Rhinos aka “The Unicorns Uncle”

 

5 April 2013 Siliguri, West Bengal, India 211 km

We started very early today due to no power at the hotel ALL night. Which means no fan= hot=mosquitos=no sleep.

Riding now through tea plantations. Everything is getting lush and green. Still hot.

We needed a couple of days off riding. Butt breaks mostly.

8-9 April 2013 Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary

We took a jeep “safari” through this wildlife sanctuary where there are supposed to be wild elephants and the famous one horned rhino. They are quickly becoming extinct due to poachers killing it for the magical horn which grosses mass amounts of money in Chinese medicine. We woke up at 430 am to see these magical creatures.  It was well worth it about 25 minutes into the park we saw 2 rather large rhinos in the tall grass. we stopped and watched until they came out to cross the road. We were in the jeep and Paul was taking photos and for some reason the flash kept going off. I do not think they like it so they started to come towards the jeep. These guys are HUGE and literally made of armor. not something you want to cuddle with. we slowly stared to move forward and they seemed happy with that and then kept on there way. We got a couple of good shots of them. We also saw plenty of peacock and peahens. The cocks strutting there stuff for the hens. Wild elephant and barking dear (which I think they have confused with another type of dog;)

Work it. Barking Deer or Dogs?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bihar

 

April 3  Gorakhpur-muzzaffarpur 266km

  Arrived in the new state of Bihar.  Said to be one of the poorest in the country and by the looks of things I would say its verry poor.  Some very huge potholes for a couple of hours today.  Its very slow going now.  All everything backs up bumper to bumper.  Cops tried to stop us today during the slow going crater sized hole road section. They were flagging us down but we just kept going and as usual they did not chase after us. Got sprayed with cow shit from a Lori truck in of me. Makes it worse that last week I turned to look at something and my visor flew right of my helmet.  Camilles flew off the same day.  Well you get what you paid for.  They were on 12 us dollars.

April 4 Muzzaffarpur-Araria  245km

    WOW the wind is CRANKING today.  Blowing us and sand all over!!  The wind does have a positive effect though. Its making it feel not as hot as the last few days of riding.  Good thing we have lots of practice riding in wind.  Its very windy, but we have ridden in worse down on route 40 in Patagonia last year.  The sand storm we were riding in today was a new one for us.  You know it’s a real sandstorm when it starts to shade out the sun. Its dancing all over the road so much it starts to put you in a hypnotic state.  Its like when you start to focus on the actual rain drops on your helmet visor instead of the road when its raining. Still no one puts on their headlights.  The only time they use headlights during the day is when they are riding down a one-way road the wrong way. I really think our air filters need a cleaning now  We do however get about 110 miles per gallon.  Camille's Hero Krishna seem to get a little better mileage than my Pee-Wee. 

     Passed two Cops on a bike today.  They pulled back up to the side of me and flagged me over.  I looke them over and they not only are real cops but they have guns instead of sticks(like usual),and are on wheel instead of foot.  I decided that yes its time to pull over.  There English is very little and my Hindi is just about nothing. They say” where you from?” and “whats in the bags?” I ssay “Problem?”  Then one pulls out his wallet and we are thinking they want money.  Nope he pulls out a passport photo of a white girl with brown hair.  He then motions for Camille to pull down her scarf.  He looks at the picture and then Camille and gives us the head bob that means OK. We start the bikes and hit the road.  Well that went a lot smoother than I thought it would.  Didn’t have to give them IDs or Money.

HOLI. TAJ. ELEPHANT.adventures!

26-28 MARCH 2013 Jaipur, Rajasthan India

ELEPHANT FESTIVAL AND HOLI 2013

   We decided to take a detour and go to the deserts of Rajasthan for the Elephant Festival. Sounds really neat, painted elephants parading around the streets, playing tug o war and polo. This year they switched things up a bit and let the elephants out of the festival? Thank you animal rights in India? We did not find this out until we were at the arena waiting for the elephants. We did see a lot of dancers there.

    Next day was Holi. India’s festival of colors to celebrate and welcome spring. You pretty much just through color on each other and dance around. Everybody is COVERED in different colors.

29 March-30 March

Jaipur- Agra, Uttar Pradesh India 230 km

Arrived in Agra, Home of the Taj Mahal  and it was closed! Every Friday. So that gave us the chance to see the Taj by sun rise the next day.  It was beautiful. We have been to India many times and Paul has never been to visit the Taj. We went first thing in the morning and after waiting in line we walked right in while all the other tourists were outside still taking photos. WE got the whole place to ourselves. It really is a beautiful tomb. It attracts a lot of people a day.

We wanted to make some miles after that,  pack up and headed east. Not much on the road as far as restaurants and hotels so we gathered some veggies and water and prepared to camp for the night. We stopped a little too early for India (you should set up camp late or else you get a lot of visitors) A lot of visitor we had. at least 20 men and children, workers of the fields around, watched us set up camp, make dinner, eat dinner and go to bed. At about 11pm a motorcycle pulled up followed by a truck. We did not know what was going on, villagers wanting to check us out? Nope. COPS. and all the villagers telling us to pack up and move to the school. We could not sleep there even though we asked all the villagers before. No way were we going to follow them to the school, Cops can not be trusted anymore then anybody else here. WE rode down the road at midnight in India, no hotels anywhere. so 20 minutes later we pulled off and set up camp with  nobody around until 6:15am.   What a long day.

31 March 2013 Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh India 168km

After last night we wanted to relax a bit. We found a hotel with a pool at the right price and a circus around the corner with a evening show. Sounds like a good time.

 

  

Elephant Festival…No Elephants??? but lots of dancers

HOLI PARTY! we drove by this family dancing and we joined in the celebration.

My favorite dance partner.

    Playing HOLI.

TAJ MAHAL

coolest kid there.

 

 

 

Camp spot #1

 

Had to go to the Circus the see the elephants.