Day 25 Atgaon to Aaghai

Distance walked 460.2km by Pankaj 394.7km by Mike

Funds raised NZD2800.64 INR294078 plus INR7000 still to be banked

Although it was 9.20am before we started walking it was still a pleasant walk for most of the da as it was in the forest.  Only the last hour after leaving the forest was hot.  Our route immediately left the expressway and used a pedestrian overbridge to cross the railway to the village of Atgaon.

The road was quite narrow right from the start. At the end of the shops a tractor came up behind us completely filling the road and it was interesting watching cars pulling up hard against the fence so that the tractor half off the road on the other side could just get past. Fortunately the shoulders were a little wider once out of the village and passing wasn't so difficult. Most of the traffic was motorcycles which presented no issues for us unless a car going the other way came at the same time when we would have to step onto the shoulder.

This temple in the village of Sakhroli was a pleasant surprise and only having a short distance to go today we took the opportunity to look around.  The pond had several lotus flowers open.  I loved the draping over all the animal statues.  The dog was very friendly and spent several minutes getting patted before going off to lie in  the shade.

It quickly became apparent that getting food and drink was going to be a problem so we stopped ath the little shop just before the forest gates and bought biscuits and drink to sustain us for the rest of the day.

We took a lunch break – just sprite and biscuits for me, water and biscuits for Pankaj - on a log near one of the arms of the Tansa reservoir. A herd of goats appeared while we were having lnch but didn't seem to have a person looking after them. On resuming the walk we came to the forst headquarters where we could have sat down more comfortably. While the forest has people living in it all along the road from here to the damn the population was more dense with a small village and a school as well as indiviual scattered houses.

A cactus hedge - field has now gone wild again.

There was a narrow bridge over the Tanasa River, which has no flow at this time of year. A truck came over as we were crossing and I turned sideways as it went past – but I think that was probably unnecessary. One of the pipelines from the dam heading to Mumbai is right alongside the road over the bridge and all the way to Aaghai where a bridge goes over it.

We took a stop at Aaghai for a cold mango drink and then managed another 2km before Sihal and Daryl arrived to collect us.

On the way back to Vashind we stopped at McDonalds – I just had fries and an icecream sundae as the burgers here are a bit strange. After an afternoon rest, and a shower for the inevitable sweat it was off to Vashind township for a shave so we look smart for our arrival in Wada tomorrow and then dinner before returning to the farm.  Dinner was at a very nice vegetarian restaurant on the outskirts of Vashind - we had to go a short distance down the wrong side of the expressway to get there. Given the distnace between turning points I can understand why people go down the wrong side but it still freaks me out a bit. 

The internet connection failed almost as soon as I started this but I have finished it offline and hopefully will be able to publis in the morning