Bijapur to Pechewar Fort 260kms

Monday 11th February 2019

Bijapur to Pechewar Fort 260kms

NOTE: Apologies if some of the photos in recent posts had been inverted or flipped on publishing; its a problem between WP and IOS. Should be OK now.

This post is a big one..make sure to check out all the videos..turn your speakers up for the music and dancing 🙂

Due to the all night music last night I was up early, I got some lukewarm water for a wash and then decided to go for a quick walk into the village before breakfast. Not much here in this shitty (literally) little place, very basic houses but I did find a brightly decorated tractor 😊

We set off early and woke the village up with the sound of 6 Enfields as we left. Soon we came up behind a guy carrying a dead cow strapped to the back of his motorbike 🤣🏍 first time I’ve seen that! 

We were riding on narrow back roads through nice countryside, then a stretch of highway ; we turned off and were back on the country roads. We hit a a long stretch of unmade surface with loose sand and big ruts and potholes; we bounced our way along in clouds of dust…good fun 🤪

We went through more little villages and then stopped for chai.. a crowd of locals quickly formed to stare at us; we were the main attraction. The chai is made freshly in front of us; great taste of thick milky tea with ginger, black pepper and other spices added..very tasty. Poor Trevor was suffering from stomach cramps so sat quietly in the shade while we tried to converse with the crowd and show them the pics we took, which made them laugh 😆 cows and goats joined us, and a little pig.. marvellous 😎

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Off we went again and shortly after pulled over as we seemed to have lost Trevor; we thought he may have made an “emergency” stop, but our leader’s phone rang to say Tevors chain had snapped and fallen off. Our mechanic rode back to fix his bike leaving Fred, Andy and me by the side of the road in this small village. Quickly word got out and a crowd of ladies and guy’s formed to look at us 👀 We took pics and laughed with each-other. We were introduced to brothers, sisters, grandparents and one pretty young girl carrying a big bowl of cow dung on her head..wonderful. What lovely people, made our day and theirs too I think 👍

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Off we went again; never a dull moment in India; soon we turned off on a sandy track around a big lake, women were washing clothes on the lakeside. After a while we came to a dam and stopped to admire the view, there was a small temple. A guy tried to sell us a boat ride and an old man seemed to be asking Trevor for money, or maybe enquiring about his health? 😊

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We went on our way again through some lovely countryside on a nice bendy road. Suddenly Trevor came to the head of the pack indicating to pull over.. seems Delhi belly had struck. He made a quick exit to a clump of bushes.. needs must 🤣

Shortly after we got going again a group of little pigs jumped out of the hedge and Bo missed one by inches. Latter we compared notes on our various animal near misses; Bo pig, Fred sheep, Andy goat, Trev monkey, me water buffalo and Narendra antelope; all part of riding in India 🏍😱

As we went through one busy town we picked our way through the traffic passing on either side through any gap we could find. There was one gap I thought was on, but Andy didn’t.. result was I shunted him; no damage done though and we both stayed on. Strangely that is the nearest thing to an accident I’ve seen since arriving; truly amazing when you consider the “no rules” driving here!!!

This had been one of our best riding days  and it was about to get even better in the evening!! We turned off the road onto a sandy track which led to Pechewar Fort, another very ancient building now an hotel. We went straight for the cold beer and were told that we could have a turban tying demo before dinner 👍

We had a few dark rums to warm up and then went for the turban session, which also included dressing us in the traditional Rajasthan way.. what a laugh 🤭 We ate dinner dressed like this, Bo & Fred could be mistaken for locals with their grey beards 👌

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I had run out of cash so needed an ATM, there was one at the end of the sandy approach track. We could hear very loud music and singing coming from that way so went to check it out. We could see a tented area ahead where the music was coming from, we put our heads in to take a look and were immediately invited in and ushered to sit cross legged at the front. The music was really loud now with several guys playing various instruments and an old guy twirling and twitching in some form of dance.

There were children, men and a lot of ladies with their faces covered sat at the back. We had created a lot of interest and its great they should invite us into their party. The old man dancer came to me and gave me small symbols to play along with the music; my attempts caused great laughter it seemed. Then someone dragged me up and motioned me to dance..well it would have been rude to decline so I set about doing an Indian version of dad dancing, embarassing.. this had them all busting themselves with laughter 😂 After a bit Bo and Fred also got up and we all jigged around.. shame we hadn’t kept our turbans on 😆

We were trying to talk with a few of the local guys, but a mix of noise and their broken English made it difficult. We were offered cigarettes and candy and then two ladies got up to dance, faces covered. They twirled and whirled to the music, real movers.. fantastic, what a great night with friendly people 👍👌

Finally we managed to drag ourselves away, they didn’t want us to go. The only downside was that the music went on all through the night!!! Earplugs in again 😱