Our plan was to drive from Sasan Gir to Diu via the fishing port of Veraval and for a change that’s exactly what we did!

The fields in Gujarat are always full of people and this drive was no exception:

 Girls feeding sugarcane into a stripper

The stripping machine, open belts, ancient engine, external water tank. After the cane is stripped they leave the bark lying in the fields to dry. Oxen working

 A beautiful tree covered in seed pods

The drive to Veraval was short and when we arrived we were surprised by the size of the port. A local told us there are 7,000 fishing boats in Veraval, he also said it is the largest fishing port in Asia. I’m not sure if that is correct but there certainly were a lot of boats:

 Boats being refurbished More boats!

In the port area we met up with Mushtaq who ran a fish packing and export business;

He took me to an auction of a catch of ribbon fish which interestingly was destined for export to China:

That was enough smelly fish for one day so we made our way to Diu.

Diu is an old Portuguese port with ……. a fort! The fort was our first destination and was well worth the visit with lots of architectural features:

Probably the most interesting thing about the fort is that it has two moats the outer of which is tidal.

 The outer moat

The inner moat (now dry)  

This shot shows both moats, the inner moat in the foreground and the outer moat just beyond the castellations (and if you look really hard you can see Elsie in the background!):

Once again we seemed to be the main attraction, here’s Leishia being mobbed by a school party:

and both of us in a photocall with the teachers:

The next day we went exploring Nagoa beach near our hotel. There was a large workforce building a new track along the beach and we came across three of them having lunch which they kindly invited us to share:

 Spot the tiffin boxes.

The two girls were sporting some serious tattoos:

Further along the beach was a less than salubrious cafe but we stopped for a beer anyway. Fortunately they did at least have a dress code:

 No budgie smugglers!

And house rules, we were very comforted by number 11:

We enjoyed a couple of beers and watched the locals drowning themselves in cheap whisky (seems to be the local sport) then it was off to sleep!

Next stop – Palitana.