Round the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove: Day 34 of the South West Odyssey (English Branch)

The South West Odyssey was a long distance walk.
Five like-minded people started in 2008 from the Cardingmill Valley in Shropshire and by walking three days a year finished at Start Bay on the South Devon Coast in May 2019.

Nearing the End - The First of Three Days Walking Along he Devon Coastal Path

Devon

29-Apr-2019

Slapton Sands and a Pre-Walk Dinner at the Start Bay Inn

The Start Bay Inn, the venue for our pre-walk dinner, is at the southern end of Slapton Sands and the days before had seen the 75th anniversary of the Exercise Tiger disasters.

The Start Bay Inn, Torcross

Slapton Sands is a 5km long bar of sand and shingle separating the freshwater lake of Slapton Ley from the sea. In 1943, 3,000 residents of Slapton and surrounding villages were evacuated and the area used to train the US forces who would later attack the geographically similar Utah Beach.

Slapton Sands

Exercise Tiger was one of the final D-Day landing rehearsals. On the 27th of April 1944, news of an hour’s delay in a live-firing practice assault failed to reach all participants, resulting in the US Navy shelling their own troops, killing several hundred. Worse followed next day when heavily armed German E-boats stumbled across unprotected landing craft preparing for another mock assault. 6-700 more died.

The events were ‘conveniently forgotten’ and the Slapton casualties rolled into the D-Day lists. It has now been unforgotten, a Sherman tank recovered from the sea in 1974 serves as a memorial and commemorations had been held the previous day.

Memorial Sherman Tank, Slapton Sands

Maybe our convivial evening jars a little with the above, but such is life. The Start Bay Inn majors on fish and chips; they have a ‘catch of the day’ board, but seem happiest with fish that can be battered and deep fried. I bucked the trend with tiger prawns in garlic butter but as the prawns were swimming backstroke in an Olympic-sized pool of melted butter, it did little for my cholesterol problem.

30-Apr-2019

Fiddling with Cars

Mike and Alison T were staying in their caravan near Stokenham, while the rest of us shared a large and comfortable cottage buried deep in the South Hams countryside.

The cottage near Kellaton

‘Buried’ is an apt word. Much of Devon is deeply folded and the South Hams – the land south of Dartmoor between Plymouth and Torbay – is more crumpled than most. Imagine a landscape of gently rolling hills scrunched into half its natural area making the valleys deep and steep and the hills narrow as waves. Travelling between rural locations means either burrowing out to an A-road – which may itself become single track through villages – and then burrowing down to the new location, or tunnelling straight through the countryside on minor roads, few of which have two lanes, some are single track with passing places while others have grass in the middle, low walls on either side and no passing places.

Our accommodation was near the end of the three days’ walk, so Day 1 (Day 34 of the Odyssey) required some travelling. Mike’s journey to the end point at Hope (8 miles as the crow flies) would have taken 30 mins but for the broken-down bus blocking Stokenham’s main street. Brian drove the rest of us a similar distance, the sat nav choosing the shortest route without regard to width of road. Sometimes we bowled along at 20mph, but such speediness was rare.

Leaving Mike’s car at Hope we proceeded to Ringmore, the end of last year’s walk - 4 crow miles but 25 minutes’ drive away. After setting off at 8.30 it was 10 before we were ready to walk.

Ringmore to Aveton Gifford a the Top of the Avon Estuary

This report is 600 words in, and finally somebody gets to put their boots on!

Boots on at Ringmore

After walking for 33 days to reach Ringmore, in sight of the sea, we turned our back on the ocean and left the village on a lane heading north-east.

Leaving Ringmore

A ria - a drowned river valley caused by rising sea levels or sinking land - is a large estuary at the mouth of a small river (a large river would have filled the ria with sediment). The English south coast is a ria coast, and south Devon is riven with them. We had rounded two, the Avon and Kingsbridge Estuaries, in our morning’s drive and now needed to walk inland to re-round the Avon.

Odyssey Day 34, with a graph of height gained and lost

We soon dropped into the valley of a small, nameless stream that reaches the sea without a ria.

Down into that valley then follow the valley bottom up to Bigbury (in the distance above the field of oilseed rape)

The right of way followed the stream bed…

Up the stream bed to Bigbury

…up to the village of Bigbury.

Bigbury

A field path heading east….

Leaving Bigbury

…then gave us our first view of the Avon estuary, though with the tide out there was little water.

The Avon estuary

Our descent involved staring down a herd of young bullocks – skittish, exuberant but entirely lacking in malice (or brains)…

You want to get to that gate? (Picture: Brian)

…and passing several banks of bluebells.

Bluebells above the Avon (Picture: Brian)

We reached the river….

The Avon estuary (Picture: Brian)

….and followed the tidal road (tide tables had been checked)…

The tidal road to Aveton Gifford

…to Aveton Gifford where we re-crossed the Avon (we had crossed it on a magnificent clapper bridge on Dartmoor last year).

Down the Eastern Side of the Avon Estuary to Bantham

Climbing the bank on the far side took us from sea-level to 100m (a climb we would repeat several times in the next few days).

Up the other side of the Avon estuary

At the top a minor road and then field paths took us to the edge of Siddicombe, a particularly steep valley but fortunately the path let us descend more gently along the valley lip…

Along the lip of Siddicombe

…before eventually dropping us swiftly back to sea level...

Down into Siddicombe

…at Siddicombe Creek.

Siddicombe Creek

The climb up the other side was relatively gently and took us through the most magnificent wild garlic wood.

Wild garlic in Siddicombe Wood

Walking along the top of the bank gave wonderful views across the estuary…

Looking down the Avon Estuary (photo: Brian)

….and to Burgh Island, a tidal island off Bigbury-on-Sea on the far headland of the estuary. Apart from the art-deco hotel (which Mike said he mistook for a ferry from a distance, and you can see why) the island is known for its Agatha Christie connections. It is the setting for Evil Under the Sun and the inspiration for Soldier Island in And Then There Were None, as it is now known, though it has had other names since it was published in 1939 when casual racism passed without comment – or even recognition. I am hardly a fan of Agatha Christie, but she has featured in this blog twice before, once at her former home near Torquay and again over her 'disappearance' in Harrogate.

Burgh Island (photo: Brian)

We continued to Bantham, where the Sloop Inn….

Bantham (photo: Brian)

…provided us with a pint of lunch.

A pint in the Sloop Inn, Bantham

Bantham to Thurelstone and Hope Cove

Refreshed, we turned east, descended to Bantham Stream which empties into the estuarial mud a few hundred metres away, and climbed the bank beyond - only 80m this time, but a steep little haul.

Looking back at Bantham

At the top we found Thurlestone Golf Course then the village of Thurlestone where we descended past houses, hotels and more golf course to join the South West Coastal Path at Leas Foot Sand. Thurlestone is not a well-known holiday resort (to me, anyway) but it has several large hotels and many of the houses are holiday lets.

To ‘thirl’ is a dialect and largely obsolete verb meaning to ‘pierce’, and a ‘thirled rock’ stands just offshore from Thurlestone sands, hence the name.

Thurlestone Sands and Thurlestone Rock (photo: Brian)

We walked around the back of Thurlestone sands, which will no doubt be busier later in the season, between the beach and more holiday accommodation and later crossed some wetland….

Wetland behind Thurlestone Sands (photo: Brian)

…formed by a small stream which aspires to a ria, but has not yet dug a deep enough valley.

Not quite a ria - Thurlestone Sands

The last of the holiday accommodation is at the end of the sands where we climbed the final ridge of the day. It was a minor sting in the tail, but provided some good cliff top views.

Over the headland bewteen Thurlestone and Hope

We descended to and then walked through Outer Hope to reach Mike’s car, parked between Outer and Inner Hope.

Alison strides through Outer Hope

And that was the end of day 34. It had been a short walk, only 15km according to Alison’s ap. (which also provided the map and graph above) and an early finish, but there was car shuffling still to do.

Dinner at the Bear and Blacksmith, Chillington

Later we all reconvened at the Bear & Blacksmith in Chillington where some ate burgers and others Dover sole. I took the healthy option, sole with mussels, samphire, asparagus, pea shoots and new potatoes. Of course, the sole had been drowned pan fried in generous quantities of butter, so scrub ‘healthy’ from the last sentence. It was the second consecutive evening I had overdosed on butter, I enjoyed it, but sadly this cannot be allowed to continue. With our soles, Lynne, Brian and I shared a bottle of Sharpham Estate Dart Valley Reserve - drinking local is always a good plan, even if it was a little over-priced. A Madeleine Angevine/Bacchus blend, it is well-made and well balanced, though I find Mad Angie a little too floral for fish.

The South West Odyssey (English Branch)
Introduction
Day 1 to 3 (2008) Cardingmill Valley to Great Whitley
Day 4 to 6 (2009) Great Whitely to Upton-on-Severn via the Malvern Ridge
Day 7 to 9 (2010) Upton-on-Severn to Andoversford
Day 10 (2011) Andoversford to Perrott's Brook
Day 11 (2011) Perrott's Brook to the Round Elm Crossroads
Day 12 (2011) Walking Round Stroud
Day 13 (2012) Stroud to North Nibley
Day 14 (2012) North Nibley to Old Sodbury
Day 15 (2012) Old Sodbury to Swineford
Day 16 (2013) Along the Chew Valley
Day 17 (2013) Over the Mendips to Wells
Day 18 (2013) Wells to Glastonbury 'The Mountain Route'
Day 19 (2014) Glastonbury to Langport
Day 20 (2014) Along the Parrett and over the Tone
Day 21 (2014) Into the Quantocks
Day 22 (2015) From the Quantocks to the Sea
Day 23 (2015) Watchet, Dunster and Dunkery Hill
Day 24 (2015) Dunkery Beacon to Withypool
Day 25 (2016) Entering Devon and Leaving Exmoor
Day 26 (2016) Knowstone to Black Dog on the Two Moors Way
Day 27 (2016) Morchard Bishop to Copplestone
Day 28 (2017) Down St Mary to Drewsteignton
Day 29 (2017) Drewsteignton to Bennett's Cross
Day 30 (2017) Bennett's Cross to Lustleigh
Day 31 (2018) Southwest Across the Moor from Lustleigh
Day 32 (2018) South to Ugborough
Day 33 (2018) Ugborough to Ringmore
Day 34 (2019) Around the Avon Estuary to Hope Cove
Day 35 (2019):  Hope Cove to Prawle Point
Day 36 (2019) Prawle Point to Start Bay: The End
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The Last Post

That's All Folks - The Odyssey is done.

Mumbai (2): The Posh End

A Walking Tour (sometimes by car!) of Mumbai's Upmarket Neighbourhoods

Our hotel was a short walk north from the Gateway of India, on the edge of the Colaba district – the final protuberance of the Mumbai peninsula. After breakfast a pleasant young man met us in reception to conduct a walking tour, with added car (Mumbai is big).

Mumbai's main posh area extends from the Gateway of India, through Fort and Marine Drive to Malabar Hill

We started a little further north in the Fort district on the main Mahatma Gandhi Road.

Kala Ghoda, Mahatma Gandhi Road

Elphinstone College

Mahatma Gandhi Road is lined with self-important buildings. Elphinstone College occupies a late Victorian pile of such solidity the builders clearly believed the Empire would endure forever. The college, now part of Dr Homi Bhabha State University, opened in 1835 and moved into this purpose-built edifice in the 1880s.

Elphinstone College, Mumbai

It is named for Mountstuart Elphinstone (‘Mountstuart’ with that surname! What were his parent thinking?) who arrived in Calcutta from Scotland aged 16 in 1796 and joined the British East India Company’s civil service. Having an uncle who was a director of the company did not hurt his progress through the ranks, but he was genuinely able and became Governor of Bombay in 1819 (I shall use 'Bombay' for references to the city pre-1995, otherwise 'Mumbai'). He did much to promote public education at a time when the prevailing British attitude was against educating the 'natives.’ He left India in 1827 having set in motion the events that would lead to the college that bears his name.

David Sassoon Library and Reading Room

The David Sassoon Library and Reading Room next door was completed in 1871. It was named for, and partly funded by David Sassoon who died a few years before it was completed.

The David Sassoon Library and Reading Room, Mumbai

David Sassoon, 1792-1864

Sassoon was a remarkable man. Born in Baghdad in 1792 he was, like his father, a businessman and a leader of the Jewish community. A period of anti-Semitic persecution persuaded him to move first to Persia and then to Bombay, arriving sometime before 1832. Extremely successful in business, with interests stretching from China to the UK, he became one the world’s wealthiest men. He spent his vast riches on a variety of worthy causes, contributing to the building of schools, hospitals, museums and synagogues. He became a British citizen in 1853, although he never learned English and dressed all his life in the traditional style of an Iraqi Jew. He had 8 sons from two marriages (and 4 daughters though there is little information about them.) and encouraged them to speak English and adopt western dress and manners.

The nearby Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue, Mumbai
Established 1884 by David Sassoon's grandson Jacob, very much in the Sassoon tradition

His son Abdullah settled permanently in England in 1873 as director of the London office of David Sassoon and Sons. Changing his name to Albert he continued with his father’s philanthropic activity and was created Baronet Sassoon in 1890.

Sassoon David Sassoon, the eldest son of David Sassoon’s second marriage also settled in England. A businessman and scholar, his daughter, Rachel was the first woman to edit a national newspaper, editing The Observer and then the Sunday Times in the 1890s. He was also the grandfather of Siegfried Sassoon one of the finest poets of the First World War and a man I have previously quoted in this blog

Watson's Hotel

Next-door-but-one is the former Watson’s Hotel, now the Esplanade Mansion. Although in a rather sad condition, it is world’s oldest multi-level cast-iron frame building.

Watson's Hotel, Mumbai

John Watson was a successful haberdasher who decided he wanted a hotel. Entirely pre-fabricated in England, assembly of the hotel started in 1867 and it opened in 1871, the year John Watson died. His son, John Jnr, made it Bombay’s premier hotel, with an exclusively European clientele, even at one time importing English waitresses. John Jnr returned to England in 1896, and in 1903 the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel opened (more later) and Watson’s would never be Bombay’s premier hotel again. There is a story, almost certainly apocryphal, that Jamsetji Tata built the Taj Hotel as vengeance for being denied access to Watson’s. Watson’s Hotel ceased trading in 1920 and for the building it has been downhill ever since.

Kala Ghoda Statue

This southern end of Mahatma Gandhi Road is known as Kala Ghoda (Black Horse).

The original Black Horse, the work of George Wade, was being ridden by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). Erected in 1870 on the occasion of his visit and financed by Albert Sassoon, it lasted until 1965 when the city rounded up the effigies of its former colonial rulers. The statue is now in the zoo.

For many years Kala Ghoda was without a Black Horse. The ‘Spirit of Kala Ghoda’ – almost a replica of the original horse, sans rider - has only been here since 2017. Sculpted by Shreehari Bhosle it was financed by the Kala Ghoda Association.

Kala Ghoda

Rajabai Clock Tower

The tower, which stands a little back from Mahatma Gandhi Road, looks and sounds slightly familiar. Completed in 1878, the design by Sir George Gilbert Scott owes just a little to August Pugin’s Elizabeth tower (as Big Ben’s tower has been called since 2012).

Rajabai Clocktower, Mumbai

It was part financed by Premchand Roychand, founder the Bombay Stock Exchange, and named after his mother. A probably apocryphal story tells that his mother, a strict Jain who had to take her evening meal before dark, had gone blind and needed a striking clock within earshot. There must have been a cheaper way to solve that problem.

Marine Drive

Our guide located the driver and bundled us into the car for the very short journey to Marine Drive (see map above).

‘Do you want get out and walk?’ he asked.  ‘Yes’, we said, which surprised him. The question is mandatory according to the ‘Guide’s Bumper Book of Questions to ask Tourists,’ but apparently nobody ever says ‘yes’. The driver was so confused he crawled along the curb just behind us in case he was needed. The guide soon realised this was silly and sent him away to park.

What, I wonder, was so odd about our decision? Promenades are built the world over for people to walk beside the sea, human beings seem to like it – and to sit beside the sea, too.

Sitting by the sea on Marine Drive, Mumbai

It is a place where young Indians can do things that would have caused a scandal in their grandparents’ time – and still would in many parts on India. I will omit that photo. Though harmless by European standards I would not want to cause any trouble.

Across the road are up-market seaside apartments, looking just as they do anywhere else. The large floodlight tower visible just above the apartments to the left is in a corner of Wankhede Stadium. The 33,000-seater cricket stadium is the home of Mumbai, the most successful Ranji Trophy Team, Mumbai Indians IPL Team, and has frequently hosted the Indian National team.

Marine Drive, Mumbai

Marine Drive, like Kala Ghoda hardly felt like India; the sun was strong enough, but where were the tuk-tuks and cycle rickshaws, where the litter and incessant sound of car horns? Where are the hawkers and their barrows? Here, in the most affluent corner of India’s most affluent city, so many of the usual accompaniments of Indian life have been banished.

Walking along Marine Drive, Mumbai

We reached Chowpatty Beach. In front and a little to our left was the green protuberance of Malabar Hill. Mountstuart Elphinstone was the first to build a bungalow here, in 1865 it was the birthplace of Rudyard Kipling and is now home to the business tycoons and Bollywood film stars who make up India’s super-rich.

Chowpatty Beach and Malabar Hill, Mumbai

Gandhi Museum and Library

After our walk we were driven a little way inland from the end of Marine drive to the Gandhi Museum and Library. This was our third Gandhi Museum of the trip and, great man as he may be, it was at least one more than was necessary.

Gandhi Museum and Library, Mumbai

The first had been the Subarmarti Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gandhi’s home for many years, making all other Gandhi Museums a disappointment, not that the Mumbai guide knew where we had been – and we were too polite to tell him.

Gandhi Museum and Library, Mumbai

Another problem here was that a cruise ship was in and busloads were being brought, whisked in, round and out before the next busload arrived. In places we had to fight to see the exhibits - though I took my photos in quieter moments. I am not old enough to go on a cruise (though 70 is not far away) but when I am, I still won’t go.

The Hanging Gardens

It is not just Babylon that has hanging gardens, Mumbai has them too. Nobody knows in what way the Babylonian Gardens hung, but those in Mumbai rather disappointingly sit on rather than dangle over the city’s main reservoir.

Hanging Gardens, Mumbai

Officially called the Pherozeshah Mehta Gardens they were laid out in 1881 by Ulhas Ghapokar. The story that they cover the reservoir to avoid possible contamination from the Towers of Silence 500m to the north may not be true.

Hanging Gardens, Mumbai

It is a pretty place with flowers, walkways and views of the Arabian Sea…

Colaba Point and the open sea from the Hanging Gardens, Mumbai

….as well as a large children’s section.

Who is the king of the swingers?

Tiffin Carriers

We headed north up the west coast of the peninsula towards the Dhobi Ghat, passing the Dabbawalla statue on the way. Dabbas or Tiffin Boxes – small stainless steel or aluminium boxes with a tight-fitting lid in which workers carry a packed lunch – are common across India, but Mumbai has taken them and created a unique institution. Almost 200,000 dabbas are delivered daily from their homes to the office workers of Mumbai. Dabbas are collected around the suburbs, loaded onto trains, and distributed throughout central Mumbai by bicycle. In the afternoon they are returned whence they came.

The Dabbawalla Statue, Mumbai

Mumbai’s 5,000 uniformed dabbawalas – almost all from the same village near Pune - are self-employed members of the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers' Association, which guarantees a minimum wage and distributes profits. The system is remarkably efficient, (almost) infallibly delivering the right box to the right place at the right time six days a week 51 weeks of the year – for a week in March everything closes while the dabbawallas attend their village festival.

The system started with 100 dabbawallas in 1890 and has been growing ever since; we saw several on our travels. It answers a particular need of a particular city, but also relies on a society where men go to work and women stay home and cook their meals.

Dhobi Ghat

We have visited laundries in India before, in Lucknow in the north and Kochi in the south, but this is the first we have seen with its own viewing gallery. We waited while a bus load of cruise ship passengers was shepherded out of the way.

Dhobi ghat viewing platform, Mumbai

7,000 dhobiwallas flog, scrub, bleach, dye and dry 100,000 items a day, mostly by hand. In 2011 the Guinness Book of Records certified their record for the ‘most people hand-washing clothes at a single location’. The cleanliness of the finished product is unchallenged and in the feat of organisation involved in returning (almost) every item to its owner the dhobiwallas match the dabbawallas. It is, though, a labour-intensive way of washing clothes, and works only because that labour is cheap.

Dhobi Ghat

Mumbai Municipal Headquarters

Moving back south towards our hotel we stopped outside the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai - though it resembles a Cathedral more than a seat of government. The corporation was established in 1888 and is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the almost 500 km² of Greater Mumbai.

Mumbai Municipal Headquarters

The statue outside is of Sir Pherozeshah Merwanjee Mehta, the man for whom the Hanging Gardens are named. The son of a Parsi businessman, he graduated from Elphinstone College in 1864 then gained an MA in Law at Bombay University. Further study in London led to him being called to the bar after which he returned to practice in Bombay. In 1872 He drafted the Bombay Municipal Act and is thus considered the 'father of Bombay Municipality'. He went into politics and in 1885 was a founder member of the Indian National Congress which would eventually lead the country to independence.

Sir Pherozshah Merwanjee Mehta, the father of the Mumbai Municipality

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Railway Terminal

Facing the municipal building is the even larger and grander (if part scaffolded) Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Railway Terminal. Designed by Frederick William Stevens in Gothic Revival style, it was completed in 1887, the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne and so became the Victoria Terminal. The station was renamed in 1996 after Shivaji, the 17th century founder of the Maratha Empire. It is perfectly reasonable for India to remove the names of British monarchs from major transport hubs, but why Shivaji when Mumbai already had a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport? Why not pick someone else?

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal, Mumbai

Inside is one of the world’s busiest railway stations (and a couple of layabouts posing for photos).

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal, Mumbai

As in many Victorian railway stations (and the Moscow metro) the design details are way over the top for a railway station.

Inside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus

The station was on of 10 sites attacked in November 2008 by the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba extremist group. Two terrorists ran into the station firing AK 47 rifles indiscriminately. 58 people were killed and 104 injured

Taj Mahal Palace

Near our hotel is the Taj Mahal Palace. Built in 1903 it soon replaced Watson’s as Bombay’s leading hotel. It may now be challenged by two dozen other 5-star hotels, but remains the most expensive in town.

Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai

One of the challengers is the adjacent Taj Mahal Tower. It has the same owners and sets the same standards, but the functional modern tower lacks the grandeur of the older building.

Taj Mahal Tower Hotel, Mumbai

Unlike Watson’s, the Taj Mahal Palace has always been under Indian ownership and open to all – well, all who afford £300+ a night. We walked through with our guide; the new ground floor is cool and elegant and mainly given over to retail premises bearing the names you see in 5-star hotels the world over. Don’t the rich deserve a bit of variety?

Like the railway station, the hotel was targeted in the 2008 attack. Bombs exploded on the ground floor and six armed men attempted to take hostages. 32 innocent people, guests and staff, died. Near reception on the restored ground floor is a wall of running water. Beside it the names of those who died are carved in alphabetical order, regardless of nationality or status.

Memorial to those killed in the 2008 attack, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai

The Gateway of India

I mentioned the Gateway of India in this post’s opening paragraph and now, almost at the end, we finally get there. It is opposite the Taj Mahal Tower and a short walk from out more modest accommodation.

In 1911 when George V became the first British monarch to visit India the local authorities decided to build a symbolic Gateway on the Bombay waterfront, through which the King-Emperor and Queen-Empress could enter the sub-continent.

British government planning was as impressive then as it is today, and in December 1911 the King and Queen passed through a world-beating cardboard replica of a gate that would eventually be completed in 1924.

The Gateway of India,
Partly obscured from the landward side, I could not get far enough away on the seaward side

The gateway was subsequently used as a symbolic entrance to British India by important colonial personnel and the last British troops left through it at independence in 1948. Once unpopular as a representation of "conquest and colonisation" attitudes have soften; it is now a symbol of the city and an attraction to tourists and the army of street vendors that prey upon them.

Dinner in Mumbai

Our half day tour had been good value, reaching well into the afternoon. Once the guide had departed, we did some last-minute shopping and later walked north into Kala Ghoda in search of a recommended restaurant. It was clean and the décor was well above average but our meal, aloo muttah and tandori chicken, was fine but hardly outstanding.

And Home

Next morning, we went to the airport and thence home. Our plane to Dubai was late arriving and flight to Birmingham was further delayed in Dubai, including an hour’s sit in the plane before it pushed back. The reason? Heavy rain, Dubai has 94 mm a year (less than 4 inches) and most of this year's fell on us.

I will just repeat my thanks to Pioneer Travel of Kochi whose arrangements were as faultless for our two days in Mumbai as they were for our two weeks in Gujarat.

Gujarat

Part 1:Ahmedabad (1) Liquor Licences, Mosques and Tombs

Part 2:Ahmedabad (2) A Stepwell, Gandhi and a Thali
Part 3: Meeting the Locals
Part 4: Siddhpur, Patan and Modhera
Part 5: Salt and Wild Asses in the Little Rann of Kutch
Part 6: Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar
Part 7: Bhavnagar
Part 8: Palitana and the Temples on Shatrunjaya Hill
Part 9: A Lion Hunt and a Visit to Junagadh
Part 10: Gondal
Part 11: Gondal to Bhuj

Part 12: Bhuj

Part 13: To the Great Rann of Kutch, Craft Villages and a Salt Desert

Part 14: Going to School and Other Entertainments in the Great Rann of Kutch

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Mumbai (1) Dharavi, the World's Biggest Slum

Mumbai (2) The Posh End