Arriving in Delhi in March, the temperature was somewhat higher than in Europe at about 30øC, but surprisingly, not unpleasant due to the lack of humidity. As this was our third visit to Delhi, the hustle and bustle of humanity, the porters vying to push our luggage trolley and the general feeling of organised chaos, came as little of a surprise. However, there were some changes since our last visit. The drive into the city seemed to take much less time than previously, I think because the road had been widened in places and the extension of the metro system had reduced the traffic by a minuscule but noticeable amount.

The drive from Udaipur to Bijaypur was nothing if not interesting. En route, we visited Chittaugarh Fort, a huge fortification with a whole town within it. Built on a one hundred and fifty metre high plateau in the Aravalli Hills, it is in ruins but well-restored. The entrance is on the north west side and the road winds up through seven individually named gates, each with its own guardhouse. The first gate is known as Padal Pol (lowest gate) followed by Bhairav Pol (Bhairav being an attendant of the Goddess Durga), Hanuman Pol (this gate has a temple and a shrine dedicated to the Monkey God Hanuman), Ganesh Pol (for the Elephant God), Jorla Pol, Lakshman Pol and finally Ram Pol (Gate of the God Ram) which was built in AD 1459. The gateway located on the eastern side of the fort is known as Suraj Pol (Sun Gate).

One of our main reasons for travelling to India this time was the hope of seeing a tiger (or several) in the wild. We had been to Kenya many times and thus had seen a large variety of fascinating wild animals, including, lions, a cheetah, elephants, buffalo, giraffes and all sorts of antelopes, but of course tigers don't live in Africa, so this was a big hole in our list of "must sees".