DAY FOUR… 16.65 miles (26.80 km)
Our first ride today. We rise at 5.30am for a 6am set off. We have a packed breakfast of omelette and poha with us. Somehow dawn did not seem to comply with our plans. It was not light till about 6.30am, when we did finally set off. No earlier so as to avoid aggravating any roaming dogs. We rode through a rather soupy, fly ridden air. OK for those with glasses, but I had to close my eyes which was a bit hazardous. Sarus cranes were feeding in the fields and it was all very beautiful.
Fatephur Sikri, our destination, is a city built by the Mogul Emperor Akbar, in honour of a Sufi saint, but abandoned only 14 years later. This was due to lack of water, a bit of an obvious oversight I would have thought, but there it is.
We were mercilessly beset by tourist touts wanting us to buy carved stone stuff, like tiny elephants (Anna did succumb to the pressure!). Just more for us to carry, which we don’t need.
7pm. We have been invited to take part in a pooja, a ceremony around a figure made of cow dung. Cow dung is very important in these parts, and cycling through the rural villages it seems to be the focus of most of the activity. Cow dung is gathered, shaped by hand into round flat patties, then dried on walls and stored in purpose built thatched huts, also constructed from the said substance. The ceremony involved a little procession around the cow dung figure, chanting a mantra, and throwing some puffed rice at it. It is celebrating Govardhana, a mountain that Krishna apparently held up in his hands, like an umbrella, to protect all the local people from terrible monsoon rain caused by Indra.
We are about to eat at our hotel restaurant. We tried it for lunch and it really was not appealing, but, according to the Rough Guide it is ‘the best place in town’, so we are going to have to brave it. Just for information, our hotel is also the ‘best hotel in town’. It has no hot water (till 5am), no air con either.
