Day 4 - Jodhpur

With Jodhpur city seemingly running at the same high tempo as Delhi, it was a great relief to step out of my Tuc-tuc at Mehrangarh Fort early this morning, which watches over Jodhpur from its rock plinth 400 ft below. The city noises were faint, the light soft, and the loudest sound was the birds in the trees.

Before building started in 1460, the leader of the Rathore Clan had first to eject a hermit who was living on the rock who was so indignant, he set a curse. To assuage the spirits, a cleric needed a living sacrifice, so a man volunteered to be buried alive in the foundations. The fort is vast, and full of treasures. The arrival of the Rathore clan marked the creation of Jodhpur as a key trading city, sitting strategically between Delhi to the north and the port of Gujarat to the south.

The current head of the Rathore clan no longer lives there, so it is open for visitors. He (Gaj Singh II) was crowned at the age of just 4 following the death of his father in 1952 in an aircraft crash, and is now an Indian politician and diplomat.

There are some great gardens to the north and I then visited the mausoleum of the Rathore clan, Jaswant Thada, made of a beautiful white marble, suitably ostentatious!

My day ends with a 6 hr train ride, west into the Thar desert, sadly all in the dark, to Jaisalmer; first class of course, for £12……😊Read more