Back on track

With the temperature forecast to hit 37°C again today we decided it was a smart idea to get going early. Also, Tiger was feeling better, but not quite at 100% yet. So we decided a breakfast of fruit cake and satsumas in our hotel room at 7am this morning was the best choice, before heading out onto the cool roads. The fruit cake was great, and a little safer than the fermented rice iddly, which are more commonly eaten for breakfast round here.

We were able to stick to a pretty rural road to start with, getting to see India waking up, having breakfast and catching the school bus. It’s all farming country around here, with some people living in coconut mat huts, but it’s still a common sight to see a guy in the back of an oxen cart watching videos on his phone. A country of many contrasts.

We stopped by a large wall for a quick break and a passing van stopped and a man in Army uniform strolled towards us. At this point I read the sign on the wall that revealed we were by a defence research base. “This might be a problem,” I though, but it turned out he just wanted a chat and a selfie. What’s new?

We stopped for snacks a little way up the road and again stopped traffic. The big pull was Tiger, who held an impromptu “Ask Me Anything” in the street with an audience of 20 locals.

We were planning to take a risk on a very minor road out of town to cut about 10km off the journey, so we took a right turn and cycled out into the countryside. A motorcycle raced up alongside us and said “No, the other road!” And after a while we got the sense this road was not finished, not tarmaced or something. Anyway, we decided it was better to take the advice of a local who’d gone out of their way to warn us and headed back to the main road.

After 10km we were on the big main road again, heading north with a lot of trucks. This road is in the middle of being rebuilt, with many sections having a lane closed off. However, this was often a brand new stretch of tarmac and we often had the whole carriageway to ourselves.

This unused tarmac did attract other riders though. Occasionally we saw goats being herded along it, and more often, farmers were laying out their crop to dry and then threshing it on the road. What they’ll do once the road opens I don’t know, but it works well for now.

The main road took us all the way to Kudigli, where we have a very nice room in the only hotel in town. It has AC, but only a mat for Tiger and no WiFi. Well, you can’t have everything.

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Day 87: Challakere to Kudigli