What a day for our phones to go down, most of us want to phone home to wish our loved ones a happy Valentines day and Airtel for some unknown reason have blocked all 13 sim cards so no cheap calls home.
The usual hold ups prevented us from getting away from the hotel on time and there was the by now traditional crowd to see us off.
There was a French couple staying at the same hotel and they had hired a Bullet 350cc twin spark for 700 rupees a day. (About £9.33p) which I would say is quite affordable.
We were soon out in the country and Gordon found some off road dirt tracks as promised. We traveled quite a distance at first following alongside a river. We passed some very poor communities, you would not believe that this day and age people are still living in mud huts with sugar cane leaves for roofing.
The countryside reminded me of the Somerset levels. We stopped to regroup after crossing a ford and met some local people washing their clothing in the river. We started to hand out some of our goodies. Fran handed out sweets. I handed out some key rings to which the recipients looked at in bewilderment. Upon reflection I do not suppose they would have owned a car or motorcycle and perhaps do not even have a door on their houses that lock. In years to come they will talk about these strange white men amd women who arrived with high visibility vests and handed out useless objects.
It was a good days motorcycling and the roads were ideal. Our average speed was about 30 miles per hour and maximum speed was 64mph. We traveled more than the planned 86 miles.
The country side was flat, the land seemed very productive and there were acres of paddy fields. Much of the work is still done by manual labour. There were outcrops of very large rock formations; there was one I saw today that must have been as big as Ayers Rock. The area would be good for making Bollywood westerns like they used to do spaghetti westerns years ago in Italy. It was whilst we were stopped photographing one of these outcrops when the local press took an interest in us; so we had to pose for photographs and give an account of ourselves for their editorial.
I have found during this trip that when we arrive in a town or city on the way to the hotel we pass through some very deprived areas. The hotels are an oasis of tranquility and we feel very privileged. The Hotel Germanus, Madural where we are staying today is no exception.
My bike is being worked on by the mechanics, the speedo cable has failed and I think I need a new spring in my front brake calipers.
Fran says happy Valentines day to Rachel.
Nigel says happy Valentines day to Gilly
Richard says happy Valentines day to Karen.
Ted says happy Valentines days to Beverley.
Phones are now working. Mosquitoes are biting well, I think this hotel may be near water. We hired four tuk tuk's this evening and eight of us went out for a tour around the town culminating in a temple. The tuk tuk rides are quite hairy as every space on the road is exploited by these drivers and every opportunity to overtake is taken. Gordon drove his tuk tuk for a short while and found the steering very heavy. We had to refuel ours with LPG. I have never heard of a two stroke LPG engine.
Nigel
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