Tuesday, February 8
Fort Dhamli to Kumbhal Castle (Kumbhalgarh) – 110K
2200 vertical ft. climb – Altitude at Kumbhalgarh is 3635 ft.
Today’s ride was half flat and half climbing - the climb started immediately after lunch. Within 6 Kilometers we had gained 1800 feet in elevation – it was 88 degrees and I was SO happy to see the crest of that hill.
The terrain transformed from flat and dry to mountainous with areas of lush greenery. The tops of the mountains were still fairly sparse with trees but there were many crops and trees along the road and around the villages. Here’s a drink stop along the road on the FLATS before the hills… as you can see the road is really only wide enough for one vehicle (the jeep). They will be adding another lane to the left in the future, but it is has large rocks scattered on it to keep traffic off.
The majority of the roads we travel on are this wide – drivers are always alert here – they have to be. A honk of the horn signals everyone on the road that a vehicle is approaching (among other things) and I’ve grown accustomed to and even appreciative of every honk. It is very common to not only have traffic from behind but also oncoming traffic all trying to use the same single-laned roadway in a given spot. There is a hierarchy in traffic and bikes are pretty low on the list, but they are used to bikes here. If, because of road conditions, we are completely unable to move off the road, then the cars, motorcycles, trucks, tractors (or whatever it is that has a horn) work together to get everyone on their way efficiently… EXCEPT for the busses- they are the worst! They don’t budge and we’ve learned to get off the roadway completely (including the shoulder) as they speed past. The busses are LOADED with people – sitting inside, on top, on the ladders on the back and in the doorways… EVERY possible spot.
At lunch the tour crew kept the monkey troop at bay – they can be pretty aggressive if they think you have food for them – we’ve all been warned NOT to feed them! These were different monkeys than ones we had seen earlier on the trip. These were much larger, with really long tails and different coloring. Here’s a picture of our audience at lunch – there’s even a baby with a tight grip on its mother.
I had a peanut butter and naan sandwich - Super Crunchy Skippy peanut butter (YUM!). Banana’s are a staple here so I ate one and took one on my bike. We refilled our water supply and then hit the hills stopping very little until we reached the hotel… it was quite remote. No one really arrived early enough to go visit the nearby fort – Fort Kumbahlgarh. We were told that it is an impressive fort – next to the Great Wall of China it is the biggest fortress wall in the world… able to run 8 horses wide along the top of it! I would’ve loved to have seen it! This is also the location where the Jain religion began. Too bad we didn’t have more time today!
We had our rider meeting, dinner and then it was off to bed AFTER a hot shower! J
