Woke up without alarm clocks this morning and headed out straight away to Mehrangarh Fort. The walls of the fort soar overhead as we climbed up to the fort and the curves of the fort hug the curves of the hill, demonstrating the skills of the builders! There are seven gates into the fort, one of which is still scarred with cannonball hits. Another gate is set at a right angle to the path so that attackers didn’t have a clear run up at the gate which is one of the reason why the fort has never been taken by force. The final gate has numerous tiny hand prints next to it – from the Maharaja Man Singh’s widows, who all threw themselves upon his funeral pyre in 1843.
The fort has been beautifully restored and the museum was really interesting. The audio guide was included in cost of the admission ticket so we were geeks listening to the mix of history, information and narrated anecdotes. The displays holding the royal howdahs (elephant seats), miniature paintings, armoury and other palace items was really well presented. The camel-bone carpet weights were a particular favourite! There was also a turban museum which was quite interesting, mostly on how turbans will be sized and tied differently about every 25km.
After the fort, we headed down to the flying fox (zip wire) that went around the outer fort grounds. After a quick practise go, we were off! First zip line went straight over the moat from one of the fort walls. We then had 5 more zip lines going across the fort walls, moat and grounds. The longest zip line was 350 metres – it was scary but fantastic! It took about an hour and a half to complete all the lines (there was 9 of us and 2 instructors) but the view was so amazing that it didn’t feel like we were waiting very long!!
Once we’d finished, we watched the sun set over the blue city and we walked along the main road back towards the main square. Just walked around until we decided that we needed a sit down and some food. Had some more traditional Rajasthan dishes – amazing but bit more spicy tonight… Lips were on fire! Went to have a shower only to find out that the guest house has run out of water?!? Apparently, more will be delivered tomorrow so we’re going to bed slightly stinky but, after today, with big smiles on our faces!!
Trans Travels 