Day 87: Kudigli to Hampi

Wow! Socks knocked off

Today’s ride was relatively short and mostly along the main road. We got up early again and were able to beat the heat. The now usual crowd gathered as we bought water and snacks and then we were off.

Our favoured snack of the moment for mid-ride is like an Eccles cake, but with candied fruit rather than  raisins. Eccles and India will have to fight it out for who came up with it first.

The long straight main road was good to cycle on, but the traffic has definitely increased as we go north, as has the industrialisation, with several steel plants and a large mine by the road here.

We turned off the main road to head in to Hosapete, the biggest town around here and the gateway to Hampi - our destination.

We managed to get an ATM to give us some money (not always a given) and I managed to get a SIM card for my phone (a difficult procedure outside the big cities it seems). Getting a SIM card took quite a while, allowing Sarina to discuss the merits of disc brakes and dynamo hubs with an large crowd, and one particularly interested chap.

Then, we were off to Hampi.

Hampi is the site of the medieval city of Vijayanagar, capital of one of the largest Hindu empires in history, and by the sixteenth century a bustling metropolis of over 500,000 residents. It was finally sacked by the combined forces of the Deccan sultans from the northand has lain in ruins ever since.

That much you can read in the books, and as we rode into the area it wasn’t a surprise to see some ancient buildings in the fields around in various states of ruin.

We checked in to our guesthouse in the Hampi bazaar area and had a bit of a rest before heading out to watch the sun set from a nearby ridge.

It was a bit unclear which direction to head and we ended up behind a modern looking building looking confused a local guy popped up and asked if we were looking for the sunset and the pointed us up some steps. At the top, a young boy led us down some steps into a cave. This was feeling pretty weird at this point  (Tiger’s spidey-sense was tingling - the sun doesn’t often set inside caves), but the boy led us on through an opening out into a large boulder amongst the ruins.

The light was already golden and the view was incredible. Like another world, magical.

We had time to take it in before the sun dipped below the horizon and we headed back down the hill.

The construction of so many buildings out of the rock is so simple, and yet such an immense undertaking. Tiger pointed out you could see where the rocks had been split, and even sometimes, where the had failed to split a rock.

The structures all followed a similar pattern, columns supporting a cross shaped piece that supports up to four lintels. This pattern even being repeated to create a precarious looking second storey on occasion.

Amazing place, we’re “blown away.”