19th March - Gokarna To Patnam

Really fun day today! I was awake at 7.30 and keen to get on the road. Left the guest house having cleaned my bike and packed up at about 8.30 and then went for a lovely breakfast. It ended up being more leisurely than expected as I got chatting to some Indian people on holiday in Gokarn and then chatting on the phone to some friends. I then had a read of the news paper and found the following :
"Biggest and brightest full moon of the year which will be closest to the year in 18 years will be seen tonight". This is causing mass exodus from coastal regions. Buses are at full capacity.....
I must watch out for this tonight!

I decided to take the single track rood north to the ferry and cross there rather than going on the highway straight away. About 10km out of town I met a Polish guy (Bogdan) coming the opposite way on a bike. Of course we had to stop and chat for a while. He has biked from China and through some of the "stan" countries before making his way to India. He said that he really found biking in the "stans" a great experience but he was not enjoying India. He said that the people are no where near as friendly or helpful. I have not found this traveling through the very South of the country and so it will be interesting to see if I have the same opinion traveling in the North or the country. He also had some terrible stories about Indian bike mechanics destroying the gears on his bike as they do not know how to work with gears..... Note to self - arrgggg.

He had not planned on traveling by bike and was back packing in China when he decided it was the way to go! He bought a £200 bike and strapped on some normal bags to the sides and off he went. Sometimes I think that I am on a tight budget until I meet people like him. His clothes and bags were like rags and he had no gagets like me. He said he has so many problems with the routes he takes because he does not have a decent map. It really is very difficult to travel in India without GPS and google maps!

He gave me the contact details of a couple of cyclists he met in Goa who are also biking from NZ to the UK. I will email them and see if we can meet up (it did not work out in the end).

After I left Bogdan I carried on North to catch the ferry. When I arrived there was a crowd making lots of noise and telling me to "wait wait" for the ferry and pointing. It turns out that the ferry I was trying to catch was currently drifting down stream in the wrong direction because the engine had broken. I watched as a local fishing boat went out to the ferry and towed it to the other side of the river and the passengers got off. The fishing boat then towed the ferry over to my side of the river and then they swapped the ferry engine with the engine from a different fishing boat. The locals found it all very normal.... I though I did enjoy the fiasco it did mean that I was waiting for about 1 hour before I got across the river. The ferry managed to fit on everyone waiting including about 5 bikes and 10 motorbikes as well as about 50 people. This country is insane in terms of how many people and things they transport on one vehicle!

The route north of the ferry was very pretty - small villages and single track roads. I biked round one corner and was very surprised to see these 2 kids dressed as Yetis! I had no idea why and found it very surreal and stopped to take photos. As I biked on though I ended up seeing hundreds of children and men dressed in the same way. I realised that it must have something to do with the festival of holy (I am not sure how it is actually spelt but that is how it sounds). A couple of people had told me that it is a major festival day today and in fact the celebrations go on for about 9 days. Part of the celebrations involve throwing different coloured dyes/powders at each other.

As I biked along the kids which were dressed up all made a strange rattling noise at me and demanded that I give them money. The outfits are supposed to be scary (a bit like trick or treat on Halloween in the UK). I saw so many people dressed up that I must have given away hundreds of rupees. It was very strange cycling along with Hundreds of Yetis walking towards you with fake machetes in their hands all making strange rattling noises with their voices.





In addition to the Yetis there were other things going on as well. At the entrance to a temple I found about 30 people all in very high spirits with a few of them wearing very colourful head dresses. I stopped to chat for a while.





I regret on turning round and going in the direction of all of the kids dressed in their outfits as it would have been really interesting to see what happened in the center of town and see everyone all together. However, it was interesting enough just seeing the big groups as I biked along.





I did not make very good time this afternoon with the ferry issue and stopping to chat to people and take photos. I also took a wrong turn at one point as well. It meant that I really had to push to get to Patnam before dark. The police also stopped me at the Karnatica-Goa boarder just because they wanted to chat for 30 mins. The last stretch was very hilly and traveled through a jungle area. I have now got mirrors to help with the Indian traffic but I realise that I now need a stick to fend off the dogs which run at me barking and trying to snap at my legs...... I was particularly bad today for some reason!

I arrived at Patnum at dusk and found a hut for 200RS close to where I stayed 2 years ago. I really enjoyed having a long shower, washing my clothes and generally becoming human again. It had been a hot day. Although I was in a area full of other tourists and I could have gone to find some English speaking company, I was tired and did not feel like it. I spent a bit of time on the internet and then had a reasonably early night.