Day 317 Shatrunjaya

This is one fantastic place! A 500m hill topped by a sea of Jain temples. A temple city. Like 800 something temples. And nothing else.
In fact I was mentally prepared for a small disappointment: when I first was here 9 years ago we went during monsoon and I remember that half of the place being flooded added a lot to the atmosphere. But also now, in dry season: no disappointment, it is still an absolutely amazing place. Definitely one of my 2 or 3 favourite places during the whole trip! It is strange that me as a really not religious person always tends to like religious places the most. Mmmh, but if I had to choose a religion, Jainism would definitely be one of my favourites: a very strong focus on Ahimsa (non-violence towards all living beings), a cosmology with a self-regulating universe without a creator-god, acceptance of other religions,... - good stuff!
The ascend was hot. And quite different to the other holy mountains I have climbed recently: here the way is not lined by stalls, only a few water sellers. At one of the water places I met Mansi, a jain girl from Mumbai. She is here with her family and a group of about 50 people. They are doing the real thing: climbing Shatrunjaya 108 times in 45 days! That's 2*2 * 3*3*3 times. Though I have no idea of what significance is this. Anyway, even climbing one time was quite an ordeal for me. And I am probably in the best shape of my life. They are doing it 2 to 3 times per day. Without eating during the day. Incredible. Once on the top I could witness some aspects of Jain worship, which included reciting/singing prayers, offering rice, turning some strange metal-flag-turning device while watching the Tirthankara through a small mirror and jumping in front of the Tirthankara with two flywhisks in hand (this could well be the mythological origin of modern cheerleading). The 24 Tirthankaras have been human beings who achieved enlightenment - some of them mythological (Rishabha, the 1st Tirthankara was 1500m high and lived for some Quintillion years), some of them historical (Mahavira, the last Tirthankar was a contemporary of Buddha). The iconography of Jainism is also remarkably similar to early Buddhism: in some temples the Tirthankaras are only devoted by footprints. If there are full body status they only come in two positions: standing naked or in lotus seat.
Thanks to Mansi I got to know some of the lesser known aspects of the temple city, like a small black somnambulant Tirthankara figure who flies to the main temple every night (though noone has witnessed this as this abode of the divine is off limits for us mundane beings after sunset).
I took several hours to wander around. Befriending a construction worker gave me the chance to get into the uppermost level of the main temple. Even though usually noone is allowed to go there even this level had some beautiful carvings (and many many bats). I saw many temples I had missed last time, some very old, some very new and colourful. Just when I thought I had seen all possible temple varieties I happened to step into one with beautiful stained glass and a forest of Tirthankara-crowned marble pillars. I am sure I also missed a lot this time - but even though I might not make it to the full 108 times, I will certainly return.

Day 308 Champaner

Today: no cycling, but hiking. Up the 700m Pavagadh. There would have been.ways to cheat - but I did not cycle all the way here to take a bus and a ropeway up a mountain. On the lower half the way passed through remains of the old Gujarati capital of Champaner: fortifications, gates, etc.
Half way up the mountain my path finally crossed that of a past me - the bus stand there was where we started the ascend of Pavagadh back in 2003. I was surprised to find a ropeway going from that busstand nearly to the top. But later I found out that it must have existed in 2003 already, it just fell out of my memory. Anyway, I took the pilgrims path flanked by many food and drink stalls, toy stores, traders selling pictures of gods and self-proclaimed holy men and women, some of them cursing you if you did not give them bakshish. Well, on one hand these might be very dangerous curses: the hill and the temple on top is dedicated to Kali, the black goddess of destruction !!! On the other hand I am very happy to be cursed by guys whose only holyness lies in collecting rupees. According to Hindu believe we are living in the worst of times, the black age, the Kaliyuga anyway - but there is hope: in only about 400.000 years the golden age will start, yay!
In the main Kali temple on top, the godess is not depicted in full, but rather just as a pair of (squinting) eyes. However, you can see Kali in some smaller temples a bit lower. There are also some older jain temples around, most of them in ruins. Throughout the whole way I was surprised how few other pilgrims were around - I remember it to be much more busy - bu the last time I've been here was on a weekend. On the way down I seriously considered buying one of that funky Kali pictures - my goth heart said yes, but something else said me that having such thing around would really not be a good omen for anything you could possibly do.
Once I got down I rested a bit and then explored some of the famed mosques in and around the royal compound of Champaner - nice stuff, but nothing compared to what I've seen in Iran.

Day 224 Sri Pada / Adam's Peak

I knew that Anne was in dire need of relaxation after some stressful weeks at home. Therefore I had arranged for the perfect relaxing holiday experience: getting up before 2am and climbing up from about 1000m to 2100m on very steep stairs to see the sunrise on the top of Sri Pada a.k.a. Adam's Peak.
When we started the climb in Dalhousie we were more or less alone on the street. I was a bit disappointed, because I had expected many pilgrims around. However, when we got a bit higher we shared the way with more and more pilgrims. Most of them were simply slower than we were - many had started the climb in the evening already. Among them were old people who needed a very long time for each single step (of over 5000) - either alone or supported by their children - very impressive. Some of the steps were very high and all were very irregular - truely not an easy climb. Even when we weren't to high and it was still very warm many Sri Lankans were wearing woolen caps and/or ear protection already. Also for us the climb was pretty hard - we had to stop many times because of tiredness and exhaustion. But we made it: about half an hour before sunrise we reached the top. Many pilgrims and some tourists had spent all night at the top - despite the cold and the wind. We had a look asy the small temple on the very top - but we only realized later that this might have been where we should have looked for the Pada in Sri Pada - depending on your religious preferences the footprint of Adam, Buddha, Thomas the Apostle,... We witnessed a sunrise of incredibly colourful awesomeness over green mountains and man-like cloud formations. On the other side the newborn sun illuminated the fog over a landscape of lush hills and light blue lakes. When it got to chilly for us we started the descent: autschn autschn autschn. Despite the autschn it was wonderful - finally we could see the magnificant landscape we were walking through all night. We were once again very impressed by very old people mastering the climb. Also on the way down we stopped a few times for some rest and some chai. We felt half-dead when we finally got down and the suggestion of skipping our plan of directly going to the bus to drive to the next hike to World's End got unanimously approved. Instead we hit the bed again and only got up around 4pm. The rest of the day we spent relaxed with good food, self-made music and very funny travel companions.

Day 118 Khulo - Zarzma

Puh, what a day ! Many different stages if excitement, a big triumph and a troublesome end.
In sunshine I started the ascend to the 2000m pass not knowing if it would be possible to cross it. Yesterday some trucker had told me that it would already be closed due to snow, but I wanted to check myself. In the worst case I would have to cycle back all the way to Batumi - through an absolutely amazing landscape, not so bad either.At about 1000m some guys handed me 4 orange tasty fruits. I do not know the name of it - I have seen it before in the expensive exotic fruit section of German supermarkets but it was always out of focus for me. This fruits are very typical for this valley - I had seen many trees of it yesterday and today. The guys also gave me motivation by saying that there is snow on the pass but just a little. Thank you guys for fruits and motivation and thank you GDR education + Andrej Tarkovskijs 'Andrej Rubljev' for never letting me forget the Russian word for snow.
I decided to have one fruit every 250m which turned out to be one fruit about every hour. The road was muddy with many stones making the ride rather shaky. Soon I saw snow topped mountains and upon asking for the way people pointed directly at the snow, uiuiui. To make things even more exciting clouds started to gather. After 3 fruits I reached the snow zone and saw that it was not as bad as expected - though there was a lot of snow around the road was mostly free. Even when more snow began to fall it did not keep me from riding on. When I had nearly reached the top a bus coming from above stopped and the driver handed me some apples and pears and warned me of the many snow on the top. Fortunately he had just underestimated my ability to cope with the cold and soon later I reached the ghost town on the peak, yeah ! All houses were locked for the winter - it was just me and the clouds and the snow, very peaceful.
On the other side the snow soon stopped. The road was still very rough though, so I could not roll down very fast. But even when going slow it was very very shaky. I was in the middle of the forest and it was one hour before sunset when all the shaking was too much for my right front carrier - one of the screws broke, daaaaaaamn! I did not have time for a proper fix: I wanted to get out of the forest before the dark - I do not know if there were any beasts around but it certainly looked like a place where wolves and bears and ghosts and demons dwell. I tried a quick fix with zip ties but it did not work for long. Aaaaaargh! If you cannot fix something with zip ties or duct tape it must be something really bad! I eventually just hung my right front pannier on the handlebar. It did not particularly make the ride down the still very rough road any easier but it somehow made me get out of the forest just before it got completely dark. I only had time to find a camp spot near a river and after a short dinner all the days excitement and exhaustion let me fall asleep soon.