Badami Rockclimbing
In October, the Hindu festival of Dussera and the Muslim Festival of Bakri Eid fell one day apart. As the kids had school, I took the opportunity to take some leave and drive the 600 km from Mumbai to Badami to get in a few days climbing. I was fortunate that my new climbing partner, Francisco, a Mexican/American spoke fluent Hindi which helped us navigate the country roads as part of our road trip although the further into Karnataka we traveled the less Hindi was spoken . The drive was excellent as the Bangalore Highway had long stretches of high quality toll roads. The secondary roads were poorer quality but the countryside was in harvest mode so there was interesting colour and activity. The traffic is bad in harvest season The local car wash Every road trip needs a photo of the car Although we saw lots of tractors, almost all ploughs were still pulled by oxen Badami provided a heady mix of 8th Century temples and ruins combined with