Dave and his Bike

Days 75, 76 & 77.

Day 75.

Day off – exploring.

After a very comfortable nights’ sleep and a cup of tea in bed (!) I ventured out for breakfast. The hotel charge about 600 rupees if breakfast is included in your room price. I had vada, idli and chai just around the corner for 75 rupees. A no-brainer from my perspective. I’ll be back there tomorrow morning.

A bit of research followed, resulting in me booking a hotel in Chennai for the weekend. It’s such a massive city that I feel the need to have a specific target to aim for, albeit I don’t know which areas of the city are best. No doubt I’ll soon find out.

My plan for today was to visit the temple complex in Tirumala, specifically the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple. The legend had it that Vishnu resided there. So I booked an Uber and paid through the app so I knew what the fixed fee was. It duly arrived, at which point the driver asked for more money. I cancelled it and ordered an Uber Premium. This arrived, and the driver asked me to cancel the booking and pay him direct.

So, having walked to the bus station I got a rickety old bus for the fraction of the price of a taxi, and enjoyed the experience much more despite my trepidation about something which should have been taken out of service decades ago. Tirumala is only 11km away in a straight line, but since it is up in the hills and the road winds its way there it is much further and takes about 45 minutes. Thousands of pilgrims and devotees flock to the temple every day. Tickets to enter sell out well in advance, but I was as interested in the outside and the atmosphere as much as anything.

The temples were suitably impressive, The village of Tiramula less so. Lots of stalls selling icon memorabilia, jewellery and the like, and buildings in not so good condition. It seems that a lot of people sleep outside the temple as part of their pilgrimage, as large shelters have been permanently erected to cater for this.

I found some snacks and chai for a bit of lunch, and got accosted by a woman with some paint who thought it appropriate to adorn my face with it. I’m not sure that true pilgrims may not see it as a bit disrespectful, but I didn’t have much choice in the matter. After a couple of hours, I decided to risk my life again and get the bus back. The forest it drove through, and the snatches of view I got on some of the bends were lovely, despite the cloudy weather. The road up and down the hill would have made a great bike ride, except for the number of crazy bus, taxi and motorbike riders.

The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling in my room. Dinner in the restaurant was a bit disappointing as I foolishly went back to a murgh chicken dish which contained more bones than meat. I politely mentioned it at the end of the meal, and the evidence left on my plate told the story, so they very kindly didn’t charge me for it. The sauce was nice though!

Back on the bike in the morning. Looking forward to it.

Day 76.

Another leisurely start as it’s not a big mileage day again. Once packed and checked out, I had breakfast next door again (idli) then hit the road before 0830hrs. It’s too far for me to want to get all the way to Chennai (146km) in one hit, plus I would then be in Chennai for five days which I don’t really want. So I’ve split it down into two (unequal) days rides, based on where I think I can find accommodation.

The first 10 kilometres or so were busy, as the road went past both the Sri Padmavati Ammavaari (really busy) and Gurappa Swamy (not so busy) temples, so there were buses and tuk-tuks a plenty. In the village of Brahmanapattu the road mysteriously disappeared and was replaced by a mud bath created by the rain a couple of days ago. From the state of this road, I’m really pleased it hasn’t rained more!

The terrain got a bit more hilly around me, but the road only gently rose and fell. With the addition of a slight tailwind the cycling was easy. Much of it was a big main road other than when I diverted through villages, and the hard shoulder was wide. I had a couple of stops for selfies with excited lads on motorbikes. The encounters all started with the usual ‘which country’ but also ended with the equally usual and rather lovely ‘happy journey’ and big smiles.

With 20km to go I stopped for some chai, which is one of the many things I’m going to miss when I leave India. Even with the planned and unplanned stops, I was at my destination well ahead of schedule. Less than three hours on the bike and my mileage for the day was done. I considered pushing on, but the next accommodation was too far, so I called it quits and went into the hotel. It’s well above my normal budget (again), but I negotiated the rate down to something more palatable and it includes breakfast. There’s also a reasonably priced restaurant here. I sound like I’m trying to justify it to myself, which I probably am…

The weather forecast for tomorrow isn’t great. I anticipate getting very wet, and a strong crosswind will make the ride a bit tougher too. So far in India I have been really lucky with the weather, so one bad day right at the end I can accept. I say that now, so it will be interesting to see how I feel this time tomorrow!

Dinner was in the hotel restaurant. I went a bit rogue and tried the malai kofta curry, which is potato and paneer dumplings in a cashew based curry sauce. It was nice, but not my favourite.

I had hoped that I would make it all the way across India without suffering with my stomach in any way (to put it nicely). I nearly did, but for 20 minutes this evening when I suffered a bit. No more detail required.

Mileage so far: 4418km.

Day 77.

After a reasonably good sleep my stomach was back to normal. Thankfully. I immediately went on to abuse it by overdoing breakfast. When I went into the restaurant I was offered idli, which I accepted. Whilst they were preparing it I spotted a pile of sliced bread and a toaster, so felt obliged to have four rounds of toast and butter whilst waiting for my breakfast. I convinced myself it was a good fuelling policy, and enjoyed it all. The coffee was rubbish though.

It had obviously rained heavily overnight. The TV in the restaurant was showing images of floods on the streets of Chennai, which was a bit daunting. By the time I got on my bike it was drizzling, but it didn’t last long. I decided to make the most of the lull in the rain by getting some mikes in, so hammered out the first 50 kilometres in two hours (thanks to the toast), anticipating what I thought was still to come and hoping that at least it wouldn’t be for too long. I paused briefly for a chai and rode on.

At the 60km mark it started drizzling again, but stopped after about 10 minutes. I had also reached the outskirts of Chennai, so had to properly wind back the effort, firstly because of the traffic, but also because of the frequent stops I had to make in order to navigate. The sight of a herd of cows being milked at a bus stop made me smile. The aftermath of the rain was also very evident. Lots of muddy standing water around the never ending roadworks made going even tougher and slower.

After dodging scooters and tuk-tuks for a good few kilometres I found the hotel I had booked. It’s really nice and again a bit more luxurious than I’m used to, but that was deliberate as I’m here for a few days. It started raining slightly more heavily later in the afternoon. I had tried to dodge the showers (unsuccessfully) when I’d been out to find some lunch (successful) and maybe a bike shop (failed). So by the time I asked at reception where there is a nice restaurant nearby, the reply I got was ‘it’s raining’. They ordered a biryani for me which I had in my room. Well I had some of it. There was enough to feed a family of four.

It is slowly sinking in that I have completed stage two of my ride and cycled across India. I’m stressing about packing my bike up (tomorrow’ task), and already thinking about Thailand next week so haven’t really dwelled on finishing this part. It doesn’t really feel like a massive achievement, possibly because the daily mileage hasn’t been difficult. It looks good on a map though!

Mileage so far: 4497km.