Breakfast at 7:00 p.m. ion the hotel was a simple affair; corn flakes and hot milk, boiled egg, toast, jam, and tea/coffee. The Indian food we have eaten has been delicious: spicy, arromatic, but way too much. Haven't a clue what it all is, but generally its included chicken, mutton or goat, vegetables, rice, roti of some description, and bottled water or beer. I had yoghurt sprinkled with fresh lime juice at lunch time and it was delicious. The daahl is also good, so despite not being very adventurous when it comes to food, the Indian food is quite easy to digest.
We set off from the hotel just after 8 a.m. and drove to Daulatabad, about 13 km from Aurangabad. This is a hill-top fortress which was built
Our guide sold us a story about one of the sultans who, in the 14thC decided to make this the capital of India, apparently a good location because it is in the "centre" of India. He marked the entire population of Delhi 1100 km to populate the new city. Most people died on the way. It's easy to understand why! At this time of year, the land is parched dry; the river beds have dried up; and there is no rain. The countryside looks like a sun burned blanket of hay-grass. The temperature yesterday was about 40C. Lack of water is a huge problem. There is an election on this area and one of the regions has told the politicians in uncertain manner to get water for them before they can expect the people to vote since the town is dry. Two years later those who survived retraced their steps back to Delhi. Several reasons are given: the Sultan was a bad leader; the area was unsuitable for a capital city; and the future sultan didn't want to stay there.
The fortress is a unique conglomeration of buildings designed to thwart the most ardent invaders and the Hindu guide who took us over the site wove an intriguing tale of the philosophy/psychology behind its construction. First the fort is protected by 7 surrounding walls with off set connecting gates studded with large metal spikes to make ramming by elephants impossible; second, part of the ascent goes through a dark bat filled tunnel which ends in a divided circle so that confused invaders will go both left and right around the dividing wall of the circle thus crashing into each other and self-destructing; and third, the passageways and steps are erratic and dangerous with "tripping stones" strategically placed at the corners of the corridors to trip the invaders so that they land flat on their faces. Our guide told us thrilling tales about an attempt to scale the walls using guana to secure climbing ropes. The invaders attached harnesses to the guana and flung them up the rock where they lashed on with their legs and were secure enough to support the invaders scaling the rope. True?....mmmmm, not sure.
The climb to the top covered 200 meters. We saw chipmunk looking squirrels and playful monkeys on the way up ....and people. The people here are much more friendly than in the Mumbai area. They are all intrigued by "white" people and we had many conversations on the way up and back in a broken English or sign language. We were made to feel like royalty.
The view from the top was magnificent and well worth the 45 minute climb. The last part up to the flag pole was a killer though, numerous stone steps reminiscent of those "Inca steps" on our Machu Picchu trek only in 38 - 40C. The sweat was pouring off us, and as the air is so dry we couldn't drink enough of our sun-warmed drinking water. It was quite exhiliarating though and the experience was enjoyed by all.
We had lunch in a small typical Indian restaurant then drove to Dhule where the cook group took a rickshaw into the market-centre of the town to do the shopping for dinner while the others of us sat in an air-conditioned restaurant cooling down from the sizzling heat of the day.
Our drive took us through charming farming lands and small villages then over a series of S bends as we crawled up and down a parched escarpment of basalt rock. The villages would be town s to us and they are bedlam: there are hundreds of people walking through the streets together with the usual assortment of trucks, rickshaws, bikes, cows, dogs, and donkeys. The horns are honking, loud speakers playing music, and the noise level id deafening.
This was our first "bush camp"; and it was a race against darkness to find a suitable spot. But our leader Dan made a splendid choice and as darkness settled in we pulled off the main road down a narrow, dirt, rutted track lined with thorny scrub trees that clawed at the sides of the truck as we bumped along to come to a rest by the side of a large pond. Dinner (coq-au-vin) mashed potatoes, green beans was a welcome change from the spicy food we have consumed so far. Bed around 11:30 p.m. followed by deep sleep in our moon filled tent.
We set off from the hotel just after 8 a.m. and drove to Daulatabad, about 13 km from Aurangabad. This is a hill-top fortress which was built
Our guide sold us a story about one of the sultans who, in the 14thC decided to make this the capital of India, apparently a good location because it is in the "centre" of India. He marked the entire population of Delhi 1100 km to populate the new city. Most people died on the way. It's easy to understand why! At this time of year, the land is parched dry; the river beds have dried up; and there is no rain. The countryside looks like a sun burned blanket of hay-grass. The temperature yesterday was about 40C. Lack of water is a huge problem. There is an election on this area and one of the regions has told the politicians in uncertain manner to get water for them before they can expect the people to vote since the town is dry. Two years later those who survived retraced their steps back to Delhi. Several reasons are given: the Sultan was a bad leader; the area was unsuitable for a capital city; and the future sultan didn't want to stay there.
The fortress is a unique conglomeration of buildings designed to thwart the most ardent invaders and the Hindu guide who took us over the site wove an intriguing tale of the philosophy/psychology behind its construction. First the fort is protected by 7 surrounding walls with off set connecting gates studded with large metal spikes to make ramming by elephants impossible; second, part of the ascent goes through a dark bat filled tunnel which ends in a divided circle so that confused invaders will go both left and right around the dividing wall of the circle thus crashing into each other and self-destructing; and third, the passageways and steps are erratic and dangerous with "tripping stones" strategically placed at the corners of the corridors to trip the invaders so that they land flat on their faces. Our guide told us thrilling tales about an attempt to scale the walls using guana to secure climbing ropes. The invaders attached harnesses to the guana and flung them up the rock where they lashed on with their legs and were secure enough to support the invaders scaling the rope. True?....mmmmm, not sure.
The climb to the top covered 200 meters. We saw chipmunk looking squirrels and playful monkeys on the way up ....and people. The people here are much more friendly than in the Mumbai area. They are all intrigued by "white" people and we had many conversations on the way up and back in a broken English or sign language. We were made to feel like royalty.
The view from the top was magnificent and well worth the 45 minute climb. The last part up to the flag pole was a killer though, numerous stone steps reminiscent of those "Inca steps" on our Machu Picchu trek only in 38 - 40C. The sweat was pouring off us, and as the air is so dry we couldn't drink enough of our sun-warmed drinking water. It was quite exhiliarating though and the experience was enjoyed by all.
We had lunch in a small typical Indian restaurant then drove to Dhule where the cook group took a rickshaw into the market-centre of the town to do the shopping for dinner while the others of us sat in an air-conditioned restaurant cooling down from the sizzling heat of the day.
Our drive took us through charming farming lands and small villages then over a series of S bends as we crawled up and down a parched escarpment of basalt rock. The villages would be town s to us and they are bedlam: there are hundreds of people walking through the streets together with the usual assortment of trucks, rickshaws, bikes, cows, dogs, and donkeys. The horns are honking, loud speakers playing music, and the noise level id deafening.
This was our first "bush camp"; and it was a race against darkness to find a suitable spot. But our leader Dan made a splendid choice and as darkness settled in we pulled off the main road down a narrow, dirt, rutted track lined with thorny scrub trees that clawed at the sides of the truck as we bumped along to come to a rest by the side of a large pond. Dinner (coq-au-vin) mashed potatoes, green beans was a welcome change from the spicy food we have consumed so far. Bed around 11:30 p.m. followed by deep sleep in our moon filled tent.
No comments:
Post a Comment