Saturday 16th February
tonight I'm in a tent, at a jungle retreat. This is the start of our
rest time...no more biking till Monday morning...and i think we're all
ready to hang up our helmets for a while. This morning was a leisurely
breakfast any time up till 10am, and then a bit of time to look round
Mysore. Most people were getting more bits for their outfits for the
last night...we're all wearing Indian dress and everyone seems to have
entered into the swing of it. I certainly know that the guys I was
shopping with last night took twice as long as me to get themselves
sorted.
Today was just 160k across the plain and into the nature reserve of
x. The last 15k or so were through the nature reserve, where a biker
gets killed by elephants every month apparently. And if they told us
that just to scare us, it definitely worked! We saw elephant on the
way in, some beautiful monkeys, a giant peacock and a whole heap of
amazing birds.
And the great thing is that, being in a tent, we'll hear the whole
noise of the jungle in the night, and the dawn chorus at full volume.
There are jeep trips available to the hill station at Ooty tomorow,
which I'm hoping to get a space on...I really fancy getting as high up
in the Ghats as possible. They loom above us...i'm not sure how high
the highest peak is, but we're going up to over 7,000m on Moday, so
quite high!
We've moved from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, and you do see a
difference...not just in the landscape, but in the people too.
It's kind of weird sitting out here with the sounds of all the animal
life but with Paulo Nutini playing in the background from someone's
Ipod. I think I'd prefer just the natural noise, but there's a bit of
a party atmosphere around and I think some folk are settling in for a
long night.
I saw some news headlines this morning in the Indian Times...first
time i've seen any news since i've been away. i think it's a mark of
total switch off that I just haven't been interested in finding out
what's happening back home. I feel completely relaxed, and i still
have two weeks holiday to go!
I'm wittering now...had a beer when I got in and now
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