25th Feb - Masinagudi and Ragu

I spent the day relaxing. I am trying to complete the paper work that I need to do for visas and trip planning but unfortunately there was a power cut for most of the day and so I could not work on my laptop as planned.

It was raining today and me an Johnie took a ride on his Royal Enfield into Masinagudi to get some supplies. We got absolutely soaked and stood chatting in a shop door way for ages before we could head back. It was raining so hard that we could no see when on the bike. I was quite happy not to be on my bike in this.... Johnie says that the rains should mean that the whole area turns green and all of the flowers on the trees will blossom over the next few days. Cool - looking forward to it.

I spent the day reading, eating and drinking. Johnie cooked an awesome Ragu.

24th Feb - Kids Leave, Out for drinks

This morning Johnie made pancakes as a treat for the children before they left. Susie did not offer to help at all (as she has not done at any time during her stay) and hardly said a single word all morning. I enjoyed playing with George and Rosina for one last time. I have not spent as much time with them as I would have liked as I wanted to work through the jobs I need to do before I can leave the jungle and the wireless internet connection etc. Johnie has basically taken on the role of father over the last few days and cooked and entertained.

On the way to Masinagudi to drop off the family we met some of Johnie's friends who were heading to Johnie's house to say hello. We dropped of the kids and Susie in Masinagudi and then drove back to have a drink in the sun with Johnie's friends, Norwyn and Will. They had popped round to invite us round to their house for some drinks to celebrate Norwyn's and Sandra's wedding anniversary. Norwyn lives just down the road and was born in India. Will is a friend of Norwyn's from when they lived in the same village in England and is visiting for a few weeks.

We had a chilled afternoon and I enjoyed finishing my book "The White Tiger" in the sunshine. It really does feel like a holiday from traveling staying here.
We got tarted up and went round to Norwin's and Sandra's at about 7.30. They had lots of lovely red wine and snacks. It was a pleasant evening. It was very interesting to hear how several white people who are based in India feel about the country and what bothers them. There was a lot of discussion about shops were they can buy Western items and the costs etc.

23rd Feb - Bike to Ooty and Gudalur

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I was up early and wanted to get out and get some exercise today and explore the surrounding area. I decided to bike to Gudalur but then the plans changed when it turned out that Johnie's phone had been disconnected and he needed to pay it in Ooty. I decided to head there again and then on a circuit round from Ooty to Gudalur to meet up this Johnie and the kids later in the day.

By the time I had got my stuff together and got on the bike it was 1. I knew that this time I would have to bike a lot faster up the pass than I had done last time in order to get the bill paid before the office shut and then get back in the day light. The ride was much easier than the first time because I was not stopping to take photos all the time and chat with people. I really enjoyed the ride.

I paid the bill and then headed to Gudalur. It was a great ride but based on what I had heard about the route I was expecting to drop altitude slowly once on the Gudalur road. Instead for the next 30km it was rolling at 2300m. It made my progress much slower than I had expected. It meant that it was dusk when I reached the top of the drop to Gudalur. I decided to be sensible and not to bike down a very steep pass at dusk. It was a shame as I was told that the views are amazing. I waited at a little tea stall and Johnie very kindly came to pick me up. He drove me back and we met Susie and the kids at a little village (where Johnie had left them after they had visited the elephants).

Neither Johnie nor I were in the mood for cooking tonight and so we decided to eat at a restaurant in the village. We had a great meal. I enjoyed some Indian meat meals as we had been eating vegetarian for the last few days with Susie and the kids.

We did leave the restaurant until 9ish. It could have been a problem as the government has started closing the roads between 10pm and 6am to stop the traffic killing wildlife. According to Johnie the local Indian Government seem to think that this will help protect the tigers even there has not been a single incidence of a car hitting a tiger. He is not very impressed with the various methods used by the government to protect the wildlife. On this occasion they had shut the road early at 9 and would not let us pass for a while until Johnie showed the guard proof of address.

I really enjoyed the bike ride today. It was great to explore new areas and get some exercise and some time to myself. I need to get back on with my journey very soon.

22nd Feb - First Rain for 2 months

The atmosphere felt very different today than other days in the Jungle. The sky was gray when I woke up and it got blacker and blacker. We were going to go and see the Elephants being feed and bathed this afternoon but that never happened because it started raining really really heavily. It was great fun as we put music on really loud and went dancing in the rain. We even got out the shampoo and washed our hair, it was so heavy. The rain was warm and so we did not get cold.

The day was spent chilling and playing with the kids and also doing some of my blog stuff. I am enjoying reading at the moment too. I am planning on heading off in a couple of days but would like some time here without the kids and Susie first.

The atmosphere with Susie is getting a little interesting. She has made references to how much of a good father Johnie would make for the her children and asked Rosina to call him Daddy at one point. She would like to stay in India forever apparently and it appears that she thinks that Johnie is the best way to achieve this goal. Rosina and George are absolutely delightful children. I have been spending some more time with George. He is a smart child and just needs some more stimulation.

21st Feb - Ooti for the dentist and sight-seeing

Johnie cooked a fantastic eggy bread for breakfast and we spent the morning chilling and reading. We left at 11.30 to go to Ooty so that I could go to the dentist again for some fillings. The drive takes about 1 hour. I realised quite how steep the pass is when going up it by car. It did not feel that steep. Johnie told us that it is actually 1 mile higher in Ooty than it is at his house. Apparently it gets really cold in Ooti at night time. Although it is colder here at night time than Kerala it is not too cold to not feel comfortable in trousers and a shirt. There are hardly any mosquitoes too.

Johnie dropped me off at the dentist and then took the kids and Suzie to his club for a drink and an explore. The dentist was a very interesting experience. Normally in the UK the dentist will give injections as a matter of course so that any drilling done is not sensitive. In India this is not the norm and you have to specifically ask if it is getting too painful to continue. I succeeded with the filling on the bottom of my jaw not to have the injection - just to see how sore it really is when they drill. I wimped out on the filling on the top. The dentist was a very friendly chap and it felt like he did a good job. My fillings look great and feel fine and only cost me £15 per filling.

After the dentist I went to the local chemist and got some antimalarias and antibiotics. It felt good to be slowly crossing things off my "TODO" list. The tablets that would have cost me £100 in NZ to get (doctors appointment necessary etc) cost me less than £5 here!

I even found a shop that sell Western perfume but decided not to buy it as it is too expensive verses my budget. I bought some chocolate for Johnie and the kids and then met the others for lunch. Johnie ordered a huge dosa for all of us. It was fun.

Johnie is a playful person and we were both in a cheeky good mood. We had great fun in an Indian shop asking for silly things and trying to buy the labeling machine from the confused Indian men. We saw a make of underwear called "Goodlay" and crisps called "Full Toss". With product names like this it is very hard not to play.....

We did some shopping in Modern Stores - the shop which sells many of the item that Westerners might need. Johnie has got it absolutely sorted what he can and can't buy in India and the best sauce. We also went for a coffee at Coffee Day, a chain of coffee shops in India (equivalent of Starbucks). It is the only coffee shop in Ooty.
The sky was grey for most to the day and it rained again as we were leaving Ooty. There was a lot of traffic on the pass home as there is a big festival this weekend. We went the off road route for the first stretch to see if we could spot some rare monkeys. We did not see any but it was great to go through an even more remote part of the jungle and then pass through the little villages and farm land. Johnie really is a great host. He has seen all of these things many times but chooses to share the experience with other people for no personal gain.

When we got back on to the main road we stopped off to chat with the "Break Checker" (the spelling on his shirt - not my bad spelling this time). This guy does not get paid by the government but chooses to stop people coming down the pass if their brakes are smelling. There are a large number of people that are killed each year when their brakes fail on this extremely steep pass. Most Indians do not know how to use their gears to slow down and instead just use their brakes - which then fail.
The Break Cheaker knows Johnie as he regularly donates to this cause. Johnie was invited to the wedding of the Break Checkers daughter.
The sun was setting as we arrived back. Johnie took us off road to watch the sun set over the mountains. I love it here so much. Mountains, sun, friendly people - no yacht racing though.....

20th Feb - Swimming Pool and playing with kids

We had another chilled morning. We cooked bread and had a huge breakfast....... Played with the kids and did some paper work stuff.

In the afternoon we all piled into the car and headed to Johnie's parents house to say hello and use the Swimming pool. It was very much fun. We stayed for several hours. The children really enjoyed it.

We had another chilled evening. Johnie and Rosina cooked a veg bake.

Me and Johnie were up chatting till 3am. This is not helping me change my body clock for when I start biking again.

19th Feb - Sussie, Rosina and George

We had another chilled morning. Johnie was not feeling great today as he has a bad cold i.e. Man Flu. I want to continue my journey soon and so I spent the morning trying to do the paper work for Visas and to catch up on my blog etc. It is very frustrating how much time I have to spend organising equipment, route planning and visas....

At 2ish Johnie headed off to pick up a family of couch surfers from Masinagudi. Susie and her 2 children, Rosina (10) and George(5) are traveling round India for 6 months or so. When they arrived we all had homemade pizza (made by Johnie with help from Rosina).


The family had been based in France for the last 8 years but the whole family is English. Susie is a bit of a hippy. Rosina is an absolutely lovely bubbly girl. George is also a great kid. He has Downs syndrome.


We had a fun evening nattering, drinking and playing the guitar. Rosina thought that it would be very funny to paint melted chocolate onto my face. Sussy is very much into Astrology and went through both Johnie's and my charts. It was interesting......


There were some elephants in the garden and the watchmen were trying to scare them off so we all went to check out want was happening. The children were so excited. It was lovely. I can't believe I have got used to Elephants being in the garden. We only ended up seeing deer.


Good chilled day.

18th Feb - Massage and Afternoon Tea

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Relaxed morning faffing on my blog and with pictures and then went to the Jungle Retreat to meet Johnie's parents and some of their friends for tea and then had a Thai Massage for 2.5 hours. It really was absolutely fantastic and very cheap. My muscles are doing really well with a good rest. I am looking forward to getting back on my bike again now though. I will have to leave the Jungle soon but it has been really relaxing and the company has been awesome.

I had afternoon tea at the Jungle Retreat and looked at the South India Lonely Planet guide which they have available for guests to peruse. The map at the front has the top things to see in the area and it turns out that by accident I have already seen many of the main sites! I did not intentionally go to see the Palace at Mysore or Ooti/the Nigris based on the information in the Lonely Planet but have ended up seeing them anyway during the last week......... :-)

We had a chilled afternoon and cooked a Lamb BBQ for diner. Johnie and me have a very similar taste in music and I have been listening to loads of new groups. It has been very much like a home away from home. I love India so far. It suits me down to the ground. The weather is fantastic, the people friendly and welcoming and the scenery amazing. I love the vibrancy and colours. I have always loved the heat and feel very happy in such a climate. I am not sure if I could ever live here though. Who knows how my feelings might change if you live somewhere rather than passing through?

17th Jan - Bike ride to Ooti for Dentist

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Up at 7 but ended up faffing for a while and did not get my stuff together and my bike ready until 10. I needed to go to the Dentist as I have sensitivity in one tooth. Johnie said that he goes to a good dentist in Ooty and I felt more comfortable going to a recommended dentist rather than just turning up at any old dentist. Therefore I decided to combine a visit to the hill station Ooty with a trip to the dentist. Johnie offered to give me a lift but I really wanted to go by bike.

It was a fantastic ride. Ooty is a mile higher than where Johnie lives. It is only 33km to Ooty from his house in the jungle but it takes over 1 hour even in the car. The route is great as the roads are relatively quite in the middle of the week and the views are amazing. There are 36 hair-pinned bends from the bottom of the pass at 1000m up to 2230m. There is a sign on each hairpin bend informing you of the number of the hairpin bend.

Johnie said that he would meet me in Ooty at his club where I could shower before my visit to the dentist. He passed me just at the bottom of the pass. It then took me several hours to bike up the pass to Ooty. It took ages - not because of the gradient but because I kept on stopping to take photos and chat with people.
My first stop was at the bottom of the pass where I chatted with some Indian tourist and took loads of photos of monkeys (and also the Indian man that decided to climb a tree). The views over the valley were amazing.

I stopped half way at Karnatica Falls and watched tens of Indian tourists debark from their coaches to have a break and feed the monkeys and goats. This stop off point is popular with tourists to see the falls but there is currently no water following as it has not rained in 2 months. There was an Indian running a stall selling carrots to rich Indians to buy and feed to the rather aggressive Goats and Monkeys. About 300m before the junction for Karnatti Falls I had seen an old beggar walk into the middle of the road and have a poo. The contrasts in this country are amazing.

The pass climbs through the mountains and several little villages. It was such a beautiful day and I was so happy to be back on my bike seeing new places and getting some exercise. It had been a great climb.

By the time I got to the top of the pass my blood sugar was getting low as I had been biking for 5 hours up hill without eating anything. I stopped at a lovely little cafe and had some coconut cake and chi.

The last 10km to Ooty was rolling and I raced along. It took a little while for me to find the Ooty Club where Johnie was waiting for me but once I did I quickly showered and headed off to the dentist in town.

The dentist said that I needed 2 fillings and said that he would give me a temporary filling in one tooth today to make sure that it was not deeper than it looked on the surface. He started drilling - WITHOUT ANY INJECTIONS. When I squirmed and said ouch at the shouting pain he just told me to hold still and it would be over soon! It was not too bad and was over in 5 mins. Johnie said afterward that he always specifically asks for injections and it is a choice in India rather than something that is done as standard in the UK. For some reason he did not see fit to mention this before the appointment. It was an interesting experience.

After the dentist we went to the market and a wander round Ooty to do some shopping. It was great. There is a huge market in the center of town. The shops are covered with coloured plastic sheets which let the light through small slits. I was in photo heaven. I could not help but take about 1000 photos..... It was really atmospheric. We did a huge shop for fresh fruits and veg and meat and a wander around. I really enjoyed it.

After the market Johnie took me to the Ooty Club. It is a posh arsed private club and really difficult to get membership. It really did remind me of how I imagine India would have been 100 years ago. It was very quaint and antiquated. There is a snooker room with a large snooker table. Apparently the first game of snooker was played and invented in this room in the club. There is an article on the wall which talks to this fact. There are a large number of dead stuffed animals on the walls. The club even smelt of old stuff....

On the way back we popped into see Johnie's mum as she had fallen and hurt her face. Bless her, she had a huge bruise down half of her face. We had a cuppa tea and a natter.
We did not get back till 9ish. Johnie cooked lamb chops and salad. A really lovely meal again. Great day.