Day 123: Kekri to Jaipur

One huge day

I’d think nothing of riding 139km normally - but throw in that we’re on a tandem, we have around 40kg of luggage and it’s 40˚C by midday - that is one big day. My legs currently feel at least as damaged as they would after a Bandidos Dots ride, or the last day of the Two Darls classic when we’ve fought a headwind all the way home.

It was a tough day I tell you.

We knew it was going to be tough, and we’d originally planned to do this in two days, but unfortunately it turned out there were no hotels anywhere near where we’d have to stop and eventually Sarina (who’d ignored Tiger saying it a few minutes earlier) said “Why don’t we ride to Jaipur in one day.” So we did.

We had a go at making it sensible. We aimed for an early night last night. Unfortunately no one had informed the temple opposite and they embarked on a “sing-very-badly-a-thon” which, to our suprise, they managed to keep up all night long. Thanks guys. I hope the festival went well. Keep working on the singing.

We then got up at 5am to leave at daybreak, with a brekky of fruit and bickies already consumed.

Proper early!

We caught the sunrise over the wheat fields.

We went pretty hard early on, whilst it was cool, and managed to knock off 90km before 11am - which is pretty good. The downside was, we still had 50km to go, and it was now very hot.

I don’t think three people have every consumed more water - we’re like dry sponges, absorbing litres at a time and then we’re parched again 10 minutes later. We went through at least 15 litres over the day, and were still desperate for more when we arrived in Jaipur.

Jaipur is so picture postcard it’s unreal. Riding into the Old City through the pink gates (Sarina says “That’s not pink, it’s orange, but I’m going with popular wisdom) is pretty spectacular. Hopefully we can explore more tomorrow.

After our mammoth journey, it was very pleasing to discover our accommodation here is a palatial apartment. A huge bedroom for all three of us, sitting rooms to take tea and it comes complete with Govinda, who’s our breakfast wallah, chai wallah and all round very helpful member of staff to sort out everything we might need. It’s very much like being a Maharana in our city apartment, which is exactly right, because the apartment is actually owned by the Jaipur Royal Family.

Proper grandeur befitting of three atherletes recovering from their ride to Jaipur.

Day 122: Bhilwara to Kekri

Another day in rural Rajasthan cranking out the kilometres. We had to do over 100 today due to the inconvenient positioning of towns.  

We had a holiday from Indian food last night at a hip café in Bhilwara. As always with India, the hipster vibe was close, but not quite there.  Food was fine though. 

Tiger catching up on his relatives.  

Bustling morning in a town on the route.  

We had a good breakfast stop and ate some filled puri type things, but a bit thicker. Nice. 

Chai time.  

The crew at the breakfast stop were excited to be in the shot. 

Day 121: Railmagara to Bhilwara

Feeling hot hot hot

 We were up early again and we’d completed our 80km journey by midday today. We’re resisting the temptation to try and push on further - we’d risk overdoing it in the 40°C heat.

We’re in rural Rajasthan at the moment. It’s a bit more developed than some areas we’ve passed through, with a predilection for large stone towers and gates every now and again. 

Another grandiose gateway

We seem to attract trains when we’re at a level crossing  

The birds coming in to roost  

Day 120: Udaipur to Railmagara

We left our aptly named hotel in Udaipur this morning and headed north once more in the direction of Jaipur. 

Udaipur, the Lake City

We just had to stay here. 

Luckily it’s smaller roads now - we’ve managed to get off the highway they are rebuilding. 

There are some drawbacks to smaller roads! 

Day 119: Rest day in Udaipur

I’d not realised that I knew Udaipur before we arrived. You’ll have seen phots of the white palace on the lake with bougainvillea trailing into the water. It was also used in the Bond film Octopussy, where Roger Moore  added his black dinner jacket to the mix.

Our view at breakfast

We’re staying at Hotel the Tiger. We had to really.

Udaipur is a “high rise city” in the medieval sense. This five story high buildings crammed together, each one without the room to fit a lift. This means a lot of climbing. Fantastic that we’re on the top floor of our hotel - what a great view! Oh, that’s eight flights of stairs with ten bass to climb. Let’s have dinner on a rooftop terrace. Eight flights down plus five storeys up a spiral staircase. Not quite the rest day cycle tourists are looking for, but the views are nice. 

Sunset over Udaipur

Down on the waterfront by Gangaur Ghat

We decided not to try to do too much on our rest day and we picked the City Palace as our goal. It’s a huge mass of 11 different palaces joined together with each Maharana seemingly deciding they needed to build their own addition and thousands of small rooms and dozens of courtyards are connected by zigzag corridors. The style stays pretty consistent though and it all goes together pretty well. None of it looked very comfortable, but they’ve been there for over 500 years, so it works for them. 

The current Maharana lives in yet another extension at the far end of the palace, with a good view of the lake I expect.  

The entrance to the Palace. Don’t worry, there’s somewhere to park your elephant just thought the gate.

That view, frames a thousand times.

The rest of the time we just hung out in the city, and found time to watch the Tour of Flanders. Well done Bettiol - a monument for your first pro win!

Udaipur has coffee shops! We haven’t seen that since Mumbai.

A good rest has me feeling much better too - so onwards and upwards tomorrow as we make our way to Jaipur to see forts. It should take us four or five days to get there.  

Day 118: Kherwara to Udaipur

Un autre jour sans

Last day hammering up the NH48 to get to Udaipur, and I made it harder by having no legs at all. I’m fighting a virus or something and it’s left me completely drained.  

Luckily Sarina’s on the bike too, and she put in a big day at the office to climb 1,681m up to Udaipur. 

It looks worth it too - the lake is just beautiful. Better pixies tomorrow after I’ve had a big sleep.  

Day 117: Himmatnagar to Kherwara

​Another day on the main road, with a load of road works and a gradual climb. However, we lucked out and got a tailwind!

Nothing much happened, so, instead here are Tiger’s views on Brexit:

“They seem to be doing it in the wrong order. Shouldn’t you have a clear and achievable plan for how to leave the EU before people vote on leaving?”

“It sounds like the whole country hasn’t done its homework and it’s now asking for an extension.”

Sage words.

Day 116: Ahmedabad to Himmatnagar

Just turning the pedals

Up reasonably early, hit the main road and then, just keep the pedals turning. That’s the key for the moment. Trucks, roadworks and podcasts fill the day as the temperature climbs. Then, stop around 1pm and hit the air conditioned room for the afternoon.  

Pretty simple really, until the next highlight in Udaipur.  

Last night’s meal in Ahmedabad was interesting. We thought we’d treat ourselves with a swanky rooftop meal  at a classy thali restaurant in town, but we’d already had a thali for lunch on our tour.  You can guess the result. The much cheaper lunchtime thali was far better. The food was better, the service was better and it was less than half the price. 

To top it off, we couldn’t even sit outside on the rooftop because it was too hot and the poluition hanging in the air was very unappetising. 

The light looks nice, but it’s mainly because of the smog.

Swanky restaurant entrance selfie

Day 115: Rest day in Ahmedabad

Ghandi, Le Corbusier and step wells

We weren’t originally going to come to Ahmedabad, but I’m so glad we did. We‘ve had a very educational day learning about Ghandi, the city’s heritage and architecture, as well as the chance to explore three buildings designed by architect Le Corbusier. Amazing!

Surrounded by fifth centuRY mosques and colourful temples, I’m still more interested in free climbing goats

A vintage Hercules. I want one!

We weaved through the “pols” of the old town, each one originally a stand-alone community, maybe a trade like perfume makers or a particular religion such as Jain. All the time, our guide, Nirav was able to give us so many details about the buildings, plus, he seemed to know everyone.  

Many of the houses were exquisite tumbledown chic, but still mostly private dwellings housing families and extended families.  

The trip was through a rabbit Warren of laneways.  Nirav explained “Gujaratis don’t like to fight, so they run away. What better escape than a maze of narrow doorways and passages, only known to locals. 

Sarina drinking her chai the Gujarati way, from the saucer.

We then headed to the Ghandi Ashram, where he and a community of followers lived in the 1930s. We saw the incredibly simple room he lived in, with minimal furniture and possessions. There was also a very good exhibition explaining his life and his teachings.  

The Ghandi Asram, where he lived during his initial non co-operation campaign

Sarina being taught to spin cotton. Ghandi spun cotton as a way of doing real work for the ashram, as well as a form of meditation.

“My notion of democracy is that under it the weakest shall have the same opportunity as the strongest...

...Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted fascism.” Mahatma Ghandi 

As true today as it was then, in my opinion.  

The other goal of the day was the chance to see the buildings designed by Le Corbusier in the city in the 1950s. As an architecture student, it would be sacrilege for Tiger to pass up this chance. 

The City Museum. Interesting building, not being cared for very well

Tiger, taking it all in

We then went to the Mill Owners’ Association building, which is Le Corbusier playing to all his strengths. It has rectilinear forms, brise-soleil, De Stijl influenced Monrianesque colour panels, curved concrete forms to balance the right angles and a good helping of plants to soften the building into its environment. 

It reminded me of Brunel University, but it was so much more successful.  

The Mill Owners’ Association building

Lastly, we saw the Villa Sontham, which follows many of the same cues, but as a large private residence. 

The Villa Sontham. Still a private residence we sneaked up the driveway to see.

A great day of exploration.  

A big thank you to Nirav our guide. AN Ahmedabad heritage expert who is a Ghandi fan and is extremely knowledgeable on local architecture. What better guide.

Day 114: Vadodara to Ahmedabad

Proper early morning today - we were riding well before 7am and we’d knocked off over 30km before breakfast a little after 8am. 

It’s still 23°C (73°F) at this time, but that’s way more comfortable than the 40°C it gets to by 1pm.  

If it’s as hot as a desert, why not get a camel. 

We met a “road angel” today. Darshan, a local Ahmedabad cyclist who races for the Indian national team was kind enough to flag us down and give us a couple of bottles of water. They were most welcome in the hottest part of the day.  

Darshan doing a good job with the selfie.  

Then we were heading into Ahmedabad itself. We’ve ridden through Bengaluru and Mumbai already, but the traffic in this comparatively small city was another level of crazy. We weaved our way through the maelstrom of autorickshaws, scooters and cars to finally make it to our hotel... and what a hotel. 

It’s a restored 200 year old building in the old part of Ahmedabad and it’s just gorgeous.  

Manic traffic, out of control scooter parking.  

Our hotel, Deewanji Ni Haveli

Original intricate carving

Courtyard for our bicycles  

Day 113: Ankleshwar to Vadodara

The “K’s” are flying by! 

Last night we had time for a pleasant stroll through a lush green park, adjacent to a reservoir. We were surrounded by locals, also walking, jogging, picnicking and generally enjoying the cool evening and the lovely oasis in a dusty land. Another side to India we have not seen before. 

We were far from the only ones taking selfies.

We also had the chance to peek at a wedding going on at our hotel. We were confused by the setup before the guests arrived. There appeared to be two weddings - with matching seating and stages on both sides of a large dividing screen.

When the guests arrived, it all became clear. Men on the right, women on the left. It' looked like the women were having the better party.

Another early start to beat the heat. We were away before 7am today.

More main road today - although we did manage a couple of excursions into quieter and more sane roads.

Does a pilgrimage journey count if you get pushed there?

We thought this was going to be a lovely quiet road. Unfortunately, we were told that someone’s built a factory across it and it doesn’t connect to anything any more. That will explain why it’s so peaceful.

Scarily narrow bridge for two lanes of traffic. That’s why they are building a new bridge next door. It doesn’t quite make it to the other side yet though.

We cracked off the K’s though - over 100km today, although it was getting pretty hot by the end.

As we neared our destination, we headed a little to the left of Vadodora to make a stop at the local Decathlon sports equipment store. I broke the flag pole on the Blue Strawberry a while back, and although the bamboo I whittled as a replacement was going pretty well, I managed to snap that again today -making it pretty short.

We thought Decathlon has to have some tent poles that would be the perfect replacement, and indeed they did. However, as we walked down to the cash tills we spotted the archery section, and some arrows. An arrow was a much lighter weight alternative, and we didn’t have to get rid of about 10 unnecessary pole sections we didn’t need. Ideal.

Our trip to Decathlon gave us a smarter flag pole - made from an arrow.

As we were sorting this out, one of the members of staff came up to us and said they’d seen we’d arrived on bicycles and would we like a free bottle of Gatorade drink to cool down? Yes we would! Thanks so much to the team there. They were very helpful and, of course, we had a piccy with them.

The lovely people at Decathlon.

Heading off again.

Route updates

We’ve had the family conference, we’ve done the research, we’ve checked out the visa situation (well some of it - Brexit will throw that up in the air again!) We’ve now decided Baku in Azerbaijan is our next destination after New Delhi, having decided previously to avoid Iran.

You can see full details on the Route page.

The next leg after India.

Day 112: Amadpore to Ankleshwar

The tour of places you’ve never heard of in western India continues, and we’re still on the NH48 still heading northwards.

We’re looking forward to a break in Ahmedabad, especially to check out the Le Corbusier designed buildings there - definitely a pilgrimage worth taking for an aspiring architect.

It will be worth it - two days to go.

Leaving our hotel this morning. It was a banging party shaking to the bass last night - but luckily only until 9:15pm.

The long straight road.

Day 111: Vapi to Amadpore

Long drag

We’re on another “put your heads down and ride” phase as we make our way up the eastern coast to Ahmedabad - getting to know the NH8 highway really well. 

Everything’s pretty cool, but the oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road is still a bit of an issue. We nearly collected a guy on a scooter as a new mascot for the front of the Strawberry today. 

The NH48

“Road angels” of the day were a Gujarat Police patrol car, who handed us a bottle of cold water out the window as they passed. What stars!​

Getting away early is still working well, but it was 36°C by midday today.   Still, we can always check the weather in Melbourne if we want to cheer ourselves up.

More of the same tomorrow.  

Tonight however is in the Hare Krishna Hotel. No sign of the house band yet.  

Video: Thailand, Phuket to Bangkok

Day 110: Jawhar to Vapi

We stayed in strange hotel last night. The bed had red lighting underneath, the shower and toilet were behind a large glass wall and the touch sensitive light switches actually worked. One premium suite (we negotiated the price down!)

The strangest thing was the restaurant though. In fact, it wasn’t quite clear whether it was a restaurant. There were no other customers, and they turned the lights on as we arrived. They seemed to be offering us breakfast initially, which was confusing. They then seemed very unsure whether they could deliver some of the dishes on their menu, but we came to an agreement on some suitable food.

As is often the case though, first impressions were not born out. We had a lovely meal of bhendhi fry and paneer marsala, although the chapatis were not their best work.

Evening meal in a barn

Day two of our new “get up early, see how far we can go” strategy to cope with the 40˚C temperatures, and it seems to be going pretty well. We cracked of 77kms by midday, in time to have lunch in an air conditioned restaurant and then make a short ride to our hotel.

The morning was through idyllic countryside again - land that would obviously be lush and green after the rains, but are painted brown at present. The paddy fields are dry, many trees just twigs, but you can see how beautiful these green valleys must be in a few months time. I quite like them in brown too.

So many people walking long distances here - it’s a striking change from other regions

Winding, picturesque roads.

Breakfast was in a market that was just setting up, we were so early this morning. We had samosas and a sticky pastry to follow - both delicious. Unfortunately the fruit sellers didn’t match the same quality. It must be a long way to the banana plantations from here.
As usual we attracted a bit of a crowd - with a fair few school children on their way to school.

We crossed into a new region today - Dadar and Nagar Haveli. It’s not a state, it’s a “union territory”, and it was a complete surprise to us. We were expecting to cross the border from Maharashtra into Gujarat, but were surprised to see a new name crop up. It turns out there’s a few little territories around here, nestled between the states. We’ll be in Gujarat tomorrow instead.

The bikes are out in the street tonight. We’ve been assured there’s a security guard all night. Fingers crossed.

Day 109: Vallonné Wine Estate to Jawhar

We left Vallonné and the sweet scent of wine making this morning.  

We had to pose for a photo. We may end up on their wall of fame.  

We’re back on the country roads again, heading to the coast. The heat inland is around 40°C (104°F), so we’re heading for the coast to try to get some cool sea breezes. 

As we came across the plains, it was notable how many people were walking on the roads, and I’m guessing this isn’t for morning exercise.  

Morning snack was in a motorcycle garage

We’re also trying to shorten the days a little at the moment, to avoid cycling in the hottest of the day. That worked pretty well today when we finished at about 1pm and have had a nice lunch and the a siesta in an air conditioned room. 

Day 108: Rest day at Vallonné Wine Estate

You can’t just breeze through India’s biggest wine region in a day can you? Not if you’re an aspiring wine maker anyhow.  

Vallonné is a boutique vineyard and winery, really part of the movement to improve acceptance in increase quality of Indian wines. They have a very impressive winery here, with all the equipment you could need to make great wines.

What looks harder is growing the grapes. The viticulture looked nothing like you’d see in Australia or France, with a rather meagre canopy strung on haphazard wires and a lot more weeds than you’d normally expect.

We had a great day, meeting the winemaker here and tasting the wines.

Most fascinating was how they’d had to adapt the growing cycle for the vines to deal with the tropical climate. They prune twice, to mimic the dormant period vines would experience in a colder climate, otherwise the vines would grow and fruit all year round, with the fruit being damaged by the wet season.

Stand-out wine was definitely the 10th Anniversary Cabernet Sauvignon.

...and we got the washing dry in no time  

Day 107: Sharapur to Vallonné Wine Estate

A day of authoritarian waiters

Breakfast was interesting. We wanted dosa, a South Indian breakfast that’s like a big pancake, but our waiter kept insisting we have toast and jam, and definitely no “omelet.” In the end we had a little time out and came back to it and it was all fine. Nice dosa. 

Then we continued plodding up the main road. It was mostly uphill and mostly into a headwind, so tough going.  

The big hill of the day had the trucks in first gear barely passing us in our lowest gear. The gradient was only four or five percent, but it went on for many kilometres and sapped our strength. At one point we were passing the trucks again as the gradient bit, but the the 35°C day started to have an impact and we had a stop under a tree for a while to let our engines cool down. 

A stop under a tree to cool down.  

The hill in the middle made us hurt

Lunch brought a new waiter who also had strong opinions about our diet. His “suggested sells” were so forceful that, even after we’d decided what we wanted, he was still trying to talk us into other options. The meal was lovely though, our standard of daal fry plus another dish, this time bendhi marsala, with a stack of paratha. Yum. 

After lunch we turned off the main road and got to see a bit more of the countryside. There are some amazing rock formations here. It’s not quite Monument Valley, but it’s pretty cool. 

A slightly extraordinary photo op with a washing powder salesman  

Finally we made it to our beds for the night at the Vallonné Wine Estate, which we’re looking forward to discovering tomorrow.  

Video: Thailand , Island hopping

Day 106: Mumbai to Shahapur

We got up early, it felt really early, to beat the traffic out of Mumbai. In the end we were rolling by 6am, before the city wakes up.

It was still dark, and the nearly deserted streets made it a breeze to make our way northwards and leave the island.

As we headed up the northern end of the island we started to see Mumbai waking up - with a reasonable number of people out for morning runs or walks - including a bunch of women in sarees running down the side of the main road.

There were also a small number of cyclists, mainly riding slowly and on mountain bikes. This is no Beach Road!

Having got up so early, we made our destination before midday - a new record.