22nd February 2014 (Day 14) Sardargarh, Rajasthan, India

 

In the afternoon, the Maharaja took us on a tour of the township, where we met some of the people.

This woman, sitting in a doorway and wearing the traditional nose ring of the region,  was most amused by my appearance – a Westerner with a long and somewhat disreputable beard.

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This is a Nilgai or Blue Bull, a large, heavy antelope.  It prefers the plains with low hills and scrubs rather than dense rainforest, and is often considered a pest by farmers.

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Here is a local hermit.  He had a falling out with his family thirty years ago and has been living alone since, choosing never to speak.  When we arrived he was sitting on the ground surrounded by small birds.

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As you can see, he has extraordinarily long hair and beard.

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We are still in the same place, as an ox cart approaches.

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Our next stop was an ancient and sacred Neem tree.

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There are many fruit bats roosting here.  I don’t think you can see any in this image, though.

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A holy man from the Himlayas comes to visit from time to time and the locals built him a small house under the tree.

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Next we visited the houses of some of the villagers.

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Kitchen with stove in operation.

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Local woman wearing the traditional nose ring.

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Goats on the road.

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Young girls posing for a photograph.

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A kingfisher, probably a white-throated kingfisher.  This isn’t taken from a moving vehicle but I didn’t have a suitable lens and image quality is not so good because it’s just too far away.

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Later, we went to the lake for the sunset.  You can see the fort here in the distance on the horizon at the left.

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