We left our charming hotel near Udaipur with its two labradors shortly after 9 am on Tuesday 27th February for a two hour drive to Kumbhalgarh Fort, a splendid construction in the 15th century and completed in the late 19th century. The fort is part of a defensive construction on the top of a hill with a circular wall of around 35 km in length within which now is mostly scrubland but with some temples, cultivation and village houses. Apart from one occasion, it always resisted the Moghul armies trying to conquer this part of India. As you climb higher up through the fort so do the views improve although the hazy conditions curtailed distant views somewhat. Phil and I then visited the temple where one famous maharajah was slain by his elder son in his haste to inherit his father’s kingdom before he was overthrown and killed four years later in revenge by his younger brother.
After lunch, on to Ranakpur Temple constructed by the Jain tribe who practised a rather severe form of Hinduism. Our guide was somewhat critical of their approach and their keenness to relieve tourists of rupees but certainly the building was very fine after a recent restoration. [Pictures to follow as you had to pay to take a camera in and Phil took these pics]
We then moved on to our hotel for the next two nights, the Devshree at the village of Deogarh. It is similar to our hotel at Udaipur run by a charming Indian couple but overall not quite as good as Udaipur. There was one seriously overweight black lab and a little jack russell. As well as communal drinks before dinner, which is fun and jolly, we dine communally together which can be interesting but in practice can prove something of a challenge depending on whom you are sitting next to!
Today, we had an enjoyable train ride in the morning down the hill side to the valley below which took an hour and a half to do 22 km with the train stopping twice “to check its brakes” but overall was a fun experience with Phil and I leaning out of opposite open carriage doors taking photographs while Miranda received a neck massage from our versatile guide.
After lunch, a snooze, a swim and a read before we left for a late afternoon walk. Naively we assumed this would be in the local village but it was preceded by somewhat interesting drive in an open jeep followed by an even more hair raising return after drinks by some lake in the dark. Still, we made it out and back with the only incident being a motorbike ridden by three youths in a hurry which passed us only to collide with another motor bike just in front of us. All came off and hopefully no one was too badly hurt.
Tomorrow we move on to Jaipur.