We left Jaipur in a pair of Jeeps and we knew we were heading in to the rural villages of India. We travelled along roads that were so narrow we struggled to pass oncoming bicycles and there were potholes that could be mistaken for dried up village ponds. One of our jeeps got a puncture but there appears to be a 'garage' in every village no matter how small it is, while we waited we entertained children from the local school, my juggling with anything that I can lay my hands on trick went down well.

In Tordi village we stayed in an old colonial style mansion and ate on the rooftop with a view that stretched for miles and a night so clear that the moon and starlight illuminated the landscape. We took a walking tour to see village life, we found that along with religious symbols it is common for families to paint names and dates on the doorway to a house that celebrates a wedding or birth of a child. This is an ingenious idea for anyone who struggles to remember special dates, no longer will a man have to walk through a door empty handed unaware that day is his wedding anniversary! It was a school holiday and the children of the village threw flowers at us, followed us around and challenged us to street football. We stopped at a potters home and were shown how to mould clay on a spinning wheel, to get this large wheel moving he woud place a stick in the centre hole and manually wind this up in a mixing pot style, somehow this continues to spin for a long period while he works. After watching the master a few of us took a turn and I managed to produce a sorry looking egg cup.

On returning to our country retreat the girls had a lady arrive to adorn their arms with intricate patterns with henna, the evenings entertainment before dinner was the firing of ancient guns in to the evening sky, they were the type used in the movie Zulu that require gunpowder and a spark.