Let’s go cycling

Day 22-24 in India…out of Karmataka into Goa

So…Neil spent quite a bit of time researching the weather in the region before we left Oz.  He pretty carefully planned some likely routes to try and avoid the worst of the monsoons in both Sri Lanka and India.  And full credit- he’s nailed it for the most part! We have of course seen a bit of rain here and there,  especially in the high countryside…but we’ve mostly stayed dry.  Until now.

Leaving Jog Falls and heading to the coast we rode through quite heavy rain for much of the day. 

Somehow though we managed to avoid the torrential downpours while riding…and were in the shelter of our accommodation just in time to watch the rain REALLY come down.

Thankfully much of the super heavy rain came overnight and in the early mornings, and we really did luck it not to get caught out badly.

We hit the coast at Honnavar and found a cheap and cheerful homestay that somewhat resembled a construction site…but it had a balcony…another one of Neil’s quests 🤣.   We tried to utilise this but we quickly realised the importance of keeping the outside door shut when a very brazen rattus chose to wander in an introduce himself.  I screamed. It left. We locked the door…

Day 23 we had a shortish day on the bikes…took a gamble and headed for the “shortcut” where we thought we should be able to catch a ferry.  Two wheelers only.  Tick.

Got to said ferry point and stood looking lost and confused for a while until a guy with a dinghy motioned us to unload our  bikes and hand them in…

So that worked! Short trip across the river and we were on our way again! Not sure how they actually transport the motorbikes over… don’t reckon they’d be able to be manhandled into a dinghy somehow?

After the somewhat lacklustre stay of the previous night we decided to treat ourselves to a bit of luxe again (didn’t know about the steep hills on the way in tho…) with a lovely view over the bay and a little walk down to the ramshackle beachfront hangouts 🙂

A very late lunch was curtailed by yet another beautifully timed monsoon downpour…complete with winds that sent the restaurant gear flying ( and crashing) and sent us hitailing it to shelter!  All fun… and then we rehashed the clothes that we’d so carefully hung out on our (yes!) Balcony.

Day 24 and we headed up the coast and just over the Goan border. 74km was long enough today so we chose a “Beachside resort” at Polem.  Not cheap enough.  Worst room so far…worst customer service (ever!)… but right on the beach so I guess position comes at a premium! Beer was cheap, so was whisky and it was a pretty nice spot to spend an evening 🙂

Our Journey so far 2637km… 22570m of up…
https://www.komoot.com/collection/2952667/-sri-lanka-to-india