Beach, mud, snot & noise!!

Been a while since we last updated this thing (in Jodhpur), too long. Still the fun hasnt stopped even though weve slowed down. A few days of travel south through pretty Rajhastan got us our long awaited appointment with the beach in Diu, Gujarat, where we stayed almost two weeks (some kind of record for us) soaking up the sun, eating delicous seafood and Gujaratí Thali's and enjoying general beach action, but with a really quaint old portugese town and some nice villages to explore as well. Only a few tourists in town zipping around on mopeds, more than we have been used to on this trip but a nice number, including a charismatic couple of roadies from Northants , Keith - 'we've done some shit aint we Joe'- (&Joe), who we spent alot of our time with. First we were staying in the old church now converted into a backpackers, but after some youngster was violently ill in the shared bathroom and didn't clean it up we packed our bags AGAIN and moved to the Super Silver which was luxury, own bathroom, clean sheets and a tv for Tom to get his cricket fix....oh and the howling dogs each morning singing along with the mosque was a good wake up call. Our birthdyas were celebrated in style gorging on seafood, Keith pointing out that Tom had crab in his eyelashes - a snack for later? - Cadie stumbling home after a few too many G & T’s with a few rest stops to admire the view of the asphalt. Time slipped by here and we realised we hadn't done any sightseeing so zoomed around in the cruiser taking shots before settling back into beach life, get up eat, beach, eat, then drink o'clock and bitings at the Alishan (which put the cricket on for Tom)- bliss. Diu was my first (Cadie) real introduction to the Inidan version of public toilets.....ANYWHERE...one kid going about his business on the the street wished to stike up a conversation at the point of ablution with "hello"....hmmm not very nice. After leaving Diu and its readily avaialble supply of cheap booze, got some exercise....kinda... joining the pilgrims on the 10,000 step climb up to some beautiful Jain and hindu temples perched at the top of a hill above the plains at Junanagh... then with shaking legs marched back down again. After that brief interlude we headed back to the beach, but this time in the wholly different setting of Dwarka, a very holy little town right on the western tip of the peninsula, and very pretty too with the sky line dominated by a tall ancient temple and its huge ever changing flags, Ghats and Sadhu huts strung along the banks of an aquamarine tidal river where it meets the sea, and long beach stretching out on the other side. We got a spot to stay right at the mouth of the river and right in the middle of the action, and settled into several days of watching the Sadhu's and pilgrims performing their Puja and living out there simple, colourful and entirely spiritural lives. Tom starting to look like sideshow Bob got a haircut and shave from a guy in a hut for 20 rupees, now resembling a man straight out of the military...Cadie had to giggle. However the town became rammed with Pilgrims as Diwali, India's Xmas, meant all those who can afford a holiday in India were on holiday, meaning Dwarka started to resemble, in a weird kind of way, an English seaside town on a bank holiday, camel rides on the beach etc...... time for us to leave. After a couple of days battling through flood damaged roads (and managing to get rid of a stow away rat we picked up in Dwarka), but stopping in a marine park for one more dip in the sea, we made it out to the 'island' of Kutch, the western most bit of India 'seperated' from the mainland (and Pakistan) by the Great Rann, a huge salt / mud flat. After a few days in the very friendly and pleasant town of Bhuj, visiting some of the tribal villages famous for their handicrafts in the North, we headed out to the Great Rann itself, though shelved plans for driving on it after we realsied it was more mud than salt flats after Tom sank up to his ankles in the mud whilst testing the ground. Gujarat a dry state - however you can get a alcohol permit stamped in your passport (Cadie's as apparently Tom only has a few pages left, ha he just does not want to look like the old soak) in certain towns, Bhuj being one of them, so we stocked up on medicinals as essential camping equpiment. The Kutch much less populated than the rest of the state, and looking like parts of Africa with its acacia bush and red laterite soil, we enjoyed a few nights camping out on the western edge of the Kutch, staring out at the Rann, my (Tom's) progress at walking out on it stopped this time by a large Hyena that crossed my path about 30m ahead, thankfully seemingly uninterested in me. The cackle of the hyena's lulling us to sleep that night, next night we had the beat of a drum (Indian's loooove to drum), as we camped miles into the bush, the beat coming closer and closer then further and further away then closer again for hours, the constant noise of this the noisest country on earth unescapale even when you think youre in the middle of nowhere. We spent 8 days in all on the Kutch (the most pictureque part of the state with very freindly and colourful tribal people), including one more visit to the beach at Mandvi (Cadie getting a face full of holy snot from a passing sneezing cow), before heading to Mumbai to get car parts via Ahmedabad (a city where it seemed to rain bird shit) and an incredible vegetarian feast.....

Photos are of cave detail, Ajanta (see post above), view from temples, Junagarh, slipslide on the Rann, Ghats at Dwarka...& sideshow Bob