Wednesday, February 16
Narmada Dam to Songadh – 145 K
The girls and I rode to the lunch truck today putting 61 Kilometers on our odometers - a fair distance given the fact that it is my 2nd day back to my bike and we climbed a total of 1700 feet in the second half of the ride. Tomorrow’s ride has a note on the board – BIG CLIMB and its 120 K. We will be climbing a mountain range on our way southward to Mumbai.
Again we traveled past a landscape teeming with activity of all kinds – children bathing in the creek water, women carrying baskets and bundles of produce on their heads, oxcarts and camel carts traveling the roadways with trucks, buses, motorcycles, bikes and pedestrians. And occasionally the traffic would come to a complete halt as a small herd of cattle or water buffalo crossed the road. The villages were buzzing with fruit stands and local businesses selling their wares. I stopped to take a photo of a field of tobacco glistened in the morning sun – the picture doesn’t do it justice. My little camera I keep on my bike is doing a great job but it’s had to tolerate the dusty and bumpy conditions of the road and is sounding pretty gritty when I open and close the lense.
After lunch there were several riders taking the truck to the “hotel” which we heard was not actually a hotel but a bunch of tents. We were all curious of what was awaiting us for the evening. Before leaving lunch they were stacking bikes on and in vehicles to make them all fit. Here they are stacking up the bikes on the roof of a jeep – thankfully mine is IN the truck! J
After lunch there were several riders taking the truck to the “hotel” which we heard was not actually a hotel but a bunch of tents. We were all curious of what was awaiting us for the evening. Before leaving lunch they were stacking bikes on and in vehicles to make them all fit. Here they are stacking up the bikes on the roof of a jeep – thankfully mine is IN the truck! J
I have a tent to myself. My next door neighbor offered to take my picture with my camera so here I am in front of my tent with my mini laptop next to me – that’s what I use to write my daily digital journal that you read on my blog.
Inside my tent there are 2 beds – one for me and one for my bike. J My bike took dibs on the one by the bathroom door. J
The bathroom may not look like much to you but actually it has warm water and everything works. The dirt floor is an awful lot cleaner than some of the bathrooms we’ve seen so in some ways it’s a step up… anyways… its part of the experience and I like it! I have a sink, shower in the middle and a toilet on the end. J
Not everyone was as happy as me you see – for some reason everyone down line on the water flow from my tent didn’t get ANY water. Mine was the last tent with water. Bummer for them!
Every evening when I arrive at my room, the first task at hand is to take a shower and get cleaned up. The second is to wash the clothes from the day and hang them to dry. Today I hung them in the bathroom and they should be dry by morning.
