9/12/12
There where a few religions involved.
And an amazing moat system on each of the three walls
There are walls to the left
And walls to the right...
alot of restoration going on
Mark and I with one of the many Buddha statues
Some lovely coloums
An impresive amount of rock was removed for this one.
I was told by one guide that some where used for mixing paint. I think these are actually done by water dripping from the roof. I sanes in Ajanta which where long and looked like they where used to mix the colour.
Now these ones we could not work out, maybe for hanging curtains around the bottom of the pillars, maybe for holding torches. If anyone knows what these are for please comment as i want to know?
Amazing roof on this cave.
Got
up went for a walk, watched TV, picked bike up from Vicky's with rack
on and front indicators. Went to Lisa's birthday do, Happy Birthday
Lisa.
10/12/12
Headed
out reasonably early via the ferry to Maharashtra and up to Amboli.
Then through Ajra in Karnataka and followed the NH4 up back into
Maharashtra to Satara for the night. Was a nice ride most of the way.
The roads through the Ghats where very enjoyable. We did get off the
right road at one point but did find a lovely gorge while there.
Turned out we turn 500meters too soon. Once on the NH4 it was 2 Dual
carriage way so easy, I did find out that Faith doesn't like going
much over 80km lol. And other than the engine dieing when I tried
100km for a while, went 80km max after that, all went well with
Faith.
11/10/12
Down
at the bikes at 07:00, but had trouble getting Mark's bike going, so
changed the spark plug and with a push got it going. Once sorted we
headed out but bike still wasn't right, so changed the spark plug
back and played with the fuel key and seemed to sort it out. Then in
Morgaon there was a terminal stop, if fact a worrying stop as could
not even move the kick start so the thought was piston ceased up.....
Luckily
there was an Enfield place about 500meters back down the road, so
pushed the bike there and he ripped it open to find the Coil and
magnets had disintegrated. Very Luckily there was a Parts shop only
35km away so I ducked over to Baramati and got what was need.
This
did mean we did not make it as far as hoped but still an enjoyable
day. Although when we got to Ahmadnagar almost all the hotels we went
to where full, must be something on, so had to stay in a more
expensive place tonight.
12/12/12
Had
a very easy exit from town and out on the road to Aurangabad, was a
reasonable easy ride although I got pushed off the road once and went
into the dirt a second time just in case. There where lots of sugar
cane carts on the road making it narrower than normal. Mark's bike
had an electrical problem on the way so we had to do a quick fix
which didn't really work. Ended up having to ride Faith along pushing
Mark's bike up to speed to get it to crash start.
Was
easy enough to find the Enfield place in Aurangabad, which lead us to
the Electrician. While Mark's bike was being worked on I went and
found a hotel for a couple of nights. Once sorted we headed out to
the Daulatabad Fort which was hugh and really cool.
13/12/12
Bob and Faith check out a lake
Went
to Ellora caves for the day. They are impressive for the amounts of
rock that have been removed to create them. Weathering has effected
most/all the paint work in these temples though. There are some very
interesting marks on the floors and some of the pillars that I don't
understand?
14/12/12
Headed
up to Ajanta and found a place to stay for the night before checking
out the caves. These ones have much better preserved paint on them
and far more detail on the carvings, probably because of the rock
they where carved into as these are older than the Ellora caves.
15/12/12
Left
early heading out towards Buldana, then down to Mehekar before
heading south to Lonar. In Lonar everything was closed, there was not
even a chi shop open. We found the Crater lake entrance and ask
loudly for chi, to which a man came over from his home and said he
would make us some chi. We asked why the town was closed and he said,
with a big smile “oh we have had riots in the neighbouring villages
for the last three days. So they closed town in case one might happen
here.” He was a nice guy who just wanted us to enjoy the place
even though there was the possibility of trouble.
The crater lake has temples all around it.
This was the cleanest one i've ever seen.
Of
course we decided to head on further south. So going down through
Sailu we stopped in Pathri for a break. When we left Faith was not
running right,after a while I realised that the accelerator cable was
about to break. Arriving at a petrol station in Malagaon it broke on
the entry ramp to the station, well so I thought. Luckily there was a
motorbike shop opposite and I had a spare cable so headed over. Once
he had taken the old cable off at both ends he discovered that it was
actually the plastic bracket where the cable attaches to the handle.
So
after putting a new handle on we went to the hotel near by to get a
room. This took a while so when being shown to the rooms I asked the
man when was the last westerner here, to which he smiled and said “we
had a french man here about 3 months ago” lol
16/12/12
Was
a BIG day of riding. We headed early for Beed, then down the NH211 to
Yermala. When asking for directions in one town a wedding procession
went by. I started filming it but when they noticed they all started
paying more attention to us than to the groom so we left. We made it
down to Maraj before dark so stayed there for the night, over 400km
on an Enfield, shit that is hard work lol. Yes I did 600 on the
karizma and found that easier, but it was much better roads.
17/12/12
Went
the wrong way out of town, until we realised there where two towns
with similar names and the way we pronounced Kolhapur was wrong....
Once back on the right direction we ended up on the NH4 which is a
dual carriageway. I had my first road rage incident of the trip with a
guy buzzing me when passing, be then slowed in front of me so I took
a swing at his mirror but was unsuccessful in breaking it off. He then
proceeded to try and run me off the road until I started kicking his
passenger side door leaving some dings in it. Not liking the fact
that I was fighting back he took off, so we stopped for chi and a
break.
The
rest of the ride back was easy enough as we had come up that way.
Faith stood up to the test ride, although I will get some small
things done, like a beeper on the indicator, the front break to
activate the break light, new fork seals, and the rear shocks
adjusted.
There
was a bit of a party the night we got back, which was lucky as Mangu
did not have a room available for me. Fortunately the girls in my
room where leaving the next day so I stayed up later/early and had a
nap in the hammock until they left.
18/12/12
Not
much done after cleaning room and making bed slept early lol.
19/12/12
Bit
of a lazy morning but made it round to Barry's place to get the rest
of my things. Bungee broke on the way back and bag ended up on the
road twice. When I went back to get the bag the second time this old
guy said that will be R50 for taking it off the road for me. I
laughed and said that would be 50 if you ran after me with the bag.
20/12/12
Went
for a walk this morning up the hill at the end of the beach, lovely
views. Back for breakfast and now doing the blog.
It has only taken a little over 6 hours to load all these photos....
Make that 1 more hour just to make it save and then publish it...
Make that 1 more hour just to make it save and then publish it...
