Hopping up the coast

Neil’s turn to blog…with a couple of interjections 😉

Wednesday 18th Sept-Day 30 in India!

Resuming our trip up tour after a week of laziness and mild illness in Goa, A ferry ride across a river took us to the state of Matarashna. Immediately there were no more bars and fewer little shops. The landscape became much more rural, fairly brutal for cycling, frequent climbs up to a plateau, ride for 500m then back down to sea level.

Our accommodation after some false starts was in a wonderful situation, right on a “quiet” beach. We’d tried a couple of other spots that looked nice…had availability on agoda but when we rocked up they were closed. Hmmm.

Not many options for food but the hotel restaurant was opening later in the evening. Thankfully we found a vendor selling BBQ sweetcorn on the beach to tide us through until the hotel’s restaurant opened at 9.00pm!!. The menu was fish thali, considerably better than we were expecting: the kitchen was on open view on check-in and a melange of chickens, cats and dogs seemed to roam freely. Very hygienic indeed…

Thursday 19th Sept, day 31

My research led me to believe Goa to Mumbai was going to be a tough leg, I kept this to myself, knowing Rachael still a little weak would have found the nearest railway station.

Today was everything, tough, endless ascents to the plateau, 500m then back down and repeat. We passed a new airport in the middle of nowhere, according to Google, a full size runway capable of accommodating any size plane, only two flights per day at present.

The scenery was ever changing, small fishing villages in the valleys., forested steep slopes and a fairly barren grassland plateau interspersed with ancient mango plantations. Each tree surrounded by a circular stone wall to build up the shallow soils.

Cash was getting low, and about an hour was sweated away trying ATMs in hot tiny rooms before any success- we’ve almost figured out which banks accept international cards now!

A long 100km day and we found a hotel just before sunset. After a freshen up, we headed out to find some food. We used the stairs as the lift was a little rickety and we were unsure how to use it. To our complete surprise, one floor down was a door signed BAR, they also served food. There ended our further exploration of the town.

This was the cheapest place we’ve found so far and on the surface it seemed pretty good value. Unfortunately it also came stocked with a healthy supply of bed bugs. Might take us a while to recover from those…

Found a “Mahashtran” classic today apparently- Misalpav. Bread is much more of a thing in this state- a lovely mix of peas and sprouts with a fresh bread roll…hits the spot!

Friday 20th Sept, day 32

Another big day. Today we clicked over 3000km so far on our trip!
No breakfast options at our hotel… or in the township, so we ate some scraps of cake from our food bag and hoped to find sustenance on the way. Open food places are rare before 11.00 am. We eventually came across a little stall deep frying some fritters. They were a spiced fluffy mashed potato somehow battered and served in a small bread roll, delicious! Thereafter today was mostly about the heat and humidity.

But…we treated ourselves to a lovely quiet hotel after around 90km. A little bit posher than the previous night’s stay and there did not seem to be any added critters. Win win!

Saturday 21st Sept, day 33

Well I guess you could say we’re just a bit lazy. Or we’re getting a bit soft…
Late breakfast, easy ride and we opted for another poshish place only a couple of hours up the road…because we could. And because we were a bit worried that we wouldn’t find anything in a timely fashion further up the road.

Fair bit cooler today and some rain showers. Stunning scenery, riding along cliff tops overlooking the ocean swell, breaking onto deserted beaches of various colours. Vibrant fishing boats contasting with the poverty ridden fishing villages.

Now it’s time for a hearty breakfast (hopeful..) and back on the road!