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Wednesday, January 22nd – Pushkar to Masuda, 16,729 km
Our next major destination is Ranakpur, the holiest Jain site in Rajasthan. It is about three days ride from Pushkar, or perhaps two if we wanted to follow the truck route from Ajmer to Udaipur most of the way, but we don’t. Our map is not that detailed, but there is a longer route heading south-east towards the city of Nasirabad, an army town of about 50,000. It won’t be quite as busy as the main route, and part way to Nasirabad there is a side road that heads south through what should be a very quiet region.
Regardless of what route we end up taking, our first step of the way is to return to Ajmer. Once in Pushkar, we learned there is a shorter route back that climbs through a small pass. So we load up and head back to Ajmer. It is a pleasant ride on a smaller road but the traffic is not too quiet, being that is the most direct route between the cities. Most of the traffic in the morning seems to be coming from the direction of Ajmer, that doesn’t mean anything as trucks frequently cross onto our side to pass other traffic.
This route passes a Scouts Camp just before the climb to the pass. The climb is only 100 m, which takes us about 10 minutes, but it provides a nice view of Ajmer on the other side, and then the route takes us around the opposite side of Anasagar Lake, the beautiful lake that Ajmer is built beside. When we reach the city centre, we stop to buy fruit and breads for the rest of the trip.
At the street market, I wait beside an older woman seated with her produce for sale on the ground in front of her, while Frank finishes his purchase. One of the sweet natured ‘bapelos’ (oxen) strolls by and spies her cabbage. It rolls its eyes but waits until it is right in front of us before swinging its huge head our way and taking an impressively large bite out of the cabbage before the woman can stop it. She is on her feet swatting the bapelo’s rump and cursing it as it trots away. It was funny to see, but his poor old woman has just lost a meal’s worth of wages.
It is too early to take a long break so we set off again after 20 minutes. There doesn’t seem to be many villages on the stretch of highway we want to take. That the pay-off: a route with less traffic has fewer opportunities to buy food or fill our water bottles.
Nasirabad Road is easy enough to find, branching off from the main route after two kilometres. It too has its share of truck traffic, as well as every other kind of vehicle, but it is definitely the lesser of the two evils. We are only on it for seven kilometres, shortly past the last industrial buildings associated with Ajmer.
The side road we have chosen is paved but without painted lines for much of it. The traffic is very light, as we can see why. It twists and winds all over the place over rolling terrain. It is hard to tell which direction we are going half the time, since the sun is behind the clouds most of the way. But we trust the map and enjoy the feeling of being lost in the desert steppe lands of western India. There are short razorback mountain ridges jutting up here or there a couple kilometres away, but no passes we need to climb through.
An hour on the road brings up to a crossing with an east-west district road that leads between Nasirabad and the main truck route. At this point we can place where we are on my not-too-detailed map. From here to the town of Masada, our road is flatter and generally straighter, but just as barren and unpopulated most of the way. Closer to Masada, we see more farmers and vehicles, but that is almost two hours further.
Masada is not much of a town, but it does have an inn, which saves us having to cycle another hour west to Beawar, a city of 100,000 on the truck route south from Ajmer. There are small stalls to buy our dinner in and desert stalls too, but no facilities for travelers other than these. We are well off the beaten path and are probably the only foreigners in the town tonight. It is boring but cheap.
Frank has yet another broken spoke and he is fretting over it quite a bit. He is getting faster at fixing them though. We won’t be able to find a bike shop before Udaipur and he is getting low on spokes. He’s down to his last half-dozen. I forgot to bring any spare spokes for myself so I am glad I am not having his re-occurring problem.
PHOTO 1: leaving Pushkar
PHOTO 2: friendly cow at the market in Ajmer
PHOTO 3: small village of Masuda
PHOTO 4: women in the desert outside of Masuda
PHOTO 5: temple outside of Masuda
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