After leaving Mumbai the humidity diminished noticeably, but the heat increased. Whilst on the truck it is not so bad, the artificial wind aids evaporation, but as soon as the truck stopped the heat hits you like a hammer blow and water repellance resumes with a vengeance. Ahead of us were three nights rough camping.
Our first stop was at the second largest vineyard in India just outside Mumbai. Here we were given a tour, an explanation of how the wine is made and an insight into the Indian Wine industry - very interesting. I guess I have never really encountered Indian wine which is not all that surprising for whilst they do export they are concentrating more on the rather more lucrative home market. After the tour we retired to the balcony for a relaxing afternoon and some quality tasting time. I have to be honest and say that my expectations were low, but I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. The wine was pretty darned good, and I walked away with three very nice bottles, which I must remember to drink before more people join the trip. Way too good to share :)
An afternoon gazing out over the vineyard and surrounding country was a pretty nice way to spend our first day on the road in India and our first rough camp promised to be pretty nice too. We camped just below the vineyard near a dam, and there had our first experience of the curiosity of local Indians. At every camp so far we have unwittingly provided the evening's entertainment with between 10 and 40 locals turning out to quite literally stare at us more or less until it is too dark to see. It is quite disconcerting at first to have the entire population of a local village turn out to observe your every move. We came to be spectators but are definitely, at least in part, the spectacle.
Unfortunately camping in the hot humid weather is not such a pleasant experience. It is way too hot and humid to pitch a tent - especially the hot cotton and canvas tents we have been provided with - and on that first night I lost (I am sure :) at least a third of my body fluid and got no more than three hours sleep. I resolved from that point on not to use the tent.
Oh that it were that simple...
Our first stop was at the second largest vineyard in India just outside Mumbai. Here we were given a tour, an explanation of how the wine is made and an insight into the Indian Wine industry - very interesting. I guess I have never really encountered Indian wine which is not all that surprising for whilst they do export they are concentrating more on the rather more lucrative home market. After the tour we retired to the balcony for a relaxing afternoon and some quality tasting time. I have to be honest and say that my expectations were low, but I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. The wine was pretty darned good, and I walked away with three very nice bottles, which I must remember to drink before more people join the trip. Way too good to share :)
An afternoon gazing out over the vineyard and surrounding country was a pretty nice way to spend our first day on the road in India and our first rough camp promised to be pretty nice too. We camped just below the vineyard near a dam, and there had our first experience of the curiosity of local Indians. At every camp so far we have unwittingly provided the evening's entertainment with between 10 and 40 locals turning out to quite literally stare at us more or less until it is too dark to see. It is quite disconcerting at first to have the entire population of a local village turn out to observe your every move. We came to be spectators but are definitely, at least in part, the spectacle.
Unfortunately camping in the hot humid weather is not such a pleasant experience. It is way too hot and humid to pitch a tent - especially the hot cotton and canvas tents we have been provided with - and on that first night I lost (I am sure :) at least a third of my body fluid and got no more than three hours sleep. I resolved from that point on not to use the tent.
Oh that it were that simple...
posted by Al at 10:36 pm
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