DAY FOUR

91 kms today.

Sore bum. What can I say? Saddle – OUCH!

But feeling much stronger than yesterday. A cold and early start to the day but 57 km by lunchtime. Scenery fantastic and changing every ten minutes – from muddy brown to lush green, vast expanses of flat to hills, mountains and the strangest terrain which I could only describe as flat mogul hills! And spattered intermittently across these hills and fields were simple blobs of the most vivid and exciting colours – the women, in their glorious saris, working in the fields. This was a constant, breathtaking site. Amid the dirt and dust and filth and mud and hardship, here these women appeared in splashes of glorious colour, with ineffable pride in their appearance and turned out such that the majority of Western women would be put to shame. This became my picture of India. A brown canvas, spattered with brilliant and vibrant colours; droplets of melted rainbow fallen from the burning sky. This is my picture.

Tonight we arrived at The General’s palace (don’t ask – he’s just known as The General). He was providing us with all the tents, too. Some of us had rooms at the palace, some were in tents. The tents got the better option, I have to say. Me, I was on a raised floor with a bit of carpet for a mattress. Close enough, anyway. There was an extra treat in store for us, though. On arriving here we discovered a large group of schoolchildren sitting on the lawn. It seems that for every guest at the palace The General awards a uniform to a schoolchild. Today, we each got to present a uniform to one of the children. It was very special. We also got to visit a local school – to which we’d donated a bundle of choice paraphernalia (stationary, books, etc.). Children would board at this school from the age of FOUR!!!! Sad, eh? But I suppose that if it’s a choice of a future for your child, then you’d do it. I’m glad we didn’t get to meet any 4-year-old boarders. I think I would have been a mess. But we met the older children, who were delightful and all wanted our ‘autographs’!!