October 8th - Aurangabad to Indore

As with all the one night stopovers, it's simply impossible to visit the town you are staying in as you arrive after a long day and then leave early the next morning. As a result we didn't have the time to see Aurangabad, which apparently is the centre for manufacturing Hindu prayer shawls. Our hotel Taj Regency was on the outskirts of the town. A five star hotel with a magnificent pool and gardens. They laid on a great buffet on the lawns, during which a cake was presented to Do and Els Meeus to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

We left the hotel at 7.30am for a drive of just over 400 kms to the city of Indore, the motor manufacturing centre of India. I took the photo below of my navigator with Jingers our ace mechanic, who up to now I have not needed to call upon. Let's hope that continues.


Sadly, our first stop at the Ajanta Caves had to be cancelled as they are closed on a Monday. The caves are another of India's religious sites dating back more than a thousand years.

We drove on until we came to the hilltop fort, Asirgarth. As we arrived me met Tom and Rosalie Gatsonides who had been to the top and said it was a difficult and very narrow drive to the top. We decided to take photos from the bottom, one of which is below.


We then drove on to the Hindu temples at Omakareshwar where pilgrims bathe in the waters of the rivers that run in front of the temples.

A huge hydro-electric scheme has been built with a giant aqueduct taking the water through huge concrete canals for irrigation.


We finished the day arriving in Indore before dark, which was extremely fortunate as the driving on the road into Indore was the worst we have seen so far. Several horrendous truck accidents and at one point I was forced off the road by a lorry overtaking another coming up to the blind crest of a hill. Fortunately there was sufficient room on the side of the road for me to take evasive action.

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