The Shifting Sands

Our climb rising above the paddy fields I had given up riding in India. In Australia I bike commuted to work and in Germany I rode regularly in the neighbouring forests a few time a week when there was no snow on the  ground.  In India, I started using my bike to ride to the gym of a morning, often riding to a spin class. That was good and it helped me to become comfortable with the traffic before I started driving.  After I started driving I still used the bike because parking anywhere in Mumbai is a problem.   Then we changed apartments and my gyms were walking distance. The bike fell into disrepair on the balcony and, although I was still spinning and using Sufferfest videos for endurance training, the bike was forgotten. A village just off the main road Recently, I had the bike overhauled, and some of the people I run and climbed with reignited my interest in the bike as they had started riding to work or riding around Mumbai as part of ironman t

They were travelling by tractor.... Well the Duke actually didn't say "Howdy Pilgrim" it was actually "Hey Pilgrim, your gonna need a couple of stitches". Although John Wayne wasn't in Rajasthan, the scenery was from a John Ford film. Sweeping expanses of arid country with low trees and punctuated with sand dunes and pilgrims everywhere. We had wanted to visit Jaisalmer for a long time and a weekend that coincided with Dahi Handi and Indian Independence day gave us the 4 day window to allow us to do justice to the City. From Mumbai, you fly to Jodhpur for a four and a half hour drive to Jaisalmer. I  wanted to go via the temples at Osian but our driver warned us against it as the it was a secondary road and he said lots of people were walking along the road.  I took his advice and so we travelled the main road to Jaisalmer via Pokhran, site of India's first nuclear tests and a hot spot for cancer, although I was

We love Rajasthan.  The food, the people, the architecture and accommodation options all combine for a great Indian experience.  We have had the good fortune to spend time in the other major Rajasthanii cities except for Jaisalmer and Bikaner.  Jaisalmer was next on our list but the 4.5 hour drive from the nearest airport meant that we needed a 4 day weekend to complete our mission. A combination of Indian Independence Day and Dahi Handi ( Krishna’s birthday) provided the opportunity. The golden walls of Jaisalmer Fort Jailsalmer was a key town on the Silk Route from Asia to the Middle East and its position in the Thar Desert made it strategically important.  This importance was reinforced with the construction of a sandstone fort on a prominent rock ridge by by the Bhati Rajput Maharawal Jaisal Singh in the 12th Century.  The Bhatis, apart from occasional conflicts, managed to maintain their Princely State despite the Muslim invasion that established the Delhi Sultanate

Sponges drying in the sun at Pothia Kate and I rarely return to the same location as there are so many interesting places to visit in the world.  So, as a testimony to how much we enjoyed our time in Kalymnos last year, we booked the same house for two weeks this year.  We were planning to meet our Australian friends, John and Nors, from last year’s trip so all the ingredients were in place.  I had even organized for my Mum to visit for the first week Despite the familiarity,  there was some trepidation, would we enjoy it a second time around?  How much will it have changed? Will we have changed? John leading out I can safely report that, apart from drop in standards at the Aegean Restaurant, everything was better than  we had hoped.  This year our eldest daughter, Lucy, didn't join us as she was holidaying with he best friend in the U.S.A.  So it was just Kate, Ada and I. Nors on the rock and yes, John i