Day 16 - Adimali to Kochi

Finished! Will write up blogs soon.

Day 15 - Coonoor to Adimali

Will write soon

Day 14 - Mysore to Coonoor

Will write soon

Day 13 - Chitradurga to Mysore

Will write soon!

Day 12 Hampi to Chitradurga

Will write soon!

Day 11 - Solapur to Hampi

Although we were staying in a nice modern place in Sonapur, Tim and Rodge were hit by food poisoning in the night and weren't feeling great in the morning. Good job the complimentary breakfast was awful then. Looking at the map we are still dauntingly far north of Kochi, so it was another km-covering day to Hampi.

Here are a couple of pictures of a typical lunch spot for us. Usually with a crowd of Indian truckers. Alex ate lunch and Tim and Rodge just about managed to stomach a chai.


After looking at the map we decided to head to the small bit of Hampi north if the river and try to find a bridge, or a ferry crossing that we could ship the rickshaw across on. Unfortunately there was no bridge and the ferry crossing was very much people only, so we stayed on the north side at a great little place called Bobby's for a total of just 300 rupees.

Day 10 - Ellora to Solapur

A surprisingly acceptable night's sleep and a decent view whilst brushing our teeth outside our room this morning (photo below) though the sewage smells did make it quite hard to stomach.


A brief stop off at the Ellora caves (photos below) led to a later than usual departure. The Ellora caves were more ornate than Anjanta, if in a less dramatic setting. Whist stunning in their own right, there's a limit to the number of caves you can see in 24 hours.




The days drove was fairly plain sailing down a nicely surfaced and very dull highway, managing to cover just over 350km despite the late start.

Day 9 - Khandwa to Ellora

Shortly after departing we crossed the border from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra, gently winding up hills towards the Anjanta and Ellora Caves. Anjanta was the first stop, where a friendly chap offered to give the Chickshaw a much needed clean for 50 rupees (50p). We took him up on his offer and set off on foot to the caves, grateful for the rare chance to stretch our legs. Carved into an almost sheer rock face on a horse-shoe bend it was a pretty cool setting. The caves themselves (there's over 30 of them) ranged from the ridiculously ornate to essentially a hole in the cliff face. A very quick bite to eat, and we returned to the rickshaw. She was looking squeaky clean.

 

Worried about not making it to Ellora before dark we had limited stops in the afternoon. A tactic that proved successful, pulling into the town just after sunset. Our room was our cheapest so far at 400 rupees for the 3 of us (£4). The room is bearable but the bathroom questionable at best. One previous guest appears to have been creative (Hindi writing on the wall) with his/her excrement, which the owner has decided not to clean up for reasons unknown to us. Hopefully the bed bugs don't bite.

Day 8 - Kareli to Khandwa

We travelled a lot of ground (379km) on this day of few interruptions and generally acceptable roads, winding through the countryside of Madhya Pradesh. This came as a slight surprise as traveling west away from the main north to south highway we feared more bone-rattling pot holes. Hard on both our bodies and the rickshaw. However, we found the journey generally smooth and really the only thing that held us back was the odd slow railway crossing (one of which rather alarmingly had a vehicle permanently stationed at it for railway accidents) and pauses for photo opportunities of the ever changing landscape. This included driving through more cows than we've ever seen in one place.



Checking into the hotel we were given complimentary chai and experienced the smiley hotel owner sprinkling the reception area with Ganges water that he was storing in an old plastic bottle. The evening involved a questionable veg thali (must have been about 4/5 days since we've had meat now) followed by a frame of snooker in a run-down upstairs venue called 'Fun Mania'.

ATR

Day 7 - Maihar to Kareli

We headed down to the street to load up the Chickshaw for the day fairly early, just before 6am. Amazingly the same chap who'd been following us for the final few km yesterday emerged from nowhere, gesticulating expectingly. After successfully getting rid of him we set off and planned a few sights to hit over the next couple of days.

A long morning stint had us almost at Jabalpur, where after a brief discussion over a Samosa and Chai stop we decided to go on a 15km detour to find a 'balancing rock' which our 8 year old copy of the India Lonely Planet guide briefly mentions as an aside. Our decision mainly revolved around that if the balancing rock was terrible, it would be highly amusing in a few weeks time. It was indeed terrible.

Our bad luck with sight-seeing continued as we searched for the Marble Rock. After locals on street corners pointed us in almost every direction imaginable we found a Hindu temple. We eventually arrived at the Marble Rocks to learn they were only viewable between October and April. Not a great success then, but there was some quite cool scenary, we had a wander around, and managed to persuade a passerby to grab a rare photo of all three of us.


After a spot of late lunch near the unviewable Rocks we continued in a vague South West direction. Upon passing a cheering crowd we decided to see what the fuss was about. Within seconds we had been shepparded to the front row seats of an anti police corruption protest and been passed a microphone to share our opinion which we politely declined, though it did take a while for a non-awkward moment to leave to occur.

Further down the road two excited Indian men pulled alongside our Rickshaw and asked us to pull over. Wanting to make decent progress after the sightseeing shambles, we refused. After much persistancy on their part, but mainly in case they'd spotted something up with the Rickshaw, we gave in. Expecting either bad news about the Rickshaw or minor hassle, we were deligbted when they introduced themselves as a news crew for DD News (apparently the Government affiliated TV news channel in India). Soon we were all interviewed about our journey. Hopefully the footage makes an appearance online so we can see what made the cut!


We finished off the day with a quick Chai with one of the news crew member before checking into a surprisingly modern hotel in a tiny village called Kareli. A good day.

ATR