A key stipulation from us when booking the car service was that our driver would proceed in a relaxed and easy-going manner. At the time, our host assured us that we had nothing to worry about, but on the morning that we were leaving I questioned him about the character of the driver that we had ended up with and he simply shrugged non-committally and wished us good luck. This didn't instil me with huge degree of confidence, but I kept it to myself.
Our driver was a quite outrageously skinny chap somewhere in his late-thirties\ early-forties. Our car was one of the small tata indica (ford fiesta-like) cars, and my rucksack alone filled the boot, leaving Clairy's beast looking like an elephant in a mini, riding shotgun next to the tiny driver. His seat was so far forward that I had a good two feet of leg room whilst sitting behind him.
We were soon on our way and were both quite sad to say goodbye to the lovely Udaipur. We moved from the jam packed city streets to a short jaunt on a partially constructed highway before eventually finding ourselves on tiny surprisingly well-surfaced single-track roads. Our driver picked up speed once the traffic thinned out, but just about kept it below the level that would result in Clairy's fingernails being embedded in my thighs.
Our first stop was the quite incredible fort of Kumbalgarh, situated 1100m up in the Aravelli hills. We turned a sharp corner and the the colossal structure suddenly came into view, its impenetrable wall and vast chubby bastions disappearing off as far as the eye could see. Our driver stopped at the viewpoint and we got out to take a photo. It was so huge, the pics don't quite do it justice.
Those are some chunky beasts. What lovely shapes.
Kumbalgarh was built in the 15th century by Maharaja Kumba. After Chittor it was the most important Mewar fort. Its defences were breached just once, and this only occurred when the the Mughal forces of Akbar teamed up with Marwar and Amber to have a go. Even then they only managed to hold the fort (pun thoroughly intended) for two days before being kicked back out.
Enclosed within the fort walls are some 360 temples (we didn't check them all out).
Looking back up at the fort from inside the walls. As well as a few little shops and cafés there were some small homes with families living inside.
Ooooooh, a dooog on a Jain temple, taking it easy in the shade.
The mahoosive fort walls stretch a staggering 36km (22.5 miles)!
I managed to persuade the Clairy to climb up on top of the walls. I couldn't quite get her to peer over the edge though as I am here.
Oh hi! Admittedly it wasn't that easy peeking over those battlements.
The sky was a beautiful colour and it was quite a pleasant temperature due to our increase in altitude.
Stunning stuff.
We decided it was time for a fresh lime soda, so popped into one of the cafés. These little birdies were very interested in our cheese toasties. This one had its beady eye on Clairy.
We didn't really have time for a full explore of the fort, so we just snapped a couple of pics from down the bottom.
We got back in the car and our driver took off with what seemed like a renewed vigour. Had we taken too long? Had he realised he was going to miss his favourite telly program unless we got a wriggle on? Who knows?
Clairy spotted these haystack/actual houses that people seemed to be living in as we flew on by.
Our driver asked if we wanted to stop for lunch. Forgetting entirely about the cheese toasties we had eaten not five minutes before I blurted out 'God Yeah!'. He pulled in to a place that was done out quite nicely but turned out to be a bit of a tourist trap for the type of tourists who do most of their travelling by private car. The only thing that was on offer was a buffet for 200 rupees, the cheeky buggers. Clairy graciously decided she wasn't really that hungry anyway, and let me dig in on my own. I felt that I did a pretty good job of getting my money's worth. Here I am on my third plateful. It was all served up in lovely terracotta pots placed on burning coals.
After lunch number two the terrain became progressively more steep and craggy. Unfortunately this seemed to lead to yet another speed increase. I think that in the minds of Indian drivers there may be some unfathomable inversely proportional relationship between the safety of a particular road and the speed at which one must be drive on it. This did result in us asking him to slow down, particularly on the hairpin bends when he was getting very angry about a bus that wouldn't let him past.
In no time at all, we reached our second and final attraction of the day, the Jain temple at Ranakpur. It is the finest in Rajasthan and one of the most important in India. As a result, shoes, cigarettes, all leather articles and inappropriate clothing are all not allowed. While I went and found a thoroughly disgusting toilet to change into my trousers Clairy took this pic of the help-yourself water pots.
We had read a bit about what an incredible feat of carving the temple was, but the outside really didn't prepare us for the amazingly elaborately carved interior.
A tiny detail from the doorway on the way in.
Every surface was covered in immensely intricate milky-white marble carvings.
Possibly slightly inappropriate behaviour from me in this holiest of places.
I didn't hit them very hard, honest.
Check out those granny knots!
A stunningly intricate piece on the ceiling.
The temple is made up of 1444 uniquely carved pillars set around 29 halls.
'Ooooo look up there'. A bit of sketchy maintenance on the central tower. Stick up a bit of bendy bamboo scaffolding and your well away.
It was built in 1439, but the carvings were absolutely immaculate, like they had just been created. Every surface had been perfectly preserved.
Clairy snapped this lovely atmospheric shot of the temple flags from the rear terrace.
A bit of heavenly illumination.
As we worked our way back around to the side that we had entered from, the shear level of detail was almost too much to take in. It was a quite unbelievable amount of immensely skilled stone masonry, and it is unlikely we will encounter anything quite as fine as this anywhere else in India.
Clairy particularly liked this little goggle eyed dragon.
Rather unexpectedly in the southern corner was this mature tree poking right up through. I wondered if this had started as a tiny sapling that had somehow made its way through the blocks, and then due to the Jain's belief in the preservation of all living things it had to be left to continue on its own course.
A couple of naughty little boys were playing on this ladder in the temple.
Before we left we had to get some pics of this beautiful ceiling.
As I endeavoured to put my chubby feet into my boots, Clairy noticed the huge shotgun casually left hanging on the sign by a wayward security guard.
As we left Ranakpur, I asked the driver how much time it would take us to reach Jodhpur. He replied with a grin that it would be about four more hours. I think he was pleased that most of the journey would be on the highway that consisted of an endless stream of huge trucks, like this one in front. There was a lot to read on their busily painted rear ends, including 'I love You' on this particular beauty.
The trucks provided some amusement for the car drivers squeezed in between, who like our driver seemed to relish the endless overtaking opportunities. At one point I noticed we were overtaking two trucks on the inside while a four by four passed us on the outside. This was on a two lane road with more trucks thundering towards us in the opposite direction. Eventually I got our mp3 players out and this slightly dulled the sense of imminent doom.
A few hours of overtaking mayhem later, just before we reached Jodhpur I spotted this mini-tornado/dust-devil whirling around a short distance away and did my best to get some footage of it.
In the end we made it to Jodhpur without being squashed to a pulp, and being so relieved we gave our tiny driver a tip. We both felt rather sorry for him when we realised he was going to now get back in the car at seven in the evening and drive the eight hours back all on his lonesome. We both agreed though that despite the fear of death, we were super chuffed to have seen Kumbalgarh and Ranakpur. It had been a great day.
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