The Deccan Odyssey has six different itineraries depending on the date you choose to travel. I was on “Jewels of the Deccan” and that suited me fine though I would have liked to see the historic and religious town of Nashik which was on the “Maharashtra Spendour” or the “Mahrashtra Wild Trail” excursions but not on ours.
“THE MAGNIFICENT SIXTEENTH CENTURY VITTALA TEMPLE IN HAMPI WAS LIT UP AFTER SUNSET FOR OUR BENEFIT”
Vittala TempleBesides Bijapur and Hampi we stopped to see the ancient temples of Badami, the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad and the caves of Ellora and Ajanta, the last two certainly the highlight for me. I had last visited these caves almost 50 years ago as a young backpacker. The intervening years have not diminished the awe I felt once again. The Kailash temple in Ellora, dedicated to Shiva, is the world’s largest monolithic sculpture. As for Ajanta, the 2,000-year-old paintings were discovered in 1819 when a British hunting party stumbled upon them. The caves’ isolation preserved them over the centuries.
