Ruins...

As we settle down to a few days 'rest' here in Goa, here are a few pics and pieces from the last month or so of wanderings..

Starting in Hampi - a little village on a beautiful river in Karnataka, on a level with Goa to the West, where we spent much longer than expected. Peaceful, gorgeous setting and amazing ruins of an enormous forteress to explore. The village is the sort of place where you can wander to the river to watch the sunset, see the temple elephant being washed in the morning, stroll along the river to see the hundereds of lottle shrines and temples littering the banks - a lush and beautiful place surrounded by outcrops of boulders...

The ruined city of the Vijayanagar next to Hampi is soo big and includes royal quarters, elephant stables, temples, audience halls and so much more - it's amazing to wander round and think how it must have been, the walls themselves are incredible, blocks of stone piled high...

the site is big! with elephant stables

big stone walls and a stone chariot carved in the main temple courtyard (this temple was so big that the bazaar leading to it was almost a kilometre long - that's a lot of little shops to buy offerings before getting to the temple!

We spent a day dreaming and enjoying a step back in time...

From Hampi we set out for some little villages on the way to Bijpur, in the north of Karnataka near the border with Maharastra - sites of the former capitals of the Chalukyas (500 AD+) - and impressive ruins, some fenced in as World Heritage Sites with fancy explanation boards, others filled with kids playing cricket or just bats!
The main village of Badami was beautiful with its fort built over two rocks and a lake created 1500 years ago and still used for everything from washing clothes and people to buffaloe!

Badami

The other villages, Aihole and Pattadakal, were impressive too with space and mixtures of different north and south architecture we've picked up on en route!

the Jain Temple Cricket team!

We left Badami and the temple trail for Bijpur and its little horse carts..... more pictures to come!!!