4th March - Elephants and Swimming

A chilled morning eating fresh bread and drinking coffee.

Played some guitar and nattered with everyone. It was fun to get to know some more people.

In the afternoon we headed out to see some wildlife. We saw a rare giant squirrel about 1 km down the road from Johnie's house. It is about 1m long and very different from UK squirrels. Cute.

After squirrel spotting we went for a safari ride through the jungle and stopped to take photos of the monkeys and peacocks and then headed down to the river to watch the elephants having a bath and to see the villagers washing their clothes and the children playing. I had visited all of these areas with Johnie a couple of weeks ago but it was not boring in the slightest as there are always differences and different animals and things going on.



We paid to go and watch the elephants being fed. I loved seeing the baby elephant again but this time we were not allowed to go and play with her and stroke her as the vet was around and so Johnie could not bribe the keepers (more than their jobs are worth).

This elephant ate this man.....

We all went for a swim at Johnie's parents on the way back.



























We had a very chilled evening and all cooked a huge meal. Prawns and veg with rice - ummmmmm.

3rd March - Tracking down Parcel and New Couch Surfers

This morning I spent ages on the phone to the parcel company trying to find out the location of my parcel and getting a different answer from everyone I spoke to..... I have no idea at the moment when it will arrive........ ARRGGG! Oh well it was a beautiful sunny day in Jungle Paradise!

Johnie made some lovely fresh hummus and homemade bread for lunch. It was lovely.

Johnie left about 3 ish to go and pick up three new couch surfers and I gave the place a bit of a tidy. Sophie is from England and Stella and Sola are from Iceland. They were all working together on a coffee plantation for the last month before coming here. Fun people.

After they had all had afternoon tea of homemade bread and hummus we went to Johnie's parents for a swim in their pool. I enjoyed getting some exercise and did 100 lengths.

We listened to music and chatted till late. Fun evening.

2nd March - Day out in Gudalur

Felt really good this morning and I went for a run up to the temple. It is becoming my normal run. It is about 10km if I run up to the top of the hill 3 times. The views are amazing. It has been great to really see one area in depth. I love it here. I am enjoying traveling so much. I really do not want to have to go back to the UK yet or back to work.

I can't go anywhere on my bike today and I have resigned myself to having to wait in Jungle Paradise until my component arrives. I could have spent the day finishing the paper work stuff I have to do before I leave - but that is sooooo boring! I procrastinated some more...

Johnie was feeling much better today and he felt like a trip to Gudalur to get a number plate for his Royal Enfield (something he had been trying to do for months). We decided to go on his bike for a day trip. It was so much more fun with both of us feeling better and on the bike rather than in the car (as we had yesterday). I would still have preferred to go on my push bike than the motorbike but it was really fun to hold on and go really quickly. Motorbikes really are fun.

The trip takes about 1 hour but we stopped many times for me to take photos and look for wildlife. We did not see any tigers or bears unfortunately. There are 48 tigers in the reserve that we were biking through. They are spotted every couple of days by the tour guides that take guests out from the local resorts. Bears and wild elephants are regularly spotted by Johnie.

When we got to Gudalur we went to get a new number plate for Johnie's motorbike from a tiny shop. It was amazing. The shop had automatic system where the numbers are typed into a computer and then the numbers are printed out on huge sheets. The numbers are then peeled off and stuck on the plate. The whole process took 5 minutes from when Johnie told them the numbers required.

When we have spent the last 2 days trying to get a thread cut on a small piece of metal it felt crazy that this was so easy. Some things in India are really efficient or really easy to get hold of where as others are ridiculously inefficient or really hard to get hold of. Until you actually try to get hold of something is is difficult to determine which category the item will fit into.

I had bought Johnie lunch yesterday and so today he offered to buy me lunch. He found it very funny to take me to "Anithia Mess". The place was delightfully grotty looking - just like the sort of establishment I had been frequenting before staying with Johnie. The food was really great and the service fast - the opposite to the high end restaurants in India - based on our experience. It is becoming an "in" joke that the quality of the food and service in India is inversely proportional to the cost.

We had a fun wander round and headed back about 5. We stopped off in Masinagudi for some shopping and then home for a chilled evening.

I love the sign saying M.K.Dot - com that has no website!

1st March - Gudalur for bike part

Johnie was still not feeling very well today but I felt much better. We headed to Gudalur to see if we could find a solution to my broken bike.


There were several solutions to the problem and I hoped that I might be able to at least succeed with one:

1. New component - this is not easy to get in normal Indian bike shops because there are only a small number of designs of Indian bikes. The problem with trying to find the component in this area is that there are not very many bike shops - let alone bike shops which sell Western style bikes. The area is very hilly and so bikes are not used as much here as in the coast areas of India.

2. A new thread cut on the metal component - we both thought that this would be easy to achieve in a city the size of Gudalur with so many engineers etc. We spend hours going between different engineers only to be told "Not possible Madame". Apparently as the metal is so strong and the part so thin it was not possible for them to cut a good enough thread.

3. Welding the a chunk of metal or a nut to the end. This would me that the component would no longer be quick release but at least it would get me on the road again. I was worried about this solution as I did not think that the weld would be strong enough. Therefore, we turned down the offer from various engineers to do this.

Having spent several hours wandering round town trying to find an engineer that could do the work or a bike shop that stocked a replacement part and failing miserably, we went out for lunch. Traveling is all about learning about new cultures etc and doing things like this really do give you an insight into how India differs to the West. I have no idea how anyone ever gets anything done in India.

Johnie took me for a drive around some of the little lanes around Gudalur to show me the beautiful tea plantations. It really is incredible around here. The recent rain has made all the flowers bloom and everywhere turn lush and green.

There had been a really bad accident on the road. It was difficult to see as it is unlikely that the drivers were wearing seat belts and so unlikely that they lived.

When we got back I went on the internet and found a bike shop in Bangalore that has the component and phoned them to ask if they could post it. They said that they would send the component today on 24 hour delivery. Johnie warned me about doing this (which is why I did not choose this option first of all) saying that the last thing that he ordered to be posted here took 3 months to arrive..... arrgggg.

It is strange that now that I can't actually leave whenever I want I feel trapped and frustrated! I would have loved to go to Gudalur by push bike today....

28th Feb - Sick and looking for bike part in Masinagudi

Woke up wanting to go to Masinagudi to see if I could get the spare part for my bike but both me a John were feeling sick with diarrhea and stomach cramps. We did not go anywhere until mid afternoon. Ever the optimist, I had originally hoped that it would be reasonably easy to either get a replacement part or a new thread cut on the metal even in the small town of Masinagudi.... There are many mechanics and workshops in town and there was also a small bike shop. We spent about 2 hours trying to find the part in the bike shop and then once that option had been exhausted trying to get a new thread cut on the part of metal.

A elderly man said that we should come back tomorrow at 10am and had would have the component threaded.

We had a chilled evening as neither of us were feeling very well.

27th Feb - Quick Release Broken

This morning I packed up all of my things and spent some time finishing off some paper work. I was planning on leaving tomorrow. In the middle of the afternoon, when I was attaching my back wheel to my bike my quick release snapped in two. Damn! I am not carrying a spare of this component..... I knew straight away that this would be a problem. I decided to ignore it and see if I could sort it out tomorrow.

I spent ages on the phone all evening and until 2am talking to friends in the UK. As Johnie has a good internet connection and I had some privacy I wanted to catch up with everyone before I left the jungle.

26th Feb - Visas Arrggggg

Rubbish day spent doing paper work on my laptop and planning the next leg of my trip. Once I have finished my paper work I will head off again. This is the best place to do it as there is wireless internet and a beautiful view and surroundings...... I spent a while today photographing the monkeys and birds in the garden and having a stroll around the grounds as a break from paper work.

I might have to skirt round Tibet as at the moment the cost and issues with obtaining a visa is prohibitive :-(

Watched a couple of funny movies with Johnie.