DAY FIFTEEN… 27.73 miles (44.60 km)
Our first ride for a while. Due to our weakness, we shortened it to only 28miles. Still not easy as the roads were often deeply rutted tracks through villages with the usual village activities, gathering cow dung, shaping the cow dung cakes, harvesting crops, threshing grain, cleaning their thresholds with little straw brooms and sorting out their teeth cleaning and toilet needs.
Cycling through the villages is so lovely but progress is slow and painstaking, taking hours of our precious cool time of day, and managing only a few miles to show for it.
After the village roads, we hit a bigger road which wound its way through wonderful woody scenery, and finally two uphill climbs (ghats) through teak forests with plenty of macaque and langur monkeys by the side of the road. This was something that I was really worried about before we left. We’d had some bad experiences with a macaque jumping on Tim’s head, taking his sunglasses and eating them, on our last trip, and we’d also witnessed macaque biting people. I thought they might spring onto our bikes as we passed, trying to grab food. Maybe bite us. They carry rabies. However, by this time in our ride, I was so chilled I just listened to their sounds as I rode uphill, destination Hotel Kumkum, Panna.
Just to say there is a tiger reserve in Panna. Unfortunately, when we tried to get the local forestry guides interested in a safari, they refused to be roused. It was a holiday.
Hotel Kumkum…. On Booking.com this hotel had looked quite appealing, but when we turned into the driveway, my heart sank. I could already envisage the rooms…. Dirty, bathrooms murky, human hair lying around, no hot water… the usual routine. The proprietor showed a vague interest in our arrival, his Alsatian dog more than compensated for this, sniffing us and barking loudly in an intimidating way.
The owner eventually found a key so we could view the rooms and it was then that I noticed an extraordinary growth of hair on his ears, almost worth combing or plaiting. It was mesmerising. I’d never seen anything like it. I pulled my attention away and turned to the rooms which were as expected…. truly ghastly. Not only this, but were vastly more expensive than what we had actually booked. After a lengthy debate the owner asked us to cancel our booking (somewhat unusual) and we did just that, heading off to find something some miles away.
Mercifully this hotel was much nicer. Just built, or rather still under construction. There are some obvious safety features yet to be added, like a stair rail so you don’t fall off the precipitous steps, but this is India, life is cheap.
7pm…. We are sitting in the hotel’s restaurant. No one is here. A man suddenly appears in a face mask with surgical gloves on. Health and safety seem to have taken a sudden U-turn.
