...and Simon Singh gave a colourful talk about the big bang.
On a public holiday, peacefulness was transitory...
....and again, but with an added human element.
Looking on
too nervous to look down?
Looking back (on the first week)
A two week textile and tribes tour in Gujarat, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. Out of respect, the state is both dry and vegetarian.
Durga, our erudite and articulate tour leader. As the tour progressed it became ever-clearer how appropriate it was that he should be sitting next to the words on the wall on our first day!
Gujarat is one of the less well-visited states by tourists, and even on the first day in the capital, Ahmedabad, it was evident that the locals were as interested in looking at us as we were at them
...at his Juliet below?
Praying peacefully in the courtyard below.
A mongoose peers out by the roadside
...here seen from the road below
Youngsters learn their craft anywhere there's a track, however unpromising
Typical road scenes, here on our way to visit a nomadic tribe that the Maharajah had said had taken his scouts two days to find (3)
The Maharajah talks to the village elders and the high priest
Scenes from the camp (6)
Spilling into the country road, Louise and Carmel are invited to join in the dancing at a village wedding (3)
The leader of the pack borrows Carmel's hat
On the way back to the Palace, a large car overtook the Maharajah's Jeep, and seeing him at the wheel, stopped and flagged us down, and all six got out to pay their respects. Another slice of Indian life.
Invited to photograph a bridal couple
In the hot sulphur water, cleaning something brown off my shoes.
Orchard Palace, Gondol, our next stay for two nights - faded glory masked by night and reflection (2)
...we start the textile part of the tour...
...women walk behind a wedding car in Gandhi's birth town of Porbundar
and from outside our hotel as the sun rises (2)...
The Indian grid designed by Heath Robinson?
A feral horse becomes friendlier after sharing our picnic lunch
The barren landscape, crunchy underfoot, and being close the the Pakistan border, requiring extra security check to visit
with the symmetry of electricity pylons nearby (2)
Another Prabhad roadside sighting...
Time to turn back? Note the lake in the background for which we transfer to a Jeep
