DAY TWENTY FIVE
A bad start and a very bad end to yesterday. Our meal was a bowl of kedgeree which we shared. It seemed rather meagre. My plate had something sticky on it which I tried to rub off but couldn’t. Hours after eating it, I woke and began vomiting violently throughout the night and next morning. Tim and I are convinced that I was deliberately poisoned because if it was the food (food poisoning), we would both have suffered.
We had arranged to meet up with two cyclists from a Chhattisgarh Cycling Club, and cycle with them today. They duly arrived at 6.30am to find me still in bed in a terrible way. Tim went out and had a long chat to them. They suggested that Tim get us out of this hotel. Quite honestly, I would have rather stayed despite it being pretty grim and dangerous, just because I didn’t have the will to move.
3.30pm I finally managed to get some clothes on and walk to a Bolero Pick-up truck (lovingly called locally as a “Chorti Haati”…. little elephant) which was to be our taxi.
We drove 37km and somehow, I managed a) not to be sick and b) to walk from where the lorry dropped us to the Marriott Hotel reception desk (over 200 meters). Not sure how I achieved this.
The Marriott was a bland, super expensive but reassuringly predictable, and served to soothe my nerves and jangled stomach somewhat.
Tim has been reading the bad reviews about the Honey Bee Resort. Basically, the manager seems to be not averse to doing criminal things. If you are considering a visit to this hotel, I strongly advise against.
TIM WRITES.… Luckily, before our trip, I had reached out the C3 Cycling Club of Chhattisgarh & had WhatsApp messaged cyclists a few days earlier to join us on our ride. Bang on time 2 riders appeared at 6:30am, with their bikes. Both were keen audax riders. One was on his single speed bike & had done rides like 300km in 26hrs & ridden 100km everyday for 100days….. very serious bicycle loving riders.
So as Alysun tried to rest, I sat in the resort garden & talked about our cycle touring, our bikes, my BikeAbility trainer days. And more importantly, Khagesh & Rathod reviewed my route, strongly advising against going to the industrial polluted city of Korba (2 open cast coal mines, massive coal fired power stations & one of the largest aluminium processing plant in Asia). The new route is flatter, less miles & more rural. Great to use local knowledge versus Google Maps.
