I never thought I’d say this, but a 45 km ride to our next location, Bundi, almost seems too easy now 😂  I’d like to say that even the enormous hill was easy, but that would be a lie.  I really wasn’t sure at the start of this trip whether or would I be able to make these distances. I guess it’s just a testament to what you can accomplish when you put your mind to something – and it has indeed been mental fortitude that has got me over the line when the body is failing.

From Bundi, where nothing much happened, we had another 61 km ride. This was the last big one of our trip and we were going to Ranthambore for a tiger safari. Spoiler: We did not see a tiger.  Fortunately nobody else did either, so we can live with that. We did see a sloth bear ambling along that more than made up for it. Supposedly, sloth bears are even rarer to see than tigers, so we celebrate in frozen jubilation.

More wildlife awaited at the hotel. In spite of the staff’s best efforts to run them out of town, a troop of monkeys scaled the balcony and walked right over our makeshift laundry, then chased each other over the roof. This is a vaguely terrifying sound to awake to in the middle of the night.

We were delighted to find a bottle shop right next to the hotel and bought out their supply of Jacob’s Creek. It is a wine I have gotten surprisingly fond of.  Given it’s the only Australian wine on offer, perhaps not so surprising, but it is shockingly expensive over here, so if you can bring a good quality wine over or two I highly recommend you do so!