DAY 19, APRIL 9, ON TO RANTHAMBHORE NAT'L PARK

THRESHING

Threshing they've mechanized
With a thresher miniaturized.
Their thresher is, in truth,
Like I knew in my youth
But very much downsized.


NAHARGARH

Like Chomu, it's a splendid palace
In which to drink from a chalice.
It's been great to know 'em.
When I get back home,
Ill sadly have no palace.


It was my turn to be sick overnight last night. Deficated countless times. Vomited three times. Very weak and sleepy all day. Couldn't eat much, just some porridge (oatmeal) and some milk at breakfast and a little boiled potato, banana and pudding at lunch and dinner. Felt very weak and sleepy all day. Napped all afternoon and evening when we got to Ranthambore. Ate very little at lunch and dinner.

We started about 8 AM on our 180 KM drive to Ranthamore National Park (lion preserve) and arrived about 1:30 PM.

Most of the way the countryside was very flat, very dry, and very hot. Fortunately the bus is nicely air conditioned. Funny thing, though, the drivers' compartment is not air conditioned.

In addition to a couple stops to use “facilities,” we made one stop to visit a farm family (just from the outside of their home).

We also made a stop to walk out onto the field to where a threshing machine was working. The sheaves of wheat had been placed in a stack beforehand. There were about ten people working, bringing the sheaves to the machine and feeding them into it, and transferring the wheat with big pans to the bin of trailer behind a tractor. The thresher was powered by belt from another tractor. We took a lot of pictures and helped carry sheaves to the thresher. Even though I was very weak, I walked out into the heat and joined this activity. This threshing machine is a miniature version of the threshing machines I remember from my childhood on the farm in Wisconsin before the invention of the combine. They too were stationary and driven by belt from a tractor. In that case the grain was brought from the field to the threshing machine up by the barn on many wagons and pitched into it.

We are staying in a splendid hotel with beautiful gardens, and it's called Nahargarh. There is no city or town. It sits at the end of a dirt road in what seems like dessert and about a mile from the boundary of the park. I took it to be a former palace converted into a hotel. It sure looks like a palace to me. But I was wrong. Som told me it was built from scratch only four or five years ago. However, he said the owner is from a semi-royal family, is very wealthy and, among other holdings, owns some old palaces.
I certainly wasn't up to the afternoon activity, though I was sorry to miss it. I stayed in and napped, and so did Helen. What we missed was a hike up to the ancient fort on a hilltop within the buffer zone of the park. John Stewart told me they saw some old temples up there which are still in use.


Bernie :-)