Saturday 4 April 2015

04 Apr - Into Rajasthan - Rewari to Alwar

Day's run: 90 km
Total: 2,335 km
Start:  06:24 am
Saddle Time:   04:43
Total Climb:    122 m
Total Descent: 81 m
Average: 19.0 kph


When I step outside my hotel at 6am I'm taken aback to find out it's raining, not heavily but it's definitely wet and quite cold. I spend 20 minutes in the hotel foyer rummaging through my carefully packed panniers looking for my rain jacket. Finally, I'm off cycling in the rain, lights on, for the first time in over a month (last time was leaving Ooty and getting caught in an afternoon thunderstorm)


My first cuppa of the day, strangely served in an unglazed earthenware bowl.

The rain has stopped but left the roads a mess. Typical all over India, the highways can have perfect tarmac (or not) but where the road passes through a village it invariably turns into a mess. I assume it's the village, not the state, that has to fund the upkeep of the bit through the village, so being dirt poor, it is never maintained........as above.

The brickworkers families homes have been completely surrounded by water from last nights downpour. I guess they don't make bricks in the monsoon season.

A village dairy - I thought about going in and asking for a drink but I don't have a cup.

Guess what? I've entered Rajasthan.

The Rajasthanis sport some fine moustaches and beards.

All on a motorbike - Look this is our baby, that we'll just wake up to show you!

Made out of cowpat material, I was intrigued by these huts which don't have any entrances and are hand-finished with elaborate patterns. I've since found out that they contain  dry cowpats, which must be valuable because these sheds are to stop them being stolen. Well I never!

I reach Alwar, a very busy town, but the hotels are more than I want to pay. I carry on through and on the outskirts I come across this one with a nice lawn that I negotiate to camp on for 500 rupees. That's me in the corner. Typical Rajasthan hills in the background. It's been great riding in Rajasthan so far, greener than I expected, dead flat valleys with nice rock ridges creating some nice scenery, and cooler with less humidity. I'm looking forward to tomorrow - a 125 km run to Jaipur.

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