We left Udaipur wishing we could stay at the Lake Palace a little longer but at the same time we wanted to get back into the real India, plus we had a booking at a heritage palace hotel in Wankaner which we were looking forward to.

Sadly when we arrived we discovered that this particular “Heritage hotel of India” wasn’t a hotel at all and never had been and that our booking had in fact been made at their other “palace”. This was a modern day “bait and switch” (HeritagehotelsofIndia.com). We went and looked at the other palace but it was just a tumbledown place with nothing to commend it – except a very impressive step well:

Anyway we decided to give it a miss (Leishia was happy; for her “heritage hotel” translates to “Big, old and cold”!). We drove on to Gondal and looked at another “Big, old and cold” hotel but they wouldn’t give us a discount so they ended up with an empty room and we drove on to Junagadh.

Junagadh is off the tourist radar but is a fantastic place with 2,300 years of history. Junagadh actually means “Old fort” – more on that later! Interestingly Junagadh has strong links to Pakistan and in fact the locals still speak Sindhi.

Here is one of the several town gates:

Our hotel was really close to the Mahabat Maqbara, the mausoleum of Nawab Mahabat Khan II who died in 1882 so we went to see it before dinner:

The next day we walked around the old town, lots to see and experience:

 An old lady making her way up a small alley

 Upper windows typical of the town A disused mosque

 Twin arches

 Kids in an auto rickshaw A street vendor and her little girl

After a while we reached Uparkot fort; the fort dates from 319 BC and is really atmospheric:

The entrance way:

Our guide, Vinod (tel. 82382 52406):

 Great guy, interesting and knowledgeable.

Normally we don’t bother with a guide but in this case we were glad we did, it would have been very difficult to understand (or even find!) everything without Vinod. We definitely recommend him.

There were some ancient Budhist “caves” which were actually carved from the rock but the most impressive features of the fort were two wells, both also carved from solid rock. The first, Adi Kadi Vav was a massive well, 81m long, 4.75m wide and 41m deep with 162 steps down to the water. Here’s Leishia on the way back up:

The second, Navghan Kuvo, was more elaborate even though it is almost 1,000 years old. This well has steps which follow the outer edge in right-turning flights with openings in the well wall to allow light into the stairway. It is an amazing piece of civil engineering. The well has over 250 steps to reach the bottom:

 Pigeon roosts on the way down.

After the wells we went to see the mosque which is still impressive even though the three domes which once adorned the roof have long since gone. Outside was a small Muslim cemetery:

Very close to Junagadh is Mount Girnar, a sacred mountain and a pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Jains. It’s possible to climb the 10,000 steps to the top and to see the many Jain temples along the way. There is an annual festival (Maha Shivratri) which attracts over one million pilgrims to the mountain.

But that’s not all that’s interesting about Mount Girnar:

 The white dots are temples

Vinod pointed out that if you rotate the mountain 90 deg:

 it looks like an old man!

Always worth having a guide!

Next stop – Sasan Gir park!