Day 26 Aaghai to Wada

Distance walked 477.3km by Pankaj 411.8km by Mike

Funds raised  NZD 3330.74 or INR 325260  

The trip to Aaghai was up the road direct from Vashind following the pipeline. Suhil and Pankaj were asking locals for directions – and in one case got a person who was confused between left and right. The annoying thing is if they had told me which route they wanted – pipeline road or via Khambare I could have given them correct directions off google (unless I got left and right confused too).

Transferring the baggage near Aaghai

It was 10am before we started walking and 27°C and promising to get hotter. Fortunately there was plenty of shade. With only 15km to cover there was no great pressure to finish. Coming across Hotel Garva and seeing no more marked on the map ahead we took the opportunity to stop for a drink. We were now near Wada and the people in the restaurant knew Pankaj's uncle. 

There were a large number of closed factories near Kambare - like this one.

Somehow I managed to miss The Enchanted Woods (a wedding venue). Daryl and our driver were waiting for us outside the temple near Abitghar called Mary Land but I didn't think to check the map as we waved going past. The men in this Ambassador had waved at us on their way from Wada and on the return trip they stopped to take photos with us. I was pleased to see then driving through Wada on Saturday.

Abitghar has a large number of older trucks (or perhaps just poorly repaired trucks). Some were used for carting hay. A large number were water tankers and others were carting raw steel to a mill that made reinforcing steel. The steel is dark grey-blue in colour and no sign of rust so not smelted too long ago. It was in lengths slightly longer than the deck of the trucks – perhaps 8m about 20cm square.

Water in Maharastra is a real problem. In the monsoon season there is far too much and it floods. The rest of the year it hardly rains at all and now everything is very dry and the trees are dropping leaves as the try to cope with moisture stress. This year the third part of the monsoon did not come at all and so water is scarcer than normal. I can't remember were we stopped and sat in the car and ate egg sandwiches Indian style - a fried egg between two pices of bread. But there was less than 5km to go to the bridge over the Viatarna River. The last 2.5km into Wada was left for Saturday when some of our supported would walk with us.

After an afternoon nap I had a wander around and found these palm trees all with curved trunks.