Segment I: Home to Ellora caves (Aurangabad)

Sitting in the car we generally recite the trip objectives and our will to accomplish. This is to reinforce the confidence, relive stress and indent the plus factor in you. My wife and I rolled out at 6.08 am.

I had to continuously power my GPS navigator and my android phone, which is bit lavish on battery.

I used the inverter to connect the charger to one and the other I connected it to the USB. I mounted both the instruments for clear vision of skies for GPS. I needed to protect them form heat and Sun, during the day. I programmed them, but in excitement I forgot to record, the trip and save the track.

In the first leg, I had to pay toll twice once Rs. 29 at Thane and next Rs 50 after Ghoti.

It was 332 kms from home Thane-Mumbai to Ellora caves. It was an 8 hour drive. GPS advised Thane- Nasik- Sinnar – Shiridi- Vijapur - Devgoan – Ellora as the shortest route. It may have been shortest, but a bad choice. By saving 15 kms on a shortest route, I faced a bad patch of 100 kms and one additional hour of driving.

The lesson: Do not follow GPS blindly. Use local wisdom if not yours, in selecting the route.

The drive was very comfortable up to Nasik. At Dwaraka circle, we lost our way. There is a massive construction going on. After all, it is the ‘city under construction for a Country under repairs’. I had to depend on GPS. By the time, I felt comfortable with driving. I was deep into an alternative route.

I was advised that I carry a Google latitude enabled phone with GPRS, Wifi and GPS, switched on, all throughout. My son from a distant land, Switzerland and my daughter jus in the neighborhood while at home, were tracking my movements and me. I was also answerable to my adopted son and a former student of mine from overseas.

Initially I felt like a prisoner of war escaping with a radio collar. So many watching my whereabouts, so many tracking me, I felt every thing other than lonely. I am just joking, indeed I felt very cared for.

On day One, they kept calling us periodically to check the coordinates. With GPS devise, mobiles ringing, my navigator-wife was enacting the communications officer from the Army Signal Corps.

Keeping the arduous trip ahead I had unknown concerns about my car. Is the pick-up nice? Is the engine making additional noises? While shifting to higher gear, when the clutch is pressed; I used to get engine raving as if accelerator pedal is lowered. I had serious doubts about the condition of clutch. It took me along time to infer that the raving of engine was because of my bad footwork. I think I was tense, within.

While driving I had to keep in mind constantly, that I am stranger once I am out of my RTO zone. Normally, our observations depend on the nativity of car; local, out of district, out of state. We grow cynical and aggressive in commenting driving skills with farther car registration. I had to play very careful while overtaking local vehicles. These are the lessons we learn from long distance sorties. “Cars we own, roads we share.”

The drive was very comfortable with cabin temperature of 24 degrees. In the last leg, we blindly depended on GPS and it faithfully brought us to the destination.

We checked into Hotel Kailas at around 2.30 pm. Hotel, bang on the road, just 500 mts away from Ellora caves and Ghishneswar Temple. The Hotel’s proximity to monument is the major reason to call it a good place.

The hotel was basic in amenities. Air-conditioned but has no remote; usage as per hotel settings, hot water available only when the Sun rises; no hot water when you need early in the mornings, room service non-existent, no phone in room and you need to travel to the reception to enquire or order, staff are courteous but of no tangible use. So the hotel scores a maximum of 2 ½ out of 5.

Kailas doesn’t seem to be very appetizing in its menu as well; we were flirting with neighborhood hotels for food. Garikapati is a roadside hotel just opposite Hotel Kalias, excellent food, and automated cooking processes. We were surprised to see highly advanced mechanized systems in use. However, it had no walls, a large shed seating around 75 persons, managed by a family from Andhra Pradesh. Food was good, hygienic, and professional managed. This place scores four out of five. It is highly recommended, specially, for vegetarians.

In the heat of summer we planned to visit Ellora caves. We thought of hiring a guide so that we may be more enlightened compared to our bookish acquaintance. Another surprise, the official guide demanded Rs 750 for two hours. We though it better to limit experiences to our bookish knowledge of caves.

This was my second trip to caves. Together with my wife, I visited the center of tourist attraction, the Ellora Kailas Temple. I had already covered (Photo documentation) Kailsh temple thoroughly. Yet, it was enjoyable. I was playing unpaid guide to my wife.

Being passionate about Buddhist cave architecture, I concentrated on caves 1 to 10; known to be Buddhist monasteries and shrines of 7^th century AD.

I took quite some pictures, good ones. I could over come excitement and shoot at calm. Later I moved to caves 1 to 14. It meant quite a bit of walking. I was enjoying my presence, clicking picture. Lo! camera alerted ‘no memory, card full’ I was scared, surprised, wonder struck and frustrated. I had only my Nikon D 5000 with me, no camera bag, attachments, accessories, cards, battery. I had left them in the car to reduce payload. I wondered, my 8GB card showing memory full with around 50 pictures at 8 mb per shot. I feared some problem with card, camera or specially, with me.

I had to walk down to the car, take another card and all photo-rations. Again, I walked up to the farthest cave and shot.

So the lesson: do always carry the entire kit with you when moving to farther places, irrespective of load and luggage. Secondly, check that the card is formatted before use. My 8 GB card had four movies on it, so poor thing didn’t have a heart to accommodate my photos as well.

Always carry a point and shoot camera. I always carry a Sony-point and shoot camera for crisis management and back-up for those ‘once in a life time’ pictures.

I use Canon Rebel Xt when I need to use auto settings. It is best with auto settings. Nikon D 5000 is not good with auto, often you need white balance even with auto. I use Nikon D 5000 in lowlight conditions where I have to use manual adjustment and shut off flash.

The entire area became desolate by 7.00 pm. It was difficult to get dinner. Hotels looked closed, but one of the hotels offered to feed us. It was a working meal. I forgot, earlier during the day we got to shop briefly. We bought Paithani sarees as souvenirs, indeed expensive souvenirs.We retired rather too early at 9 pm planning for the next leg of the journey to Maheshwar.

Ellora Photographs