We left Mount Abu early to start our 2 day drive to Mandu, it was a long hot drive day and that night we bush camped after covering about half the distance.  As we started setting up our camp a guy comes over and stares at us for about 30 mins and then leaves, so we thought that we had got away with it for the night, however, 15 mins later he returns with most of the village who form a circle around the truck and stare at us all night.  It is still difficult to get used to the constant fasination they have with us.  After a while they started talking to us (at least the ones that could speak English) and we had a great laugh.  We even arranged them all for a group picture!

At about 10 they all left and went back to their village to celebrate the start of Holi (which is the festival to mark the start of spring).  We awoke at about 6 to find a few locals outside our tents playing drums and singing to us.  We gave them a clap and then they left and we did not see them again (very surreal at 6 in the morning!).  As we were up now we left early to cover the distance to Mandu.  After about 8km we came across our first road block.  Because of Holi the locals had been up drinking all night and it seems to be a tradition to get lots of rocks and string them across the road to make a barrier and then you have to pay a toll and they clear the rocks away and let you through. 

We got to the first one and there were about 10 teenagers all carrying big sticks obviously well and truly plastered.  Martin got out the truck and tried to move the stones, but the teenagers kept getting bigger stones and sticking them under the wheels, they were also threatening to bash him with their sticks and throw big rocks at the truck windows.  It was getting quite heated, so we all piled out and had to guard the wheels and get the truck through.  It got the adrenalin pumping early in the day!  A main tradition of Holi is that they get lots of coloured powder and throw it at you and then cover you in water, so if you get caught outside the truck you will come back bright pink or green in no time at all!  Martin the driver got covered and the other martin got loads of powder thrown at his head so one side was pink and one was green!

Anyway we got past the first one and low and behold about 5km down the road another road block, we must of gone past about 25 during the course of the day - it was a very long day!  Most of the roadblocks where OK, manned by small kids, it only got a little bit scary when you got the drunk and stoned teenagers.  Another incident occurreed when we were almost at Mandu.  It was one of the last roadblocks and it was manned by the drunken teenagers, we managed to get through, but as we did the road was blocked by a convoy of new Tuc Tucs and Claire accidentaly hit one, which caused a bit of a heated argument.  After a few rupees were exchanged we were on our way again.  Both Claire and Martin deserved their beer that night, they were fantastic.

Mandu is an old town that has lots of deserted castles and palaces.  The town is set in some stunning scenery, including a huge gorge which would look great after the monsoon when it turns green again.  We had a tour around the ruins in the morning and then started our long journey to Ellora.  Holi was still going on, so there were lots more road blocks, but it was all small kids today, so it was fairly easy to get through them all.  We finally made Ellora at about 9pm and then had a quick bite to eat in the restaurant and hit the sack as we were all very tired after a tough few days driving.

In the morning we went to see the caves at Ellora, there are 26 in all and they are all carved out the side of a hill, they are more like buildings than caves with columns and seperate rooms, temples and houses, very much what I think Petra will be like which we see later on the trip in Jordan.  The caves were built over a long period starting from about 200AD.  At about midday we left Ellora and headed for Ajanto which is another set of caves which are even earlier and were built around 200BC, these were slightly different to the ones at Ellor as they had a lot of paintings in side.

We got there early at about 3, but were not seeing the caves until the morning, so we spent the rest of the day chilling out.  We were bush camping again with great views down towards the caves.  On the way to the bush camp we picked up a local chef who cooked us some traditional snacks to have with our beer and then he cooked this great dinner for us of rice and currey.  We had a great night that night too trying to finish all our alcohol before we got to Mumbai.  We partied hard into the night.  We awoke in the morning to a great sunrise and breakfast cooked by our chef.  From the bush camp we treked down to the caves which took about 30 mins.  The caves were OK, but I preferred the ones at Ellora as a lot of the paintings have gone and there are lots of barriers up so you can not get near to the paintings to get a good look.

We left Ajanta at about 12 and started our 2 day drive to Mumbai (Bombay) which is our last port of call in India.  We got well over half way and bush camped for the night.  The following morning we headed into Mumbai.  Mumbai is the most western city I have seen in India and it is great to see the sea again as most of India has been very dry.  In the evening we all went out for a good few drinks and a bite to eat.

We woke up this morning and me, Claire and Joanna went for a walk to see the Harbour and India Gate and then went for breakfast (almost a fryup) sausages, fried eggs and toast - yum.  In the restaurant last night they also had beef on the menu which is against the religion and illegal in India, but amazingly none of us fancied it, so we are going to have to wait to we get to Iran to get some proper meat again.

Today is our last day in India and at lunch time tomorrow we fly out to Tehran (capital of Iran).  Martin the trip leader and Valery (the American) could not get visa's for Iran, so they are flying to Turkey tonight and will meet us in Goreme in Turkey in about 10 days.  We are also loosing Claire who is the co-driver and has been excellent throughout and is the best driver I have seen.  It is such a shame to loose her as she has been my favourite drinking partner for the trip and gets on so well with everybody in the team.  Claire has to stay in India and drive the truck back upto Kathmandu by herself.

Therefore there are only 4 of us flying to Iran and we will meet up with Pru at Tehran airport with our new truck and she will lead the trip to Turkey until we meet up with the others again.  We are all going out for a slap up meal tonight to give Claire a good send off and then we have to leave early in the morning to get to the airport in time.

I will try to update the journal again in a week or so.