances and carrying the weight if I keep up my blood sugar. As soon as my blood sugar goes though my legs go. The fresh fruit juices have been great to keep up the blood sugar but not good for my waist line.....
I am really into my book at the moment and enjoyed reading and drinking coffee over a chilled breakfast. I got on the road about 10.30.
Made really good time today. My legs feel great after a couple of days relative rest. They needed it. The road was very flat in-comparison to the coastal routes I had been doing over the last few days. It was good to cover a decent distance in a short time. I could have pushed to get to Ajanta for about 4 but instead took my time and stopped to chat and take photos. As I travel though these small rural towns and stop for water or a juice I enviably get a huge audience of men (usually) staring at me and chatting. It is normally very friendly and harmless. I am getting used to it now. This cafe was empty when I arrived. Within 5 minutes this crowd had gathered and was inspecting my bike and chatting to me. I am actually getting used to my strange form of fame..... I am the local freak show....
I have been biking through some very poor areas over the last few days. This is a photo of the temporary accommodation of some road construction workers. They live here with their children. It is usual to see these kids covered in dirt and wearing rags.
I often end up having bike races with the local children on their fixed wheel bikes. It is fun and usually ends up with them racing ahead for about 3 minutes, them getting tired and then me catching them - like the toutose and the hare. I do enjoy racing. One time a few weeks ago one lad was determined to beat me and I was stupid and competitive enough to race him for about 15 mins before he turned off with a big grin on his face. This banter, which crosses language barriers, provides lots of light entertainment as I travel along.
I stopped to watch some goats that were standing on their hind legs and then dropping down and head butting each other. I watch astounded for about 5 min before I decided to try and get some photos. I could hear their heads banging as they hit each other with incredible force. They were still head butting each other when I left 10 minutes later. All of the other goats in the herd were just quietly minding their own business crazing away. These two just really hated each other....
Many things about the landscape and the people has changed after the climb to Bhor. The land is much flatter and more like a desert (brown rather than green like Kerala and Tamil Nadu) and the fashion and mannerisms of the Indian men has also changed. The older generation of Indian men all seem to wear white shirts and little white hats. The younger generation dress less flashily than their coastal counterparts. It seem that there is less money in this area - but that could be wrong.
Another thing that is different is that there is a larger size of Rickshaw on the roads (along with the normal size). I tried (and failed) to get a good photo of this Rickshaw which had 24 people inside. The driver was sitting on someones lap! Indian are absolutely insane when it comes to health and safety and vehicles. They will quite happily load half a primary school of children into the back of a truck with an open back and just tell them to hold on to the ropes inside the truck so that they do not fall off the back.
Painting of cows horns is also far more prevalent here than other areas of India. There are all sorts of colours of horns. I particularly loved these ones today. The cows in the photo always graze under this sign and their horns are stripped yellow and red, just like the sign! I found it very funny. The Indians that came to talk to me while I was taking photos of their cows did not seem to understand what I found funny or why I would want to photograph these cows in particular, so they took me to see more of their cows with other colours of horns so I could take photos of those too :-)
I keep on stopping to take photos of the games of cricket which take place. I see about 2 games per day. The problem is that each time that I stop to take a photo the guys get really excited and jump up in the air and then run towards me - totally ruining my photo :-( Funny though.
I love this guys t-shirt. He did not speak a word of English and I am not sure he was aware of what it said.....
Traveling is not all about beautiful views and amazing countryside and friendly people. I am on a real budget and it means that I have stayed in some real shit holes. This is my room and my view from by balcony tonight. It was safe and clean though and the staff friendly. It is much bigger than my tent as well..... The electricity went off several time during my stay and without the fan on I have to say the room was very hot! However, it is definitely less hot in the day in this area than it was along the coast. Either that or as it is flatter I am not pushing as hard.
I love this guys T-shirt!
Anyway, I arrived at Ajanta village about 5.30 and then traveled north another 5km ish to find a lodge close to the caves. I stayed in the government guest house for 250RS per night. I was not feeling hungry so through I would skip dinner but by 10 I was starving. Most restaurants are open really late in India as many people do not eat until 9 or 10 and so I went to get something to eat. I just got a salad and a Thali. I am glad I did as it was actually very tasty. Stayed up late reading.
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