Tuesday 27th November (Gudur – Tirupati) I was almost out of town when my rear tyre crunched down into a pothole and was immediately flat. I pulled off to the side of the road, onto some unused land (amazing!) behind where a shoe repairer had set up for business, squatting below an umbrella with his …
Saturday 25th November (Ongole). Rest day. Went out for a shave and a buzz cut. Bought a shirt. Took some pictures. Then back to the hotel and spent the day working on photos and the blog, with the England-India test match on in the background. With a couple of premier league football games in the …
Tuesday 20th November (Rajamundry to Eluru) A great breakfast of masala dosai, chai and lassi and I was on the road. Leaving town, I saw my first bike with gears! Didn’t stay long enough to see if it was an Indian or an import. There are three routes I could take: the NH5, which takes …
Saturday 17th November (Vizag to Tuni) I felt a bit down when I awoke, not really excited by the prospect of a day on the road. I’m definitely struggling a bit with cycling motivation. But the prospect of a day at the beach resort without a beach wasn’t enticing either, especially at around 2100 rupees. …
A splendid day. Despite the 5:00 am alarm. I left my bike locked to a tree below my room and took an auto-rickshaw to the station – a surprisingly long way. I paid my 20 rupees for a ticket up to Araku and wandered out into the Indian Railways world on the platform – something …
Sunday 11th November I had a broken night and was up early but it was still 8:00 am before I had breakfasted, settled my hotel bill and was underway – without the usual sense of exhilaration to be back on the bike. I’ll have to shake this malaise off, somehow! Puri was a lot easier …