The route from Hampi to Pune was 570km so we allowed two days. The road was so good that by lunchtime we had already covered 300km so we kept driving and reached Pune before dark (this was our highest daily mileage, our average for the entire trip was running at 280km).

Pune was once a beautiful city but has grown to become something of a mini-Mumbai but without the attractions of Mumbai. We ventured out regardless and went to see the remains of the Shaniwar Wada Palace:

The grounds are something of an oasis in the bustling city, sadly the palace itself burned to the ground in 1828.

After the palace we walked to the local vegetable market which gets my “best laid out veg in India” award, every display was a work of art:

This was interesting as well, a lady peeling garlic:

Not much else to say about Pune except the wonderful surprise we had from the staff at the end of breakfast on our final morning:

 Thank you Courtyard Marriot, Pune!

From Pune we headed back to Mumbai where we met up with Taruna and Anand for dinner the first evening and with Yatin and Twinkle and their lovely children Jay and Rhea the second evening. Unfortunately no photographic records survive however this joke from Yatin on corruption in India does:

The government issues a request for tenders to build a new bridge. A builder from Bangalore quotes 30 million rupees and when asked for a breakdown says “20 million is materials, 5 million is labour and 5 million is my profit”. A Gujurati businessman also supplies a quote but for 90 million rupees. The official asks for a breakdown and the Gujurati says “30 million is for you and 30 million is for me”, the official says “But what about the bridge?” to which the Gujurati replies “The Bangalorean can build it!”.

Our “business” in Mumbai was to get Elsie loaded into a container ready for shipment back to the UK and to get our precious carnet stamped. The process should have been simple but of course it wasn’t! Rather than explain it (which I can’t anyway because I still don’t understand it) I’ll just give you a flavour of the day:

 The office filing system

 Another office filing system (we went to lots of offices!)

 A waiting area (we did a lot of waiting!) The scrabble for a signature.

Somewhere behind the crowd is a very important person who signs your very important documents. This procedure is repeated all day until all your very important documents have very important signatures.

Having said I won’t explain the process I think I will … 1) Arrive at 10am, 2) Go to an office, 3) Wait, 4) Get something signed, 5) Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 until 6pm, 6) Stuff container.

We had been warned we would need a full day and to bring books and water. We did and we did! Any way all’s well that ends well:

 Elsie in the container ready to be lashed.

In the evening we had a very enjoyable Parsi dinner with our new friends Piran and Jasmine:

Hopefully we will meet again next summer when they come to Europe for a bike trip.

Our special treat (which we saved for last :-)) was the opportunity to view a private collection of vintage cars. The present owner shuns publicity, suffice to say that the collection was curated and restored by his late Grandfather. There were a lot of vehicles, here are a few shots of our favourites:

 1928 Daimler and a pristine engine compartment A beautiful Rolls and a pristine engine compartment Wonderful wire wheels A Riley  and another An entire row of Americana

The collection itself is never displayed so it was a rare privilege to be able to see it.

Anyway life goes on, next stop – the caves at Ellora and Ajanta!