Hampi

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Hot Hampi

Wow! what a contrast. We found ourselves in the middle of a "lunar" landscape, large smooth boulders lay all over as if sprinkled from the sky. Forming hills and defying gravity by balancing in the most unlikely way, one on top of the other.

For at least a thousand years this has been a holy place. Evidence of stone temples and forts was everywhere, spread out over a vast, mesmerizing landscape, cut through by several crystal clear rivers.

We stayed in the old town of Hampi Bazaar, made almost entirely of local stone. The bazaar itself seemed unchanged, and families still lived in the most basic accommodation....going to the river each morning to bathe and wash clothes, and often sleeping under the stars at night, trying to escape the desert heat.

We took a rickshaw tour of all the main temples and sites for the day. A highlight for me was a temple that due to being mostly underground remained flooded all year round. Torches at the ready we splashed our way through to the inner sanctum, and found not only a massive bat colony roosting in the roof, but fish swimming at our feet! India is FULL of surprises.

The main Hindu temple in town had a temple elephant called Lakshmi, who went to the river each morning to bath with her keeper and we were lucky enough to be able to roll up our trousers and get scrubbing, though not as vigorously as the Indians, who used stones as well as brushes to keep her in tip top condition........... definitely my new favorite animal!!

Guy, using all his boyish charm, managed to wangle a sneaky excursion into the large Gopura (usually very much out of bounds, especially to foreigners), we climbed up very dark narrow, slightly scary bat infested stairs, all the way to the top. Our reward was a stunning view all across the town to the river, boulders and beyond.
As we descended a massive thunder and lightning storm blew in... we rushed up the nearest hill to witness this powerful spectacle, dark skies zig zagged with bolts of white, followed by the inevitable rumbling thunder that seemed to vibrate through the rocks.

Due to the intense heat dawn and dusk were once again our time to explore on foot.
We spent a very special sunset 600 steps up a "boulder hill" surrounded by a troop of monkeys, who when not trying to steal our water bottles also seemed to sit and watch as the sky glowed orange and pink and purple. Sunsets really our special here...no light pollution at all.

GP went from here back to the beach for a few days and Guy and I carried on our Rock Temple mission further north....... Ajanta and Ellora here we come

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