Poshina -> Polo – The discovery of the temple ruins

20. December 2024

 

 

The distance to the next accommodation wasn’t that far. I had thought of something, but they were against it, they wanted me to travel differently, so to speak. So we travelled quite leisurely with stops to the Polo Forest. The first stop was at a Hindu temple, where probably nobody else as a tourist travels. It wasn’t that moving either. But for Hindus it probably was – at least there were rooms where you could spend the night.

 

Templeaccommodation

 

in front of Temple

 

Then we had a cup of tea and stopped in a place where I walked around a bit. I learnt something about water chestnuts and I didn’t even know what they look like, how they taste and that they also grow in India.

 

Teadrinkingplace

 

Busstand at teadrinkingplace

 

water chestnuts

 

I thought they were delicious, but then I read that you can get very nasty diseases if they’re not cooked properly or something and then I got scared and stopped eating them.

 

What I find a bit daft about Gujarat is that it’s kind of ‘faceless’. Means the places and their architecture. It doesn’t look beautiful or picturesque or anything, nor does it have any fascinating ugliness. I discovered a gentleman in the village who forged silver foot jewellery hoops for women. Unfortunately, I only have videos of it. But it was nice to sit with him and he seemed very happy to show me what he was doing. I like situations like that. Here are a few pictures of the place:

 

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What I found a bit ‘unusual’ in India: I was probably one of the first Westerners to walk around there, but people hardly cared. There were a few questioning looks, but I was left in peace. It’s often so different elsewhere. Pleasant here.

 

a tailor

 

Polo Forest is a 400 square kilometre forest area that used to be completely unknown and where people from Ahmedabad or somewhere like that now like to spend their weekends. They are not (yet) really prepared for western travellers, e.g. there was no English-speaking guide. But I couldn’t do without one and so I got a friendly gentleman who told me a lot and I understood about 5%. Tribals live there and I saw them fishing, carrying wood and doing other activities. It was actually very pretty there by the river.

 

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Then we walked through the river to the other side and there were ‘hidden treasures’ waiting for us. There was a temple site:

 

Templesite

 

And around it were building blocks and a few ruins that indicated that there used to be a village here. Much earlier.

 

Ruin

 

There was also a great tree:

 

tree

 

Then we went on to other ruins. You had to climb over a fence to get there. The area belonged to the state archaeological department and was not (yet?) open to visitors. However, there were various people milling around, including schoolchildren with teachers.

 

Templeremains 1

 

Templeremains 2

 

And if you then went round the corner again, you would see really big old temples. These were Jain temples from the 15th century. Even though there was this fence around it and workers were busy, it felt like a ‘great discovery’. Maybe because I hadn’t expected there to be large ruins in the forest. If you didn’t know where they were, you wouldn’t find them.

 

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Botanically it is certainly also very rich and you can certainly go spotting or visit villages. I was very happy with this programme. But I was actually only there because it was the closest good accommodation to something I would see the next day. I hadn’t expected much for the day – and so I was quite well rewarded.