Monday 4the February 2019
Long way to go today so it was an 8am start. No fog, but it was clear and cold. Again seriously cold hands and after an hour or so I was losing the will to live; thankfully Narendra pulled in and we shared a roadside fire with another couple of cold guys👍 By mid morning it had warmed up and we stopped for chai break at a little shack in the middle of nowhere. We are now heading into desert and the landscape is pretty barren.
Not much around here 
Our support vehicle
The road to Jaisalmer is straight and well surfaced; riding at a steady 80/90kph suits the Enfield but gets boring and you feel every ache and pain. I found out that Andrew, one of the other Brits, had not ridden a bike for 20yrs before coming to India and was naturally aprehensive about the traffic coming at him from all angles.. gonna be a steep learning curve for him I thought! On one long stretch even the thud of the big cylinder couldn’t stop my mind wandering, then suddenly Bo came roaring past and sped off up the long straight road ahead.. I decided to go for it too and Fred followed me. Soon I saw an indicated 140kph, caught Bo and zoomed past; we carried on like this for quiet a way before pulling over to let the others catch up.. our little blast was fun and lifted my spirits 😊
Curry for lunch and then off again on this long straight road which had to be done I suppose to cover the distance we needed to. Soon we started to see camels by the roadside and we pulled over to take a look. It was a group of guys with 30+ camels; they seemed friendly and took us to see a couple of camels with their babies, one was only 2 days old the other 4 days. We took loads of pics and their hands came out for money, we paid a few rupees and everyone was happy. (This is the way of the world here, everyone has their hand out when they see some foreign visitors)
Camels by the road 
What you looking at?
Ship of the desert 
Not everyday riding
Off we went again, nice sunny day and pleasant riding temperature. Every now and again we would meet a pack of cows or goats sauntering across the road. We saw signs for a Military base ahead, as we passed by we saw 2 big tanks positioned outside. We are now getting up towards the Pakistan border so that might explain it.
Finally we arrived at the outskirts of Jaisalmer and we entered the town chaos; by now we are familiar with the bikes and getting used to the way things work on the road here, so this part of the road is actually good fun. None of the antics are aggressive, it’s just every man for himself.. we can do that too 😎
The hotel was called Pleasant Haveli; and it was too. Lots of hot water and a nice shower. There was a roof terrace where we could drink beer and overlook the magnificent Jaisalmer Fort.. the whole city is made of yellowish sandstone and looked great in the setting sun. More beer and curry and another day was done. Tomorrow we will visit the fort, the largest in Rajasthan with 4000 people living within its walls.
Tuesday 5th February 2019
A morning in Jaisalmer then on to Pokaran Fort 140kms
After a nice breakfast we had a guided tour of the very impressive Jaisalmer Fort, originally the home of the Maharaja, and the surrounding streets.. what an experience that was; we came to see the “real” India and this was it!
Get you vegetables here
The streets leading to the fort were often very narrow with open running sewers each side of the street so that people could throw their waste water etc. out of their front door into the sewer. We shared the narrow roadway with motorbikes, cows, pigs and dogs and ladies dressed in beautiful colourful saris; it was advisable to watch where you were treading as, to speak plainly, there was lots of cow shit everywhere😱
Here’s a couple of clips that will give you the idea.
As we approached the entrance to the Fort it became obvious that all the locals were out to sell the tourists something, shoe shine, jewellery, T-shirt etc. or just 100 rupees for a photo.. well we all have to make a living 😊
This the biggest Fort in Rajasthan and sits on top of a hill overlooking the rest of the town; 4000 people live within its walls, including the Maharaja’s palace. The palace was a work of art architecturally, these guys had real wealth back in the day. The view from the Fort was impressive, certainly it would have been difficult for an enemy attack it.
The Fort walls 
A work of art 
Looking down 
The pigeons like it here 
Impressive 
Ornate
As we walked through the streets we saw all sorts of interesting people.. check out some examples here.
It pays to know the art of negotiation here to try and get the best price on any potential purchase..we found it always comes as the seller follows you down the street after you’ve said no and walked away 🤣😎
Sometimes you just have to pay up to take a pic you really want.. This lady has 7 children she said!
After lunch we set out for Pokaran Fort, around 140kms back along that long straight road again. We made the journey more entertaining by Fred, Bo and I racing ahead now and again. This is a single carriageway road in each direction and it’s possible to see way ahead; we noticed 2 very large and heavily laden trucks coming towards us in the distance, as we got closer the 2nd truck decided to pull out and try an overtake, very slowly..so BOTH lanes were blocked 😱 This road has a narrow strip at the side for the small mopeds so we hastily took to that and were able to just avoid the two big trucks..that was a close one 😎 We have all this on video and will post when the WiFi is good enough.
They let us in 
Fort gates 
We’ve arrived
We arrived at Pokaran Fort situated in a small dirty town, we roared in through the big gates scattering the public visitors as we did and lined the bikes up against the fort walls; we are actually staying in this old fort.. should be interesting 😬After a couple of beers we had a stroll round the fort and were accosted by a big family from Mumbai who wanted selfies with us. 😎 Tried to have a shower before dinner, but no hot water 😡, gave up in the end. The bed was the hardest I have ever slept on and it was so cold; outside someone was chanting monotonously and the sound was amplified as it bounced off the fort walls; this went on all through the night and then ramped up in volume at 6am.. I tried ear plugs but even that didn’t shut out the chant totally..apparently there was a big religious festival over the next couple of days The guy finally got scared away when our mechanic started to fire up the bikes for his morning check 👍