Wednesday 4th - We meet a Heffalump

R goes for more yoga fun this morning.  D takes a picture to prove it and goes back to bed. Another leisurely breakfast (the Gopi doesn't seem to do any other sort) and then we head off down to the river to see if there are any birds. What we find is a large crowd of people and an elephant. The book says that the temple elephant, which they say is called Lakshmi, goes for a bath in the river around 8 a.m. It is now 9.45. We wonder how many people have been waiting for almost two hours. The elephant duly lies on one side in the river as people queue to splash water on it and give it a gentle scrub. R, an old hand at elephant washing, decides that her skills are surplus to requirement here and we move on.

Apart from crows there is not a bird to be seen. Too much commotion on the near bank and on the far bank we can see a large pack of dogs running around making a row. We decide against taking the ferry across there. We head away from the crowd but still very few birds until a Purple Heron glides in and lands on a small beach. We do spot a sunbatkhing lizard, species unknown. It doesn't seem to be a great day for birding so we decide to head back into town to take a proper look around the large Virupaksha temple. En route we see people taking a short cut across the site where the excavations are taking place. We fully expect a shout or whistle but nobody turns a hair and we get a good look into the very deep hole that has been dug. The walls suggest that this is/was a very big tank. The walls look to be in very poor condition and restoration is going to be a mammoth task.

Virupaksha is a working temple so it is shoes off. Admission is very reasonable at Rs 2 per head although the camera charge is a bit steeper at 50. There are plenty of worshippers around as well as tourists. We shrug off a man who would like to give us a guided tour and admire the carvings and statues. The two types of monkey are both here and appear to coexist reasonably peacefully. There is a rattle as a gate is opened and there is Lakshmi, back from the river. She walks across the courtyard and then turns to face the shrine before doing a kind of puja dance. This complete she turns and walks to the far end of the yard where she has a stall. The 50 rupees was worth it after all.

It is getting hot again so we head for a shady cafe, one that we have not previously tried. R has Masala Black Tea and D has Lemon Tea and both are excellent. The place seems to be well run so we note it down for supper tonight. We seem to have run through the major attractions of Hampi and it is too hot to go aimlessly wandering so we take an hour out to chill under the fan in our room. All too soon it will be time to pack and pay our bill. Our train from Hospet is at 6.30 so we need to leave Hampi at 5.30. No clubbing for us tonight.

R has made a discovery today. She has always had difficulty identifying where the shade is but now realises that it is usually where the auto rickshaws are parked. For our evening meal we chose thalis which were huge and less than £2 each. We need feeding up for tomorrow.