Monday 13 March 2000

Jaisamand lake is actually a reservoir held between the mountains.  Palaces top the surrounding hills.  Sadly, the complex is rather dilapidated and we only stopped for a short walk. 

We then resumed our journey.  We were initially travelling through back roads.  Although their quality was excellent, the remaining original Ironman shock absorber broke and we had to remove it.  We felt that this would not be a problem as we planned to move back onto more major roads.  Wrong!  It would appear that the backroads of Rajasthan are like motorways when compared with the main roads of Madhya Pradesh!  We initially thought that we had taken a minor road by accident until we started ticking off the towns.  Just the kind of roads that really need fully functioning shockers. 

We changed our destination plan and headed to Indore – a major city, in the hope that we could find a replacement or repair.  Arrived late and checked into the first hotel with a car park – the Shreemayer.  Turns out to be rather grand.  We even have a phone that will direct dial out – we’ll update the website while we are here.

Forgot to mention - we passed through a major barley growing area and saw several combine harvesters - instead of the usual hand harvesting!