To Ranakpur: Watch out for the salmon

March 11, 2016

"Watch out for the salmon" Patrick shouts back to Rachel. We are cycling on the shoulder of a four Lane highway with a beautiful landscaped divider. "The design of the road encourages this" says Rachel. There's very few places to cross to go in the other direction.

People in India go the quickest way from point A to point B which means sometimes a motorcycle or truck or cow will be coming at us on our side of the road like a "salmon swimming upstream." We stay to the far left of the shoulder making the oncoming vehicle go out into the traffic Lane.

Since being in Rajasthan, we've noticed a difference in less litter along the sides of the road and in some villages. As we leave Udaipur early morning, women are sweeping the streets clean and there is no burning piles of trash.

After about twelve kms, we start the climb to the high point from 600 meters to 900 meters at 45 kms, and stop for a second breakfast of poha and cold limca (lemon drink).

Then we turn off the main road to a narrow secondary road. The drivers in Rajasthan, especially the bus drivers, we've noticed to be a bit more aggressive. Sections of the road become nothing more than a one lane road with a few inches drop off to no shoulder.

But wow! What a great downhill even with one section after an elephant bridge a small climb. We can see the Temple complex in the valley nestled amongst the brown rocky foothills of the Aravalli mountain range.

We have reservations for two nights stay at Roopan Resort, 2 kms past the Jain Temple. (Editing here from the day leaving Ranakpur, 3kms past the Temple there is a woodfire pizzeria, and up to 8 kms to the town there are many resorts and hotels. There are no tuk tuks but jeeps for transportation so distance from accommodation to Temple is a moot point, we walked the 2 kms but further we would have ridden the bikes).

We have a very nice place to stay, following previous cyclists, with a restaurant and nice food, the downside is no internet connection.

Tomorrow we see the Jain Temple.