India 'Hippie Trail' by Bike: On towards Mumbai

23 February - the first of four riding days to Mumbai - today was a long ride, 137 km, especially considering the heat and rough road surfaces throughout the day. Much of the time, it was better to be in the sand and gravel on the shoulder than on the road itself. The road was a bit better after lunch, but still, my sentiment was that I was still enjoying the overall journey, but NOT the bike ride on those roads. When you have to have your eyes glued to the next 50 metres of road surface and oncoming traffic, you don't really enjoy the countryside so much. And a bit of tummy problems for Rae so he hadn't really eaten much and wasn't feeling as energetic as he'd like (that's a problem now-a-days even without tummy issues) - bless Ursula staying back with him, and a couple of stops for cool drinks in the afternoon. When the water in your bottle is 40 degrees, it maybe does something for hydration, but it tastes terrible, is tough to get down the throat, and it doesn't quench the mental thirst, so on those stops, thank goodness for really COLD water.

Early in the day we went through a village that was about to start its parade, part of the religious celebrations previously mentioned in earlier blogs.

Lots of sugar cane in this area - here they are hauling it out of the field on ox cart, then loading trailers or trucks. They'll load these trailers much higher than that before they're finished.

Over a number of almost dry riverbeds this afternoon - here goats share the waterpools with people washing their clothes and dishes.

...and Rae found one of his beloved Kites hanging onto this wire and using his wings to balance himself against the wind - did we mention how much we like the afternoon winds when they turn into headwinds....

Fancy enough hotel, funny layouts, you had to go up to first floor level then up about ten more steps, then down 10, to get to the first floor rooms that we were on. Pool at back was very nice - seating limited to a few benches (like park benches), no chaise-lounge, no pool towels. WiFi only at reception, not that we had much time to use it today.

24 Feb - to Malshej Ghat - Our medic Beth saw Rae before he started this morning and gave him some antibiotics on the ground that the GI issues were now into a third day. So again, a basic breakfast of corn flakes and a banana and not much for lunch. Mercifully it was just 92 km today, and some nice scenery. Again hot so enjoyed a cool drink stop before lunch and again 10 km out after lunch - COLD water and COLD mango drink.

Tonight was in a beautiful resort near a lake, with a view of lake from our unit. Pool was nice, same comments as yesterday, no lounge chairs, just upright ones at a couple of tables, certainly not set up to go to the pool and sun yourself for the afternoon. WiFi in reception/restaurant only, actually nice just not to be well connected to the world. Comfortable night.

25 Feb - Another day of more moderate mileage, under 100 km. First 20 km was a descent around a cliff-side - quite spectacular, some of the scenery. That said, visibility was terribly in the morning in haze and smoke and it didn't improve much during the day - all that despite us being essentially in the countryside. A few steep climbs, but not ridiculously long, during the day. Main impediment was the heat, also headwind.