The Gir lions
Jamnagar and Jumnabad
Bhuj and about
I ran
Apologies for the naff title of the page but it details the next few days which involved quite a bit of travelling. The first, a day trip to the world Heritage site of Champaner, then the following day north to the ancient capital of Patan and the Rani Ka Vav stepwell and Modhera Sun Temple and then my two days at the Little Ran of Kutch with the Desert Courses. 9th February For today, I had decided to go to…
Ahmedabad
INDIA 26: GUJARAT. Stage 1 Like last year my preferred way of travel was via Germany with Lufthansa, so a mere 19 hours from Porto, I was in downtown Ahmedabad at the Hotel Good Night. And the first thing I did was make a little video: As it was my first day I thought I’d take it easy and just have a stroll around the old town which is entered through the arches of the Teen Darwaza I wandered down…
Roman Gold and Gaudi’s Palace
We’d seen a lot of what Galicia had to offer but for our latest trip we went just a little bit more east, into the region of Castile and Leon and more specifically the locale of Ponferrada. So far inland there were no beaches but we were after history and a bit of hiking in spectacular countryside. We were rewarded with both. We’d booked three nights in a cottage in a small hamlet just outside Ponferrada which was about 4.5…
Elephanta
The final day of India 2025! Another boat trip, this time to Elephanta Island and more caves. As usual I was up early and headed for the Gateway of India. As is also usual, there was no definitive information about the first ferry to Elephant. I got to the ticket office about 8:15 and the man there sold me a ticket and told me the first ferry left at 9 but could be earlier if there were enough people and…
Mumbai
22 Feb 2025 Got the bus from Murud up the coast to Alibag. Quite a pleasant trip, coastal scenery and a nice breeze coming in the window. At Alibag bus station I needed a few directions to the ferry company offices from where I got their bus to the ferry terminal at Mandwa and we were soon away on the open sea. The ferry trip was quite pleasant, followed most of the way by loads of gulls coming quite close,…
Island fortress
From Pune I was headed due west over the Western Ghats to the coastal fortress of Janjira and the ancient Princely State of the same name. However, there was no transport. Everything went via Mumbai, so I took a taxi. The reason there were no buses was probably because the land was fairly sparsely populated and we had to descend through one of the few valleys of the Western Ghats, the long chain of mountains running parallel to the west…