DAY THIRTY TWO… 48.22 miles (77.6 km)
True to form, our morning ride was in rain. In an attempt to cut down on weight I had discarded my rain coat at the eleventh hour whilst packing at home, so I got wet. Apparently, there is a cyclone hitting the South of India and we are getting the edges of it.
Despite the rain, the ride was lovely and quite deserted, through paddy fields again, with the river we were following emerging into view from time to time. Seemed to be a busy day for goats too. Some being carried in arms, others in the back of a bolero, some even in carrier bags on the back of a motorbike.
20 miles into our ride, a motorcycle pulled alongside us and pleaded with us to stop. We get this all the time so we just say no and carry on. This time however, motorbike man was clutching two bottles of water and a packet of biscuits, a present for us. We eventually stopped to speak to him, and he told us he had seen us on Facebook and recognised us and came after us. He was a cyclist too. It seems we are getting famous!!!
At our next break, as is usual, a group of youths gathered to watch me eat a packet of nuts…. This time however, we heard them talking about where we were going and what we were doing. Obviously, our fame was spreading!!! It all felt very strange and a bit unnerving.
Later, on arrival at our hotel, we were just relaxing in our room when the door was flung open and a man, larger than life, accompanied by his wife, larger than life too, burst in announcing they wanted to speak to us. I just looked at Tim and said something unrepeatable. Tim, very diplomatically explained we needed to rest and wash and perhaps later….
At dinner, Tim notes there’s an awful lot of meat on the menu. What he doesn’t know is that quite a few of the tribal people here used to be cannibals!
