Our album of pictures from Orissa (Odisha), 65 of them, can be seen through the following link:
Long drive today but no great rush to get up so we don’t rush. I do write-ups on restaurant terrace. Breakfast of Dhokla (gram – Gujarati sponge – two varieties).
Fond farewells to all and we are away.
Just the odd scenic and peepee stop until Jeypore, where Jolly seems to be in the “Hello” an inordinate amount of time, but when we find him chatting to the owner/manager it’s “no problem”.
Also see a French “friends” from the Rainbow in the midst of negotiations.
Soon after that (past Koraput) we find a suitable picnic swap spot using a lari for shade. We eat the last of the Bastar “home cooking” – Jolly’s chicken samosas, which were excellent.
Long drive on to Rayagada, where we have a little trouble finding the Hotel Tejaswini but it is a small town so problem quickly solved. Presidential suite is a bit OTT and windowless, but large.
Jolly let slip that he is a Maharajkumar (brother of a Maharaja) so we are offered the mosquito garden (no thanks) or private dining room (yes please) to have beer with our supper – a rather poor choice on our part of Chinese noodles (two types) but we were “rice & daaled out” by then.
Over dinner we learn that Gerard and Raj had a barney over the missing cardamoms from Raj’s desert last night!
In addition to the Orissa album, linked above, there is a collection of over 120 photos from that part of the adventure that didn’t make the album, which can be seen at the link below:
