Day 90: Hampi to Gadag

Clocking up 5,000km

The kids at our guesthouse  

Leaving Hampi the stylish way involves descending many steps with the bikes, waiting on a rock and then catching the ferry across to the island the other side of the river. There are a few cafés and lodges on the island, but it’s an even more laid back place than the bazaar, with mainly temporary structure and huts. The road was dirt too, but not hard to get through on a bicycle, so we soon got to the short causeway that takes you off the island.

The boat ride across the river

Then it was a beautiful paddy field lined road, with occasional rocky outcrops, making for some spectacular views.

Blue Strawberry resting  

Eventually though we had to join the main road - another main road they are rebuilding, so it was some serious schlepping over ridiculous potholes to start with.

In fact, the surface was so bad the Blue Strawberry managed to get a double puncture. We sat in a service station and fixed them whilst the guys who fill the fuel for occasional trucks quizzed us on all sorts of things.

Thankfully, with tyres fully inflated, the road surface improved, and we were able to knock off the remaining 60km without too much trouble.

We also brought up a big milestone - we passed the 5,000km mark in our journey. We’re about a third of the way home that means, and it does feel like we’ve come a spectacular distance from Melbourne.