Our castle in Hampi!!

After a few false alarms on stations, we eventually pulled into Hospet Junction just after 7.00am. With Rach managing only half and hour’s sleep and Gaz a little more, it was with bleary eyes that we contemplated our next move. Hampi was 10km or so away, so the only option was a tuk-tuk ride. We anticipated another fleecing, but were pleasantly surprised when the first guy we asked quoted us the expected Rs100.

We took a little boat across a river, then refused to pay the extortionate price the only tuk tuk driver on the other side tried to sell us. So off we trekked with all our heavy luggage (trying to teach them the lesson that if you completely rip people off they won’t use your services), wondering how we were going to manage the 9km trek in the middle of nowhere to our hotel. In the end after a kilometre or so we gave up and went into a little local house that had a tuk tuk outside and ended up having to pay said extortionate fare anyway… still, we tried!

Hampi has very few accommodation options – basic places with a mattress on the floor, or one exclusive place. No middle ground options. There was only one room left at the exclusive place… the most expensive… so we decided to go to town on our budget a little! We were rewarded with a castle on the river bank, with phenomenal views from our turret and not another place or person in sight…WOW!

Being a little exhausted from travelling we spent the morning relaxing in our newly found paradise to get our money’s worth! One of the hotel staff then took us for a stunning walk down the river. The landscape is scattered with huge boulders, which we jumped across and wobbled on little bamboo bridges to traverse the streams. The river had gouged out the granite boulders into beautiful flowing shapes, and we even climbed up into a cave between the huge boulders. We were very impressed… and this was only the hotel ‘gardens’!

In the afternoon we were taken on a complimentary tour of the surrounding region, which completely surpassed our expectations. The entire landscape was strewn with these enormous boulders, some balancing precariously on one another, and we visited several temples up high on hills that had sweeping views over the hills, valleys and rivers around. Wow, wow, wow, we’ve never seen a place that looks like this! We spent most of the afternoon jumping between boulders, padding around temples in our bare feet with monkeys, and climbing up and down steps. Gaz also went the extra mile to see a snake temple by climbing down into a cave and traversing a 45 degree slippery boulder face, whilst Rach sensibly decided to give that one a miss! Needless to say by the end of the afternoon we were completely knackered (especially poor Rach after only 30 mins sleep last night!), and headed back to have a swim in the natural pool there (made in a boulder), and played a few games of pool in the games room.

Rach went to bed at 9:30pm, and set her alarm for 5:30am so she could see the sunrise over the rocks and boulders….