Sunday 6 December

4:30. It's early and it feels hard. We leave for the train station and arrive in good time. Which is good because the line of taxis and tok tok's is long and slow at the entry. Security is rather lax, but maybe because we are tourists. We wait on the platform for the train to arrive. The guide, navin negotiates it so we have two rows of seats together. We get water and juice, tea or coffee and a basic breakfast. It's a bit unusual for me and I don't eat it all. There are Indian newspapers in english. There are interesting articles on the air quality. The air quality in New Delhi is so bad 0-50 is excellent and yesterday it was 547. Well past severe. Beijing is soaring past Delhi with it's air quality in the last 3 months. The scale looks inverted between the two countries. I have a snooze and then catch up on a few things. It's a long trip because of some fog. We get to our station about 12:30pm. The children are quick to come and beg. Our guide gives them some open chips and one of the lady's in the tour gives some lollies. The scenery is mostly flat vast and dry with the occasional tree. A bit of agriculture too. We stop for ATMs and the guide gets some fruit and fried savoury snacks. One lentil, one onion. It's now another 2 hour or so drive by van. Apparently the area is known for it's mining, especially is very high quality marble. There are trucks everywhere. Makes for slow going. They actually have signs On the back to please use your horn! Cows on the road also slow things down. We get to the accommodation about 4pm and are greeted with lemonade. We settle to our rooms then meet back to go to the dam for the sunset and chai tea. It's lovely and green. They locals are growing mustard and catching fish. We have light refreshments of sandwiches, pakora and biscuits. Then we head toward the sand dunes. There is a young man carrying fish. The guide somehow talked the man out of the fish. Probably with money. At the top of the sand dunes we see same native antelope wandering through the lower lands. Apparently they are very tall. It's dark when we get back. The guide advises we go have showers before the other bigger group returns. Dinner is in a an hour and a half. We shower and relax a while. Malcolm goes over some Swahili words. We go up to the terrace before dinner where the others from our group are sharing drinks. Malcolm decides not to have dinner. It's a buffet, but I only need one serving. After dinner I get a henna design on my hand and arm. A young local girl does it for me. It's a cooling numbing sensation as it dries. Malcolm looks at some old guns and swords shown. Some of the others are going to check out a local wedding. We pass, for bed, as we already saw the wedding in Delhi. We are getting up early again for walk up the hill for sunrise. When I hop into bed the dry henna starts to falls off. It's like sleeping with small stones!